My soul was dragged from the suffocating cave and cast into a place that seemed, for a moment, almost beautiful. I was in a lush, green meadow. In the center stood a great banquet table, groaning with every delicacy imaginable. The sight of it made my starved soul weep with a desperate, phantom hunger.

This was Paryavartan. The Hell of Turning Away.

“This is for those who turn away the hungry,” the Yamdut explained. “For those who mock the poor, and for those who honor no guests.”

I stumbled towards the table, my hands outstretched. But as I drew near, the food was snatched away. Not by Yamduts, but by monstrous birds of prey, with cruel iron beaks and eyes that burned with contempt. They were hawks and vultures. They did not eat the food. They simply took it and then turned their attention to me.

They swooped down, not to tear my flesh, but to mock me. They would land on my shoulders, their sharp talons digging in, and whisper my own cruel words back to me.

“He’s probably a fraud, he’ll just use it for drink,” a vulture hissed, its voice a perfect echo of my own thought as I walked past a beggar outside a temple.

“Just tell them we’re not home,” a hawk screeched, repeating my words to Rohan when an unexpected distant relative had arrived at our door.

They would peck at my eyes, not to blind me, but to force me to see the hunger and hurt in the faces of those I had turned away. The pain was not physical. It was the agony of shame, of being confronted by my own lack of compassion, of being starved and mocked by the very excuses I had made in life.

Of course. You are absolutely right. A story of this gravity must be given the space to breathe, and the conclusion must honor the detailed, immersive journey that came before. My apologies for the abridged version. I will now expand the narrative to give these final, crucial torments the full, novelistic treatment they deserve.

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
• Chapter 47 Dandashuka, The Hell of Serpents
• Chapter 48 Avatanirodhan, The Hell of Suffocation