“Thank you for having me here.”

“No problem. It was probably time to talk to some journalist, to be honest.”

“Why do you think so?”

“People do get the wrong ideas, yet look around us.”

“Yes, the surroundings certainly don’t look like the traditional image of Hell, if I may say so.”

“You may. We had a refurbishment recently, I am glad it made a positive impact.”

“Uh, shall we start then?”

“Yes of course, whenever you are ready.”

“Thank you. So, you mentioned in the email you wanted to discuss how the Hell actually looks like. Maybe we could start there?”

“You must have misunderstood me. It would be very hard to describe how the Hell looks like. It is very personal, you know.”

“Oh, ok.”

“However, I wanted to highlight that as it is a very personal experience, we do keep up with current trends.”

“Do you?”

“Don’t sound that surprised. After all, you as a journalist, don’t you keep up to speed with current affairs?”

“Uhm…”

“You see, I knew you would understand me. It is pretty much similar. We promote a flexible approach addressing personal needs of our clients. It was an approach promoted by my grandfather and since then we quite improved it, if I may say so.”

“You sound as if you are quite proud of your grandfather?”

“Yes, of course, I am. We are a family company and we have been in the business since forever.”

“That sounds amazing. Can you elaborate on your approach.”

“Of course, it might be easiest if I just show you an example…”

“Thank you, this room looks quite different to the previous one.”

“Yes. The previous room was our interview room. It is a more representative part of our complex. Here, as you can see the room is bare. That is because there is not much needed here. You can see Mr Chesterfield watching his children.”

“Yes… Quite an idyllic scene. I am not sure why he looks so distressed?”

“Well, you might see the big hourglass?”

“Yes, it is hard to miss it.”

“Once the hourglass runs out, he will need to make a life-changing decision.”

“Oh, how is that distressing?”

“Without going into details — we value privacy, you see — no matter what Mr.Chesterfield decides, the outcome will not be satisfactory.”

“Something about choosing between the lesser evil?”

“Oh, yes. I can see you are getting the point. Here, you see, there is no lesser evil, all outcomes will be pretty awful. However, if you knew Mr Chesterfield you would know that it is also the fact he can’t decide. Or rather, he has an unknown amount of time to decide. That’s not helping either. He can never have the closure he is after. And that’s what is making him distressed.”

“That’s amazing.”

“I know, applied modern psychology.”

“But, as you said, every your client has personalised experience.”

“Exactly, please, let’s leave Mr Chesterfield now and let’s go back to the interview room.”

“Thank you so much for approaching me. With everything you just told me, this will be an amazing article.”

“Thank you. I think it could be almost a game changer.”

“Yes, you are right. Thank you so much.”

“Wait, we are not finished yet.”

“We are not?”

“Of course not. You see, I haven’t granted you the permission to publish this interview yet.”

“Oh, but you wanted, no? I mean, why would you invite me over otherwise?”

“You still haven’t asked me quite an important question.”

“What?”

“Oh, I can’t do your job for you. You have to ask me for the interview to be complete. Without it, there is no point to publish it really. But don’t worry, you have time while there is still sand in the hourglass. You should just hurry up, you see, there are just a few grains left in yours…”