The anger in the crowd returned and intensified
As more fists joined my own.
The redness of their visions was saved,
But they needed help to advance to the next phase:
Violence.
They were not capable of progressing on their own,
As sin was still new to their abilities.
With a swift kick,
I was able to splinter the wood.
The mass of people pushed through the blockade
And entered into the main area of the palace.
They were greeted by the king and his advisor.
As much as I had whispered into the ears of the mob,
I had also said as much to the king and his pawn.
To counteract my own idea,
I had informed the advisor to take up arms
In case such a situation would arise.
Behind the king stood several armed guards.
The weapons were new to such a peaceful city.
Constructed by the tormented mind of one king.
Before me stood quite a unique situation.
One where both parties could gain and lose.
The scales were balanced with silence.
One palm held the rebellious nature of the citizens,
Whereas the other held the ruling head of the king.
No more whispers were gifted to the ears;
No more visions of deception were presented.
My task was complete.
All that remained was for one person to act;
To follow through with the means.
I did not care who would be the victor.
Any potential outcome would suffice,
Unless they chose to have a festival
To celebrate their indifferences.
I found my medium in a peasant man.
His frown was deeply engraved within his skin
With no signs of relinquishing his disgust for the king.
He had accepted my sinful ways as the only path.
His soul, his essence, his well-being were now mine.
I waited patiently for him to step forward.
After hateful words continued to leak from his mouth,
He spat on the king.
The guards tightened their grips on their weapons.
With a mere signal from his wrist,
The king ordered the slaughter to commence.
Blood spilled, staining the pristine floors
Of the once peaceful and welcoming entryway.
My attention was on the king.
I watched his every gesture as the citizens
Were being butchered like infected pigs.
No sorrow, no remorse, reflected in his eyes.
Only pure, raw despise flowed through his veins.
He was now a servant of my doing,
Fulfilling my every need and desire.
While the guards were determining
Who amongst the dead were still alive,
Sunlight and the curious eyes from those outside
Overwhelmed the dead room.
The king ordered his guards to block the entrance,
But the vision of death quickly spread amongst the city.
Soon, every person would know
What the king had done on that day.
The insanity that filled the streets and corridors
On the days to follow was much to my liking.
Chants of hatred sang through the air
And rose above the city like a hovering cloud.
The wind carried the torments of the people
High into the stone inlets of the palace
Where the ears of the king could not find shelter.
Sleep deprived and enraged by the citizens,
The king called forth his advisor.
My plan lived deep within the mind of his ally.
My visit to him the previous night was a successful one.
He informed the king to meet the anger with an iron fist.
A disrespectful citizen could corrupt many.
Any night could see another attack on the palace.
As the sun rose the next day, the people of Hell were greeted
With new laws posted on every wall.
Resentment toward the king was not acceptable;
Punishable by death.
When threatened with their demise,
Humans will cower to save their pitiful existence.
They will shield their voices to appease the king’s ruling.
Death was not something the citizens should have feared;
There were much more horrific situations in life.
Regardless, the human instinct was to flee
To avoid any contact with the king or his guards.
Regardless of how far they ran,
My whispers were still being delivered by the wind.
Every night, every wakening day, the songs were being sung.
I made sure the king heard every hymn.
The constant bombardment of resentment
Was enough to push any rational person to insanity.
Several rises of the moon was all the king needed.
With the advisor backing his notions,
The king unleashed pain upon the city.
His reign of fear,
Brought about by fictitious whispers of denial,
Devastated the very foundation of his ruling.
The road to the hilltop palace was closed;
The courtyard became bare.
The fountain decayed; the city became dead.
Public beatings were held daily
So that everyone knew the consequences
For not obeying the laws.
The sun would never shine as bright again.
The wind would never feel the same.
A grey hue tinted the clouds,
Threatening with unpredictable storms.
The shadows were abundant;
The darkness was sheer black.
As I roamed the streets alone,
I became somewhat attached to Hell.
Over time, the city had altered into a decent place.
I was not alone in my nightly rituals;
Guards often patrolled the corridors in search of victims
To sacrifice for the good of the law.
With no one else available, I was an obvious choice.
The mortal mind was a curious relic.
If they knew my name, would they continue their quest?
Would they approach me,
Knowing that I could end their lives
With one gaze into my eyes?
As the guards approached,
I knew the answer to my questions.
To them, I was nothing.
To the king, I was an example.
To me, the shift toward my direction
Ended their well-being.
They encircled me with their armor and spears.
We danced in the corridor that night.
I pondered death for each of them.
My scythes were concealed beneath my cloak,
But seemed too easy a path for me to take.
I randomly chose one of the guards to focus on.
With my thoughts swirling,
Levi appeared on the back of the guard
And whispered a sweet sin deep into his ear.
I do not know the exact message,
But the guard’s demeanor altered.
Levi vanished as quickly as he had appeared,
Leaving behind a sinful infection within the guard.
I saw the hesitation;
The pattern I had grown to admire and love.
While his comrade looked to me, he did not.
With a heavy grip around the shaft of his spear,
He buried the tip into the neck of his companion.
The blade split the flesh and protruded to the other side.
The force tilted the large helmet.
> To retrieve his weapon,
The guard placed a heavy boot on the torso.
The sound of tearing flesh against metal appeased me,
But it did not phase the other guards.
All spears rotated from me
And pointed in the direction of the altered guard.
Levi never told me what exactly he whispered,
But it was enough to condemn the man.
With a forward attack,
The guard plunged his spear into the other’s stomach.
The victim coughed, vomited
And spit blood all over his polished chest armor.
Instead of pulling the spear out,
The guard pushed the shaft deeper
Into the flesh until it was reachable from behind.
He grabbed the wood,
Pulling the rest of his weapon through.
There has always been a strange beauty about sin.
The passion, the unknowing with regards to the actions
That the human mind could create.
With a mere whisper, a mortal mind can be tormented
To the edge where God no longer exists.
That night, I pondered whether
There were humans in the world
Who would not need persuasion.
I longed for the day to greet those who desired
Nothing from me to provoke sin;
True disciples of my passion.
While in personal thought,
I had missed the encounter with the third guard.
However, I saw the victim’s head slanted backwards,
Looking up to the stars, swallowing his own spear.
With his eyes and mouth agape,
Nothing but the shaft extended beyond his lips.
His lifeless legs curled beneath him,
The spear kept his upper body ridged,
Providing him with a second spine.
His lungs choked on blood.
The fourth guard ran toward the palace.
Alone I stood with the sinful guard.
As he pointed his spear toward me,
I ended his life quickly with the rotation of his neck.
Leaving the corpses of the guards within the courtyard,
I ventured back through the corridor.
***
The troubled creek in my underground abode
Awakened me with the sound of its current.
Commotion spilled down through the crevices
And prompted me to stretch my aching bones.
Out in the courtyard remained the deceased guards,
Decaying slowly in the morning sun.
The stench of their rotting corpses
Leaked through their armored casings.
A large group of citizens surrounded them
To the point where others could not easily witness.
Observing the commotion, a change occurred in me.
I wanted it all; the palace, the courtyard, the corridors.
The city would serve as my realm;
The palace shall serve as my home.
It would prove to be no easy task to capture the city.
My pride for Hell conjured Lucifer to guide me.
Although he requested that I not proceed,
He eventually had no choice but to relinquish.
I wasn’t sure whether my mind was tormenting me,
But the determination of acquiring the city remained.
Every piece of the wall, every shadow, every stone.
The city would be mine . . . but how?
I found the answer within my haven.
I could not imagine my kingdom upon God’s land
Where the living could roam as they pleased.
The mere thought clenched my muscles.
The sun shining brightly every day did not appease me.
I desired the city with every essence of my being,
Just not in the same area where it currently resided.
The distance from Heaven, the observance of the stars.
The next day, outside the gates,
I walked the perimeter of the city encircling the land,
Allowing my scythe to trail behind me,
Its blade dredging deep into the earth.
I dragged my weapon, carving into God’s terrain.
The land did not care for my disobedience;
The once soft soil turned to stone,
But the sharpness of my blade backed by my strength
Allowed me to continue.
Along the ground-butchering way,
Each of my fellow demons appeared
In a failed attempt to persuade me otherwise.
They called me mad, but I knew my mind was clear.
I believed God intended to halt my movement.
Mountains appeared where there previously were none.
Vast lakes consumed the land, but still I walked.
Ravenous wolves tried to block my path.
I dealt with them and stepped over their dead carcasses
As I reinserted my blade back into the earth.
Wild boars awaited me with blood stained,
Sharpened tusks protruding from their snarling lips.
I removed the tusks of one
And used them to slaughter the others,
Then continued on my way.
The atmosphere became disgusted with me.
The skies vomited on the land with shards of ice.
Lightning galloped across the skies with vengeance.
My deed was complete.
All that remained was the understanding from the sky.
Instead, a thunderous growl uprooted nearby trees
And tossed them aside as if they were weak branches.
The mountains trembled while the sun vanished.
I had never seen the sky blackened
To the point where the clouds cried.
The ice tore at my flesh, but I stood in acceptance.
The lightning pulled at my skin,
But I stood in acceptance.
The rain fell heavy.
No mortal would dare stand beneath the sky.
They sought shelter quickly and wisely.
Even my demons fled, but not me.
As new lakes and canyons were formed
I stood outside the city wall and placed both hands
On the stone in hopes to ease the trembling.
I only wanted the structure of the city.
I held onto the wall as the earth began to quake.
I felt myself rise and fall with the land,
But still I held onto the wall.
As the sky tired and calmed,
My flesh was torn to the bone, but I remained alive.
I believed in my decision and carried my scythe
Back through the gates of the city.
The citizens returned outside
And guards led the king to the courtyard
By parting the crowd with their spears.
Astonishment coated the king’s face
As the vision of the deceased guards filled his eyes.
Without assistance from his mind,
He accused the rebellious citizens of murder.
Panic erupted in the courtyard, much to my pleasure.
The innocent tried to flee,
But they were met with the guard’s weapons.
Cloth was torn, flesh was ripped;
All at the king’s demands.
More guards blocked the exiting corridors
So that no one could escape.
The eyes of the king met with mine.
With a signal of his hand,
Several guards advanced on me.
Each hand that touched me, left its owner.
Screams of agony funneled through their armor.
I walked back into the courtyard,
Where the displeased king ordered more death.
I was surrounded by more guards,
But kept my
thoughts fixated upon the king.
His trustworthy advisor stood by his side.
I whispered to the advisor as he spoke to the king.
End the citizen’s life was the order.
A rise of the king’s hand sent more guards.
However, I opted for a choice other than a swift death.
One, I assumed, that only God had foreseen.
The reason behind the anger of the skies.
The reason behind the warnings from my demons.
The reason why I encircled the city.
I raised my arm and with a mighty fist,
Dove my hand deep into the foundation of the city.
The power shook the buildings, stumbling the guards.
The act sent five large cracks filtering through the city
Connecting with my outer engraved circle.
The ground trembled with violence
As the city began to sink.
Everyone who remained, struggled to stay upright.
They looked for understanding,
But they would receive nothing except fear
As the city was consumed by the earth.
I rode my newly acquired relic down into the pit
As the sun slowly disappeared from sight.
I reveled in the screams that greeted the darkness.
As the plummet came to a halt,
Those not weighed by armor
Found themselves floating above the city.
Their cries were silenced
As their bodies reunited with the land
In piles of broken bones and flesh.
With a rise of my hand, the dead citizens of the city rose.
Blood soaked and bruised, I fed their minds
With new life and comfort to ease their confusion.
I chose two of the king’s guards
And burdened them with guarding the gates of Hell.
Pale in skin, the guards rose and accepted their fate.
I requested seven live citizens to remain untouched.
Each were brought before me
And granted safe passage back to the upper world.
Their task was to spread the tale
Of what happened on that day.
To ensure they stayed true to their course,
I again carved my name into their chests,
Along with seven marks upon their foreheads.
Once branded, they were free to leave.
The king and his advisor knelt before me
With wavering hands and mumbled speech.
They had accepted sin with such ease
That I finally determined they should duel.
Each was given a dagger.
The victor would receive a place on my council,
While the other would become a servant.
Their human minds no longer struggled with death.
Fear encased their visions and blurred their thoughts.
Uncertainty plagues the mortal mind.
One should accept the idealism of the unknown.
The Harvester Page 5
