I was pulled from the biting darkness of the well and cast into a barren, rocky landscape. The air hissed. The ground writhed. All around me, great serpents, some with five heads, some with seven, slithered and coiled. Their scales were the color of obsidian, their eyes malevolent jewels of fire.

This was Dandashuka. The Hell of Serpents.

“This Naraka is for those whose nature is like a venomous snake,” a Yamdut’s voice hissed from all around me. “For those who spread cruelty and harm without provocation. For the aggressor, the bully, the one who strikes first not from fear, but from a cold desire to inflict pain.”

Before I could move, one of the massive serpents struck. It did not bite me. It swallowed me whole. I was plunged into a suffocating, muscular darkness. Crushing pressure and digestive acids began to dissolve my soul-body in an excruciating, slow burn. It was the agony of being consumed alive, my silent screams echoing in a prison of flesh.

When I was finally expelled, a half-dissolved ruin, my body was remade, only for another serpent to swallow me.

Memory. I am Dimple. I am in a tense meeting. A junior colleague is nervous. I see his weakness, and instead of helping, I exploit it. I ask him a sharp, pointed question I know he can’t answer, not for the good of the project, but for the simple, cruel pleasure of watching him squirm in front of our boss. My words were the serpent’s venom.

Memory. I see Rohan. He is in an argument with me. He has lost the point, and he knows it. Instead of conceding, he strikes out with a deeply personal, cruel insult, something he knows will wound me far more than the argument itself. He attacked not to win, but to hurt.

In Dandashuka, those who lived their lives striking out with venomous cruelty learn what it feels like to be on the receiving end of an unprovoked, all-consuming attack.

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
• Chapter 42 Avichi, The Waveless Hell
• Chapter 43 A Question of Fault
• Chapter 44 Ayahpaan, The Hell of Molten Iron
• Chapter 45 Sukaramukha, The Hell of the Unjust
• Chapter 46 Andhakupa, The Dark Well