I woke up with the phantom taste of my own spiritual essence in my mouth, the memory of being devoured by the diamond-toothed dogs a fresh, visceral horror. The resolve I had found after my conversation with Katha was a fragile shield, and every night of torment threatened to shatter it. But the thought of Rohan and Avi, their own journeys looming, was the only thing that mattered. I had to continue. I had to write.

The plunge back into Maya’s soul was a familiar violation. The Yamduts were waiting. They dragged my soul away from the dusty plains of Sarameyadana, and the world shifted into a new and terrible landscape.

We were at the base of a great mountain. It was not a mountain of rock and snow, but of a smooth, black, featureless stone that seemed to suck the dim light from the air. It rose for what the scriptures say is one hundred yojanas, a height so vast it scraped the oppressive, blood-red sky. The mountain was shaped like a massive, petrified wave, cresting and about to crash, but frozen in time.

This was Avichi. The Waveless Hell.

“This Naraka is for those who bear false witness,” the Yamdut’s voice ground in my mind. “For the liar who gives false testimony in a court of law. For the businessman who lies while making a deal. For the Brahmin who gives a false promise after accepting a donation. For any soul whose words are a vessel for untruth.”

They didn’t drag me up the mountain. They simply appeared with me at its peak. I stood on a narrow ledge, looking down at the ground so far below it seemed like a distant, dark sea. But it was not a sea. It was a floor of solid rock, looking as hard and unyielding as diamond.

“You have used your words to cause others to fall,” the Yamdut hissed. “Now you will fall.”

Without another word, it pushed me.

The fall was not fast. It was a slow, terrifying descent through the thick, heavy air of Hell. I tumbled end over end, my silent screams lost in the vast emptiness. The ground rushed up to meet me, a hard, unyielding promise of annihilation.

The impact was absolute. It was not pain. It was erasure. My yatana-deha, my body of suffering, shattered into a million pieces upon the stone floor. It was like a glass vase dropped onto concrete. My consciousness was scattered, a cloud of screaming dust.

For a moment, there was nothing. No thought, no feeling, only the memory of impact.

And then, I was whole again. Standing back on the narrow ledge at the peak of the mountain. The Yamdut was there, its face a mask of bored indifference. And it pushed me again.

Over and over. The fall, the terror, the impact, the shattering, the reformation, and the push. It was a perfect, unending cycle of annihilation.

And with every fall, a memory.

Fall. I am Dimple. I am in a lawyer’s office, giving a deposition for a corporate lawsuit. I remember the other lawyer’s questions. I remember looking him in the eye and lying. A calculated, well-rehearsed lie to protect my company, to protect my own position. A lie under oath.

Fall. I am Maya. My friend has gotten into a small fender bender. It was her fault. I was in the car with her. When the police arrive, I lie. I back up her story, creating a false narrative to save her from an insurance claim. It felt like loyalty then. A small lie for a friend. Here, it was a betrayal of truth itself, and the fall was the consequence.

Fall. I see Rohan. He is on the phone with a client, promising delivery dates he knows he can’t meet, quoting prices for materials he has no intention of using. The casual lies of business, the ones everyone tells to get ahead.

In Avichi, I learned that there is no such thing as a small lie. Every untruth, every false testimony, every promise made with a deceitful heart, adds to the height of this mountain. And for every lie told, the soul must take the long, terrible fall. The punishment was not just the shattering impact. It was the slow, terrifying descent, the moment of absolute helplessness before the inevitable consequence. It was a hell designed to teach the ultimate truth: that words have weight, and lies… lies make you fall.

Index of: Journey Of Hell: The Unforgotten Promise

• A Warning to the Reader
• A Mother’s Testimony
• Chapter 1 The God of Small Betrayals
• Chapter 2 The Sins of a Mother
• Chapter 3 The Soul and The Body
• Chapter 4 the Road of a Thousand Regrets
• Chapter 5 A Desert of Burning Rage
• Chapter 6 The Prison Before Birth
• Chapter 7 A River of Self
• Chapter 8 The Twelve-Day Ghost
• Chapter 9 The Refusal
• Chapter 10 The Universal Law
• Chapter 11 The City of Hounds
• Chapter 12 A Forest of Lies
• Chapter 13 The Weight of the World
• Chapter 14 The Price of Meat
• Chapter 15 The Question of Hope
• Chapter 16 The City of Strange Torments
• Chapter 17 The Road to the Court
• Chapter 18 An Interrogation Before Judgment
• Chapter 19 The Hall of Judgment
• Chapter 20 The Book of Deeds
• Chapter 21 The Currency of Hell
• Chapter 22 Tamisra, The Hell of Darkness
• Chapter 23 The Anatomy of a Jailer
• Chapter 24 Andhatamisra, The Betrayer’s Hell
• Chapter 25 Raurava, The Hell of the Hunted
• Chapter 26 Kumbhipaka, The Cook’s Hell
• Chapter 27 The Question of a Beast
• Chapter 28 Kalasutra, The Burning Plain
• Chapter 29 Krumibhojan, The Hell of Worms
• Chapter 30 Sandash, The Hell of Pincers
• Chapter 31 Taptasurmi, The Hell of Burning Lust
• Chapter 32 The Sin of the Eye
• Chapter 33 Vajrakantak Shalmali, The Hell of the Thorny Tree
• Chapter 34 Vaitarni, The River of Broken Duty
• Chapter 35 Puyoda, The Ocean of Filth
• Chapter 36 Pranarodh, The Hell of Suffocation
• Chapter 37 The Ghost in the Room
• Chapter 38 The Nihilist’s Bargain
• Chapter 39 Vaishasan, The Hell of Hollow Rituals
• Chapter 40 Lalabhaksa, The River of Shame
• Chapter 41 Sarameyadana, The Feast of the Dogs