Without being able to see, Linda could not go back. It was also too far to crawl. So she sat and waited. Waited for death, or at least for something that eased her pain. No help came.
* * *
Ku Yong Fin dreamt about his teacher, Sister Helen, all through class. He had recently immigrated to the United States from China, and was not used to attending a parochial school. When he had the chance, after class had ended, he walked past her, pinching her backside as he slid past. "You're going to the seventh hell for that one, Mister!" She called after him as he and his friends laughed down the hall.
"Yeah, right." He laughed, slapping his friends high-fives, and Ku Yong Fin receiving pats on the back.
* * *
Several years later, Ku Yong Fin was killed in a motorcycle accident.
* * *
He opened his eyes to red, fiery brightness. "Huh?" He croaked.
Ku Yong Fin was being carried through fire, the flames singeing the fine hair on his arms and back. He then realized he was nude. "What the hell?"
A voice hissed. "Welcome."
Ku Yong Fin began to scream for help.
"No use. Welcome to the seventh ring."
Ku Yong Fin remembered and heard what his high school teacher told him all those years ago..."You're going to the seventh hell for that one, Mister!"
He began to shake despite the heat and ceased screaming. He tried to remember what he had learned about hell from his parents. "The seventh hell...the Hell of String-like Worms..." Was all he could remember.
"Damn it!" He yelled as they dropped him on the hard, clay soil.
"Tie him." The demons were ordered.
They did as they were told. After they tied Ku Yong Fin, they flipped him onto his stomach; he was finally lying flat. Out of the corner of his eye, Ku Yong Fin saw a demon, more hideous than the rest, carry a writhing bucket of worms just out of his line of vision. As he felt a slimy, sticky worm wriggle onto his backside, he began to scream. Suddenly, Ku Yong Fin remembered what happens in the seventh hell.
His screams were drowned out by the gnawing of the worms.
* * *
A Buddhist's place of torment is Narakas, a name deriving from "hell" or "purgatory." An individual in Narakas is there because of his or her karma (actions of speech, mind and body.) The condemned being is not there for eternity, but is there until his or her karma has achieved a full result. Once the karma is fully used, the being will be reborn into a higher world based on karma that has not yet ripened. Being in Narakas is akin to states of extreme fear and helplessness.