Down, down into the deep. Long ago did mother sleep. Softly turning as the world burns to ash. Pandemonium's taint from first unto the last. Man with a gun, man with no heart.. tears bitterly cried unto death from the start.
- Part of the poem 'How things were' reputedly written by The Paladin, not long after the risen came to be.
Chapter 14: Revelations of the Heart.
Chloe finished cooking the mid-day meal and sighed. It had been a week since the 'jerk patrol' as she called them had moved in.
She could remember with vague embarassment, the time when she was so enamored of the American soldier. Unfortunately these particular gentleman had lost much of their lost, along with their manners.
"Hey, is lunch almost ready? First sergeant wants to make sure everyone's fed and ready for training." said corporal Jones as he wandered in. A short man, with a thin build. The naked eye and general disposition of most people would claim that such a man had to be rather weak physically.
That eye and disposition would be wrong of course. All of that whip-thin frame could be put into physical power that most larger men would envy.
Chloe sighed and nodded, "Yeah.. it's done. Though what you people plan on eating tomorrow is beyond me."
The corporal shrugged. "We'll send a few of the soldiers out to get supplies. Probably shoot a few of those deer wandering around out there."
The blond woman blinked and shook her head. Scott wouldn't like that one bit. Despite not hearing from him in several weeks she knew he still lived. She could feel it.
Jones noted her disbelieving look and head tilt. Maybe there was something wrong with the deer out there. He found it hard to believe that none of them had gone hunting the easily captured and overfed creatures.
With no natural predators on their little island, those handful of deer had grown fat and lazy. Best of all, they were used to human beings and wouldn't run at the first sign of someone with a gun.
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He'd been walking in darkness for hours uncounted. It felt like days really. Down, down into the bowels of this place. The smell of sulfur and ancient decay clinging to every crack and crevice.
Scott wondered at how he could tolerate it. Still, further he went. He passed along natural stone bridges that crossed lakes of acid. Their cloying fumes attempting to choke what life he might have had out of him.
He would occasionally sing songs at random to keep his spirits up, but constantly remained on guard.
You never knew when some random battle would occur. Certainly he hadn't run into any aggressive mole people, or whatever might live in an underground cavern that for all intents and purposes felt like hell.
It was certainly hot enough now. Even his deadened physical senses could feel the heat. It had been nearly freezing to him on the surface though he barely noticed.
Not until he entered one last chamber though, did he begin to have flashes of familiarity. The pattern of rocks and mold leading to this chamber was very familiar.
He wasn't sure where he'd seen it before, but somehow, he knew it.
As he walked along, natural crystal embedded within the walls began to shine softly against the darkness.
In the center of the chamber he came across the strangest sight yet.
On a small bier, made of wood and covered in living spring flowers reclined a woman so beautiful it nearly made his heart stop. Well, if he was certain his heart did still beat.
She seemed to be unconscious as he approached. For a moment he took in the sight in wonder, attempting to understand why someone so lovely could be laying in a bed of flowers that grew in almost complete darkness.
As he gazed at her, he saw the pale skin, and blueish lips that belied the beauty he'd envisioned a moment before. 'Is she dead..?' he asked himself.
He stayed there for a time, absently stroking her hair. Hair that seemed to shimmer and change color in the light. One moment black as a raven's feather, another as blue as the clearest sky.
As he stroked her hair the dim lighting revealed something rather more disturbing to him. This unconscious woman seemed to be crying. Small tender tears leaked slowly from her eyes to track down her face.
After a time a strange tingling sensation filled the back of his neck and he turned around.
Standing there quietly was the ever obvious robed figure. This one though, wielded a scythe in one hand.
Scott spoke up, "What's going on here?"
The robed figure glided towards him and removed its hood. "Hello brother. I have waited for you here. My name.. is Silence."
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Reject paced around the earthen prison. He didn't understand why he was still down here. Sure, he was assigned as her guard after he mouthed off, but it's not like they truly needed anyone to guard her.
He felt the call go out. All of Father Silence's children were to group and attack the traitorous wolf clan enmasse.
They had dared to aid the betrayer champion, and would pay with their lives. The greater darkness was already working on a way to nullify the father of wolves' abilities.
He glanced over at the sleeping child and for yet another time uncounted he resisted the urge to eat her sweet entrails. A momentary thought crossed his mind that in his former life he never liked 'chittlins' as his grandmother had called them. Strange then, that he did so enjoy their human counterpart now.
Many of his 'brethren' preferred the heart or possibly the kidneys. No, he was a guts and liver abomination himself. Perhaps he simply had a more refined palette?
His thoughts became scattered a moment later as he heard the little girl cry out in her sleep.
Reject wandered over and stared down at her hungrily. He gazed at her nearly at the point of starvation, but when she softly whimpered out, 'Please... don't hurt mommy..' all he did was snort.
It had nothing to do with kindness or concern of course, when he pulled the all too thin burlap sacks she had been given for bedding and blankets around her. A creature of his reputed evil and soul crushing darkness had no use for such silly things as emotion.
He was just keeping those tender entrails warm. Yes, just keeping them warm..
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Scott gazed at the teenage looking spectre before him and quirked an eyebrow. What the hell...?
"I see you aren't aware of who I am. Though, I'm shocked that you haven't heard of me..." said the teenaged incarnation of death itself.
The man's mind whirled for a moment, but as quick as though, heh, he finally seized on his weird dreams. "Brother Silence..?"
The gothic seeming spirit smiled slightly and nodded, "What's left of me anyway."
Scott frowned his brows knitting tightly.
"I see you want to know the truth, of.. of everything. It's time you knew." stated the robed primordial force of crossing over.
"That.. would be nice..." said Scott softly.
Silence sighed and glided over the the sleeping woman, before bending down and placing a tender kiss upon her forehead.
"This is our mother. This cavern, the womb of life. All life in the garden began here, when mother and father joined." said the spirit, as though recounting memory rather than mythology.
Scott quirked his eyebrow again. He did that often it seemed. 'Our.. mother? What's this crazy death guy on about?'
"Not as crazy as you think, though sadly.. I am quite insane." stated Silence softly, not yet having turned back to face the naked man.
As Scott attempted to grasp whatever the hell that meant, not quite realizing that the robed figure had read his mind. Silence continued. "You've seen the prison father crafted for our brother have you not?"
Scott's mind snapped back to the corroded seeming door he had tried forget seeing earlier, so long ago it seemed.
It had been made all of what seemed to be iron. It's lock badly corroded by time. Through the barred window he had seen.. things. Zombies, winged shadows that screeched in the air.
He'd seen things that looked to be made entirely of black flame, or black viscous liquid.
Off in the distance a great city made of gold. He had even seen a giant. A man in black armor darker than midnight, with platinum hair sitting upon a throne seemingly made of human bone. That giant man would have given Godzilla the shakes, from the size of him.
Scott wondered, now that he had recalled this bit of memory, how he could have ever let that horrific image fade from his mind. Another idle thought crossed his mind to find out when random things like hell and death personified showing up in his daily life had become relatively normal. Well, normal for him at least.
"You forgot simply because you were meant to. In time all you'll recall is the door itself. No one is meant to remember what they see in Pandemonium Brother." said the anthropomorphic personification of the primal force of death.
"Pandemonium..?" asked Scott. Random tidbits of knowledge warred inside his head. Something about that reminded him of hell. "Wasn't that supposed to be like the capital city or something of hell? I remembered reading that in my occult days."
"Actually, you're almost right. Pandemonium is pretty much 'all demons' or rather, 'place of all demons. I prefer to call it land of the fallen, but that's just me." informed the spectre with a tired sigh.
Scott nodded, "Right.. so.. what does that have to do with anything?"
Silence turned to him, "That is the prison meant to house our eldest brother. Brother Perfect. I'm surprised you have forgotten all of this."
The naked man scrunched his eyebrows together and tilted his head to the side. "Why would I know this..?" 'Not to mention why do you keep calling me brother...',Thought Scott.
"Because, brother, you are that which stands between death and despair. You are the bridge back to better days. It is through you that people find their way to live in an imperfect world."
Scott was not terribly impressed with this answer. "Seriously.. can you cut the riddles and shit? I'm naked, i'm hot, and i'm talking to what looks like an anthropomorphic personification of death.. as a teenager."
Silence sighed softly and nodded, "Very well. You are Mother and Father's final child. You are hope. That which does not die."
The naked man stared at the obviously insane spectre incredulously. "What exactly have you been smoking robe boy..?"
"I see.. this is unfortunate, as quite literally you are the last and only hope we all have to stop me." said Silence sadly.
"Stop you..?" Scott asked curiously.
Silence nodded, "Yes, currently i'm laying waste to the last of humanity. My children tearing their flesh and corrupting their spirits."
"WHAT..?!" snapped Scott.
The teenaged spectre nodded, "Sadly it is so. Brother Perfect's taint corrupted me slowly as it has all things. When mother began to grow sick due to the usage of stellar power on the earth's surface, part of me fissioned off and went on a rampage. The results are as you see them. The dead do not seem to enjoy staying dead."
Scott resisted every homicidal urge inside him to ask, "Stellar power..?"
"You would know it as 'nuclear technology.'" stated the eons old teenaged spectre.
The barely restrained man slowly allowed his rage to settle. If what 'Silence' said was true, then humanity had brought this on themselves at least partially.
"Yes, but only in part. Brother perfect used the technology to poison mother in an attempt to break free. Already his cell door grows corroded and weakens." said the primal spirit of death.
"How..?" asked Scott.
"It was less the power of 'nuclear technology' itself, so much as her children's inhumanity in its usage. Destroying life with a power that in nature is carefully balanced to 'give' life. All the wars and the blood shed over its power. The lust and greed in the hearts of man. This is the true reason she has sickened." said Death without pausing for a breath or a moment to collect his thoughts.
Death continued, "I saw the ravages that such things did, and the toll it took on mother. Less than a year ago my mind broke, and fissioned off a portion of my essence. It's in some ways similar to multiple personality disorder. I believe that's the term the children use in the current era?"
The naked man nodded, but barely seemed to hear him anymore. His thoughts drawn entirely to the unconscious woman on the bed of flowers.
Scott felt a gnawing sensation in the pit of his stomach. He understood a moment later as a soft whimper escaped from the unconscious woman.
"We're breaking her heart..."
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Hmm, a short chapter true, but i'm going to stop it there. The next chapter has more revelations, and randomness.
Be sure to hate me with everything you possess.