FROM RECKONING TO SLUMBER

   

The following article was published in N-SPHERE March 2011 issue.

 

It must have been a little over a year ago when a new voice was heard through the long bleak days and nights, offering salvation in exchange even for a hint of repentance.

He swore then not to serve him anymore, slithering false master, hidden god of the fools. “The slavery you’re selling is all but too transparent for my taste. The fruits of eternal life you’re offering are poisoned and deceitful and this will bring your downfall. And you will watch on bedded knees the fall of your empires, and I will be there to take comfort in the massacre of your former servants, and throw a perverse grim on your eyes.”

Black clouds of abandonment gathered around him, all the masks he used over the years begging to be allowed to shatter and lay to rest. At least for a while, until he watches from afar those whose life he would soon claim.

“Start peeling off face by face until the raw blackened meat sees the light of day. No more blood, no more veins, just a void filled with cruelty and wrathful deities standing immerse between you and your other self.” “Now I understand. You’ve drawn out the one monster you should have left alone, unspoken of and unseen. You know that this cheap impersonation of the other realm will not protect you when he comes for you. And come he will. The ultimate hideousness, You.” “Yes. I’ve always prayed it would be me the one who summons and keeps him on a leash. Imagine. To just close your eyes and see through his eyes as he turns day into night and disembowels the ground with his mere breath. Would it not make you feel like the sun god himself?”

But some creatures cannot be overthrown and it is better to start carving in secret another fake smile for the days to come. Sadly, not even the hordes of lesser spirits at my disposal will protect me from his evil. I risk too much, yet I still have too much to lose. “And what might that be? Can the all knowing hiding in the back of your mind say for sure? I doubt that.”

I still listen to that song, honoring the memory of you. And the mind flows back to the beginning, when freshly carved faces announced a world of possibilities ready to crumble.

text & artwork by Bahak B

Full article here.