Madonna

Inside the forest, animals hide from their biggest predator, the humans. The fear crawling through their skin can be sensed with the touch of soggy air, and the presence of humans, turns this feeling into chilling vibes, like a spider crawling inside the skin, making them feel terrified. 

Winston notices chimps hiding behind the bushes and owls flying away into the dense forest, and the whooping and Howling of humans who have come to hunt down animals for toxins. 

When humanity's soul starves, love has nowhere to roam, definitely not inside the forest in hell. Hunger can break down the nobility of a human soul, but in hell, you don't have to pretend that you are noble or ethical. No one judges you here for your inhumanity, or simply for your true nature. 

Winston walks past the Acacia tree filled with thorns and small leaves, even smaller ants were walking on a stem avoiding the pointed thorns ready to wound anyone who came to harm them. In Winston's mind, he was trying to make sense of what happened in the bar? he was more cautious now. 

What is nectar? Why were they selling me for that? The questions were raised in his mind. He didn't have an answer for that yet, but one thing was sure, it's something important that is worth selling a person for it. Winston thinks in his mind and takes out the bottle from his pocket. The dark liquid was spattering with a touch of the silver stream. The liquid looks mysterious and has an eye seductive charm in it. 

Winston put the bottles back inside his pocket. He has almost crossed the forest. He can see the open desert through the dancing trees. Suddenly, he felt like someone was following him, but he kept walking without showing it. He noticed the small crunching of leaves, which were following his movements. He kept walking until he reached the edge of the wilderness and suddenly turned toward the footsteps making noise. 

He looked left and right, but no one was there, then up and down, and suddenly saw someone on the ground staring at him, with wide open eyes. It was a cat. She was soft like a foam thrown by sea on the seashore, chubby like a panda, staring at him with her big curious eyes.

"Madonna?"Winston shouted with surprise and uncertainty. Is it her, or is it some trick that's been playing off? he thinks in his mind.

"Winston??", the cat said with an expression that was hard to read.

"What the fuck, you can talk?" Winston said, moving one leg behind.

"This can't be real, my mind is fucking with me again, this whole thing Is my imagination, Madonna is dead", he said while holding his head and closing his eyes. But the next moment, he realises something and opens his eyes. " So does i", he said with an agitating voice. 

"Winston, this is me. I am real. We both are dead." Madonna said, moving her front right foot forward. Winston was feeling anxious, his whole life he has faced death so many times, that he almost stopped being afraid of it. But death is more complex than that. The ideas of loss, everything that you loved and cared for, were gone now, leaving memories behind to torture you. 

"Calm down Winston, it will go away", Madonna said with a delicate voice.

Winston comes back to his senses. There is a sense of happiness inside him, seeing Madonna, but he doesn't want to acknowledge it at that moment. Because what if it is all just a dream or some trick. He has already felt the pain of loss, and now he was trying to avoid it by not getting attached to something that can be lost. 

"What are you doing here?"Winston asks, grasping his conscience, and staring at her, with confused eyes.

"What do you mean? This is hell, this is where I should be." Madonna said, stepping closer to Winston, remembering his face from her memories when she used to live with him. 

" I don't understand", Winston said with wonder and felt even more confused.

"Only a human soul can go to heaven, every animal has to come back to hell", Madonna said as if she had already accepted her fate.

Winston felt bad for her, for a moment, and said,

"So what about me? I am going to be born as human again and get my chance to be in heaven?" It was a bit of a relief for him.

Madonna chuckled, and said, " it's not been a long since you have been here, are you?"

"No, maybe a day or two, I didn't fully understand how days work here yet", Winston said while trying to remember the moment he arrived. It was a bit hard for him to remember, it's not that long so he was a bit surprised by his memory. 

"It's hell, it has a completely different rule, you will get to know it," Madonna said and started walking.

Winston was following Madonna without any effort, he was still not sure about her existence and was also surprised by his behaviour that why he starts following her? He felt tense with the way his mind behaved, which is becoming more and more uncertain. 

" So you need to find nectar, as soon as possible, otherwise your memories will start fading away," Madonna said while walking, twirling her fur left-right. " and if you don't have nectar for long you will degenerate into the animal soul", she looked behind while she finishes her sentence just to see Winston's reaction.

"What?", a deep worry crawled inside him, thinking about becoming an animal, he was speechless for a moment, lost in his imagination. A part of his mind already started to imagine himself as a cat-like a madonna. He shook his thought away from his mind and tried to ask something but the question in his mind couldn't be conveyed in words. And he stays silent, looking at Madonna, who was enjoying his expressions. 

The forest was left far behind, it was a desert. Winston was following Madonna, a brief silence was walking between them, they were about to reach Warrington city. Even though they were not talking it felt like they were having the most significant conversation in that silence. 

Winston found Madonna when she was tiny, like a mouse. She was looking so delicate, which abducted his heart, and he took her with him to his home. She used to walk around with him all the time whenever he was home. It's the language of silence that they have spoken their whole life. It was what they were comfortable with rather than words. 

They reached inside the city, and different kinds of animals were walking with humans like a pet. A tall young man with a clean shave followed by a white dog hanging his tongue out passed Winston lurking at him with his small eyes. Then the Dog looks at a Madonna for a moment and then keeps following the man. An old woman standing beside a monkey was arguing with an old half-bald man, there was a crab between his legs crawling on the ground. Shops selling toxins and nectar, small and big bottles of colourful liquids placed on the shelf watching the pedestrian. Only faces change, but lust and greed in the eyes remain the same. There was bidding going on at the corner of the street, a group of people were circling the pigs and goats and three men and one woman, their hands were tied with the rope and fear had entirely taken over the lust and the greed in their eyes. Fear of death, fear of extinction is something common that stays with a person even after his death. 

"Two and a half bottles for a woman," a man shouted, he was old and had a white beard, and wrinkles on his face have completely hidden behind his long and thick beard. He was blushing while he shouted, and a woman noticed the perverts in his eyes. And with her stare man who had already taken her to his bed in his dream, almost got an orgasm. 

The desire for lust is the kind of thing that eats you and leaves you starving. But people often choose this hunger, to pass their time, because without this hunger they will need to face who they are inside. Which is a not good idea for many, not perhaps in hell.