With a flick of the being’s graceful wrist, a small glass scale complete with a set of jade weights appeared on the counter. “Tipping the scale to one side leads to Heaven, tip it to the other and Hell’s fury awaits you.”
“Which is which?” the man asked with a quiver in his voice, his gaze locked on the being’s hands as it arranged the scale.
“You will know by the time the sorting is finished,” the being replied.
Standing there, his eternal resting place about to be decided, the man noticed it was impossible to determine the being’s gender. Before he could open his mouth to ask the question, he heard the honeyed voice saying. “We are neither and both at the same time, Justices of Souls have no gender to bias our minds. Prepare to be judged.”
Silently the man waited as the being slowly divided the tiny jade weights between the suspended glass trays. With each jade piece placed, an action or choice he had made while alive replayed in his mind. Finally the being had completed its task and looking up it said, “You case has been decided. A single choice has tipped the scale and sealed your fate.”
Slowly the fog enclosed upon him again. When it lifted and he could see again, he stood before an unnaturally tall, beautiful blonde with porcelain skin and large emerald eyes, with one perfectly manicured hand extended toward him. Looking closely he could just make out the tips of folded white wings behind her back, almost completely obscured by her iridescent silver robes. He knew without question this vision before him was a woman. Walking forward to take her outstretched hand he stated, “I must be Heaven bound, because you are the loveliest angel I have ever seen.”
As soon as he grasped her hand, the space around him burned with the fires of Hell. Turning to look down on him she smiled, her face contorting into a hideously demonic mask, black blood of lost souls poured out of her mouth, dripping from gleaming, four inch fangs. “Do you really think so?” she asked cruelly, her voice tortuously seductive. Running her free hand down her side, slowly caressing her body in an action designed to make any man’s mouth water, she said “You are destined for an eternity within the flaming gates of Hell, where you will endure torture the likes of which you could never, even in your most horrifying nightmares, imagine.”
Unable to control himself he jerked his arm in an attempt to free his hand from her talon-like grasp. But the more he pulled, the tighter her grip became. Looking down, he saw that her nails had lengthened into claws which were digging into his flesh. “Silly mortal, you think to escape your fate,” she whispered. Blood ran from his body turning the fog below him red, igniting flames that closed in around him, burning at his feet, melting the skin of his legs like candle wax.
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