A sharp blaze of fire spread across the surface of Josiuh’s body. His arms and legs burning as it crept up into his lungs and soon, into his mouth and down past his heart. He smiled as the fire consumed him; the needle in his arm a familiar friend on nights such as these. As the fire raced to his brain, he laid his head back, and waited for the effects of the new drug to take him to his favorite place. His thoughts grew calm and his inner voice silenced. He closed his eyes, numb to hatreds and cutting words of his violent world.

As Josiuh remained in the holding tank within his mind, he did not notice the dark clouds coming from the corners of the room, consuming him, dragging him under. Soon, the drug wore off, and the place his body was in seemed different, unfamiliar. Carefully, He took in his surroundings. He lay on a long stretch of highway, signs with black backgrounds and white lettering lining the straight road, all repeating the same sentence: “Hell is Real”.

As the gears in his mind started turning, he realized what he had done. A pang of guilt stabbed his chest, and he slowly got to his feet. Josiuh walked the stretch of highway thinking of what he had done in life, and who he had disappointed. The first thought that crossed his mind was the first time he had hit his wife.

It had been a long day for the both of them, and he had just been introduced to what would one day be the death of him. The two had argued many times in the past, but this particular day Josiuh had become profusely irritated with Rachelle’s constant nagging and intolerable questioning. In a fit of rage, he pulled his arm back and let his open hand crash into her pale, fragile face. From that day foreword, Rachelle had realized the man she had fallen for and the man Josiuh was becoming were inexcusably different.

Not even six months later, Rachelle left him with nothing save the CD’s in his car and the old couch she had slept on since the first time he laid his hands on her. After she left, he lost everything that had meant anything to him, and he growled to pavement his shoes seemed to be melting to.

As if anger fueled the roads fire, a burst of warm air smacked into his thin body and caused him to cough dryly. He shook his head and took a few long strides backwards to see if the location he was in had anything to do with the sudden heat wave, yet the heat stayed consistent. A feeling of fear welled with him, and a cry of apology screeched through his tears of misery.

A hauntingly attractive male voice entered Josiuh’s ears, and he quickly stopped his whining and groaning. “Be a man, Josiuh. You put yourself here, and I would like to think you could take a small hit, considering you’ve been known to give a few….” The mans taunting voice trailed off as what sounded as small children started laughing.

Josiuh began to look around, searching for the man and the little he ones he had just heard, yet he found nothing save solitude. He continued to walk down the long road, thinking and reminiscing of his life as a child and with his beloved.

Another sudden heat wave engulfed his body, and breathing became almost impossible. Josiuh brought his sweating hands to his closing throat as a sharp burning sensation became apparent within his lungs. He fell to his knees, the steaming pavement burning through his clothing and melting his skin away from the bone. He desperately tried to scream, but a lack of air had provided no room for the words he desperately wanted to say.

A fire swallowed his body and made him convulse in pain. As he drifted away, his soul being consumed by the searing flames, the regrets he had in life melted with the rest of his body. Josiuh drifted off into a dark, hollow expanse and the normally unbearable heat no longer a bother to him, for where he was going, he would grow comfortable with the heat.