Author’s note: This story should be readable both forwards and backwards, if I didn’t mess anything up!  Go by paragraph (read the last one first, and then the second last, and so on).

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“Hell?  Maybe you don’t know me – this seems more like Heaven to me.”

I stared around at the young men and women, already sweating in the heat that filled the humid air.  I couldn’t help my eyes lingering on the women’s curves – I was a red-blooded male, after all!  Well, I had been.  I finally returned my attention to the horned imp in front of me.

“Well, yes,” he said.  “You were a pretty terrible person.  Even you have to admit that.  You did kill over a dozen people.”

“But I confessed!  I thought that meant that everything was forgiven!  Do I really still get punishment, damnation?”

“Yep.  But we do have a program where you can work against your fellow souls, lessening your sentence.  And, given your history, we think you’ll be quite suited towards this work.”

The imp, hovering on bat-like wings in front of me, gestured towards a nearby rack.  On the rack hung a whole array of rusty implements, many of them sharp, barbed, bladed, or otherwise designed to inflict pain.  My mind started to change.

“So, this is Hell, huh?”  I gazed around, my eyes taking in the naked bodies lined up.  “Doesn’t seem so bad.”

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Sorry that this is so short – it is really, really tough to write this way!