This was heaven. Had to be. Everything was, like, white marble, with gold trim, lots of it. And the sun seemed very nearby in the blue, blue sky. Pillars everywhere you looked, rows of them holding up more marble trimmed with gold. And there was that choir singing softly somewhere, and the incense, sandalwood? Whatever, there was a highly fragrant smoke drifting down from a platform or altar or something off to the right.

And there were angels, they had to be angels. They had wings, they flew and some of them sported halos, too. What was weird was how big some of them were, like ten foot tall, with wingspans to match. Others were more human sized, but they all had the big full length wings decked out with pearly white feathers.

So much white. And gold. And nary a scuffmark or a fingerprint on any surface. Nor dust, nor dirt, nor even any litter, heaven was a really, really clean place.

But there was something a little cold in the soul about the angels. Their faces were metallic, some silver, some gold, some pink, some pale blue. And they shone, and the eyes were golden, with blue irises and they seemed to look right through you like you were hardly there.

Heaven was just like the adverts for it, right down to big fluffy clouds floating by at the level of the white marble floor. Amazing.

A constant cool breeze played over the white marble where he stood. A few feet away a broad set of stone steps lead down about thirty feet to a vast plaza, where lines of people could be seen, all dressed in pure white robes, all shuffling forward to the foot of God's Throne off to the right.

And there was God. Rook shivered with the shock of recognition.

Of course there was God. And He was huge! At least thirty feet tall, though right now he was sitting down on His Throne. And he was a white man in his later years, with a long red nose, a shock of white hair and angry looking blue eyes. The face was vaguely familiar to Rook, but not enough so he could place it. Big pink ears, thin lips, slab-sided cheeks lined with visible veins. He knew this face, but he didn't know where, why, or how.

Well, this was God, said a voice in his head. Of course you know God. You are a child of God. You have always known God. And more importantly, God knows you.

And then God spoke from His Throne. And when He spoke he thundered, and the ground seemed to shake with his mighty words, because God was angry. God was cleaning house.

"And the Sodomite and the Catamite, they shall be thrown down!" roared God. "They shall be cast below into Hell, there to suffer for all eternity."

This was a righteous God, filled with His Wrath.

"For they are filthy and have committed abomination in mine sight. And they have done these things in the full knowledge of my will and of the retribution that would come to them on this day."

This was not a merciful type God. Unh, unh. Rook trembled. Were all his sins to be noted and accounted for? Would he make the cut?

"Seize them!" roared God Almighty.

And there was wailing and crying from among the multitude of people gathered at the foot of His Throne. And Angels, armed with long, shining wands were pulling out a number of men from the throng. The Angels were not exactly gentle about this. Some of the men were thrown bodily across the white marble. The wands were like some kind of heavenly cattle-prod, because the Angels used them now and again on the recalcitrant and they made a "zap" sound and produced sharp blue sparks. And anyone they used them on moved, like quickly, in the direction they wanted him to go.

The scene was incredibly vivid, amazingly bright and utterly real. Rook could feel the warm sunshine, the cool breeze, he smelled the incense, heard the cries of fear.

Now, as he looked around more closely, he observed that he was standing on a broad marble gallery that curved away on his left toward another set of steps about two hundred feet distant. Those steps lead up to a temple, well he assumed it was a temple because it was set up on rows of white marble pillars and had golden chasing on the rooftiles. To his right the same gallery curved around to a point close to the throne of God, where a crowd of mighty Angels stood, some of them holding swords and others spears.

This was a militant Heaven, a heaven of God's warriors.

And then Rook noticed that his own clothing wasn't just white, but shimmered in other colors with moire patterns that came and went in a swirling, changing psychedelic frenzy.

Wow. What did that mean?

And the wailing down below stopped. Another sound had come to the fore, a deep rumbling roar, that grew steadily while a section of the white marble floor of the great plaza slid aside to reveal a dark pit below.

Thin wisps of black smoke curled up through the gap. Angels with long wands and one with a drawn sword gathered around the opening in the floor..The reason for this quickly became apparent as black, hairy tentacles suddenly reached up from the darkness below. They were horribly active tentacles, Rook felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up at the sight of them and the jerky, swift way they moved. They aroused some deep, direct terror, like huge spiders or something.

But the Angels struck down at the tentacles with their wands. Heavy "zaps" resounded, sparks flew, tentacles withdrew. But more arose in their place, and now a thing, dark, massive, with domelike head and hideous mouthparts, like some gigantic lobster, began to try and heave itself out of the hole. The great Angel with the sword stepped forward and smote the thing, once, twice, thrice and a great flash of red light broke across the throngs of people before God's Throne with a harsh sizzle, and the hideous thing, collapsed back into the fiery pit.

Still the tentacles flickered back and forth, while occasional flames rose above the marble and the smoke thickened.

Screams, wailing, roars, arose from the mob of men that had been drawn out of the greater crowd as they were herded towards the portal to the dark abyss. The Angels struck with their long wands and the men shrieked and stumbled closer. One or two fell to the marble and tried to crawl past the Angels' feet, but wands flicked down, and continued to strike until these attempts were abandoned. Closer and closer to the edge the doomed stumbled. Now they clutched at one another, screaming in horror as eager tentacles rose up from the fire and smoke. A man was seized, lifted high, his shrieks echoing off the marble before they dopplered into a frantic wail as he was taken down into the darkness.

The wands of the Angels rose and fell upon the doomed sinners, and now the great Angels began pushing the herd of men towards the brink. Tentacles boiled out of the abyss to seize them and drag them down. Other men toppled, pushed from behind and fell wailing into the horror below.

Another huge thing, eyes like those of a giant fly, mouth parts stuffed with the front half of a man, rose up from the fiery murk. The mouth parts moved obscenely, the man in the thing's mouth screamed momentarily and was gone, sucked from view.

At the sight the crowd at the edge of the pit shrank back even farther, their screams redoubled in strength and passion. A massive black arm, covered in dark hairs as thick as hosepipes flashed out and two men were seized and conveyed to those hideous mandibles.

The Angels shoved and prodded, their wands sparked and crackled, and more tentacles rose to seize screaming men and drag them below. But the Angels were pushing harder and now they linked their wands and pressed forward. Men could not withstand contact with those deadly instruments and they stumbled forward and fell down into the bubbling vault below. As they did so a dreadful hooting and chirruping arose from the pit, the sound of eager feeding, sucking and chewing.

And then it was done, and the last men had gone to their doom, the hideous lobster thing had been driven below once more and the white marble slabs slid back together with a deep rumble that cut off with a heavy "thunk".

Rook felt a cold ripple run down his spine. The duality of the after death experience was plain to see. This was Heaven, and that was obviously, Hell. And he didn't want to go there, not at all.

And still a part of him was amazed that Heaven was so exactly the way it'd been portrayed in, like virt and video for so long. Although those Angels were kind of creepy with the metallic faces and the blank expressions. The white marble, the fluffy clouds, the hugeness of God. Well, that had been a surprise, somehow he had never imagined God as being thirty feet tall, but so what. This was it! And Rook was in.

At least for the moment.

During this period, God had been taking a break, chatting with the biggest angels, drinking some elixir from a huge drinking vessel. But now God was turning to Rook, the huge terrifying Deity was focusing directly on Rook.

"Anyone carrying a secret, may be in danger of losing his soul."

Anyone? Did that mean Rook?

Was he supposed to say something? Speaking directly to the Deity seemed inappropriate somehow, even though he knew people prayed to Him their whole damned lives. That had never come to Rook. His mother had gone to Church, sometimes, his dad never. It just hadn't been a strong thing in that family. Granpa Venner, as crusty a Republican as existed on this earth, had nothing but contempt for religon, all of them in all of their forms.

Rook struggled to focus. Awe and terror threatened to unhinge the mind. It was all too amazing.

But God had turned away again. God had other subjects to deal with. Rook watched dumbfounded as a group of women were brought forward to stand before God's throne. Some of the women fell on their knees and wept before God's mighty feet. Others stood there, defiant.

"Art thou the scarlet whores of Babylon," roared God. "Dost thou think to defy thy Lord and Master?"

Some of the women who'd remained standing dropped to their knees, but a few, perhaps ten or so stared back at the giant God and stayed where they were.

"Come, daughters, thou art in My Presence. Thou canst have no defiance in thy hearts. I am thy God."

"Fraud!" screamed one of the women still standing. "Where is the Mother?"

The sun vanished behind a dark cloud. A wind arose, whistling cold and harsh across the vast expanse of white marble. The faces of the angels seemed turned to stone.

"Thou speakest as doth the serpent, child. I am God. There is no other."

"You killed her, that's why." Another woman, overweight with stringy hair, was shaking a fist at the huge figure of God. Rook trembled inside. You had to be either nuts or very brave indeed to do something like that.

"Repent!" said God in a dangerous tone of voice.

"We didn't do anything wrong," screamed the woman. Her sisters held their heads high.

A long moment of silence followed, broken only by the wind. The sun remained hidden. Rook looked up. Where had the dark clouds come from? He looked down again. The women were holding hands. They were brave, alright, but they were also suicidal.

Except, they were all dead, weren't they?

And then came a clap of thunder and lightning forked purple fire across the sky. God had risen to his feet and pointed down at the rebellious women with a huge ominous finger.

"Impious harlots!" bellowed God. "Thou shalt be cast into the fire!"

And on cue, a group of Angels moved in, wands zapping, pushing the defiant women out of the larger group to form a small band huddled together, surrounded by the giant Angels.

And, lo, there came more rumbling of the Holy Stone, and another slice of white marble slide aside. But this time it was not to reveal the disgustingly biological Hell that had consumed the homosexuals. Instead there was a fiery glow and a glimpse of red hot coals.

The Angels raised their wands and struck the women, there were screams. One or two of the women fell to the marble floor, but were picked up, none too gently, by the Angels and physically thrown into the rectangular gap above the glowing coals. Shrieks redoubled briefly, flames seemed to explode up from the fire. More of the doomed women shrank back, one or two tried to dodge past the Angels, but they too were snatched up and hurled bodily down into the fire. More flames, screaming, wands zapping, writhing forms lost in the inferno.

Rook looked away. Heaven was a scary place. And God? God was fucking terrifying.