Now is the Time: III (423 hits)
Category: NoneRating: 1.75 on 13 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by orph (View user info) at 2007-09-05 11:17:49 EDT
And whoso falleth not down and worshippeth shall the same hour be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace.
The Book of Daniel, 3.4.
*
Simeon was a quarry-slave at an open-cut mine that supplied black marble to the ultra-polis of Mil-Gen-Verona. It was soul destroying work, and his thirty year old body looked old and withered. Not surprisingly, quarry-slaves had a life expectancy of twenty, making Simeon an old hand.
His life had been one of pain and work, always the same, always together. He had never known the love or care of another, or been taught to read and write. He lived a rabid existence, fighting and killing the other slaves for food, snarling and yelping his words and thoughts.
He was a nothing, and treated as such. A slave, a worker, meat for the machine.
Perhaps the saddest thing about Simeon was this - he had no idea what hope was.
*
Tamiel ruled his province with an iron fist of fire.
It had been his since the Unlocking. Thirty years had passed since the gates of Hell had opened - the planet now floated adrift in the ether, a burning, sanguineous monstrosity.
Tamiel's control stretched from the Pyrenees to the Urals, of which the land between was a pit of sorrow and hopelessness, a mirror of the rest of the globe.
Lucifer had returned to the world on a wave of blood; the beast of the Revelations had not seven heads, and there was no whore birthing another. Only he of the light, and with him came his horde of worshippers.
The Grigori, the original fallen angels, had been given the land to cut up as they wished. Tamiel ruled Europe, Shamsiel the Asian land mass, Amaros wielded his whip over Africa, whilst Oceania was the realm of Baraqel. The Americas belonged to Penemue, leaving the oceans to Sariel, and the sky to Chazaqiel.
The seven demon lords were minions of Asael, the Deliverer; the most exalted of the new rulers of the earth. His works alone had brought about the end of the rule of man, and had ushered in the evil. Millions of slaves, for all humanity was in slavery, bar those that had sacrificed and sold themselves to Lucifer, were subject to the rule of Asael. Control had been his reward; Lucifer alone was his better.
Thus was the way of the world. After two thousand years of ignoring and twisting the word of their god, humanity had paid the ultimate price. God was dead, and the Archangel Gabriel had held to the prophecy set down an eternity ago - once hope had been extinguished from the world, he would leave man to his fate.
Lucifer was the lord of all, and like any conqueror, he used his new domain for his own purposes, carving out a mockery of the kingdom of heaven, creating a literal Hell on Earth. Such was his nature, and if history has taught nothing else, we all act as we were made.
*
Tamiel's gaze bore into the woman. She was draped in a ragged cloak, her dirty skin peeking out beneath the folds. She was not like the others brought before him, half-crazed and brutal - she held herself with something close to grace, which irked him slightly.
'Humour me,' he rasped, the words grated across his blistered and scabbed lips. Saliva dripped from his mouth, burning the bloodied carpet at the foot of his throne.
'Why, slave, would one ask to be sent to the mines?'
His voice sent pain through her head, and she whispered her response.
'My son, lord. I wish to see my son.' She almost spat the word, yet held onto her composure.
'And?'
'My lord, he was birthed before the Unlocking. I know him to be in the mines. I have served your household well. Please I implore you, send me to the mines. I am old, and wish for this one thing before I am taken.'
'You are a house servant!' he laughed, spraying a nearby guard with bile, the man sinking to his knees as his face melted and merged with the steel of his helmet.
'Yes lord, I am low, yet I am nothing, and will suffer if granted my wish.'
'Agreed, you are nothing, less than, if truth be known,' he chortled. 'Yet, it matters not to me. You wish to die? Therefore your wish is granted. It's all the same anyway. Get out of my sight.'
'Thank you lord,' Lillian gasped as she was dragged from the chamber.
*
'Lillian, Lillian.'
The woman stirred in her sleep. Her windowless cell was sparsely furnished - a crude wooden bed stood alone in a corner, her pathetically skinny body barely making an impression on the thin blanket.
'Lillian, awaken.'
The ethereal voice she thought was in her dreams roused her awake. She shut her eyes again almost immediately, as the usually dingy cell was awash with light.
A man, clothed in stark bright white clothes sat at the foot of her bed. He was the source of the light, and wore a small, sad smile on his face. Age had not touched him, yet he seemed older than all.
He spoke again, 'I am Gabriel.'
She fell to her knees; hands clasped before her, and began a stuttering prayer, littered with half-remembered snatches of the old litanies.
'Stop that!' Gabriel cried his face aghast. 'He can't hear you any more. And coming from you, it would be a cruel joke indeed if he could.'
Shock spread across her face at the unexpected rebuke. A thousand thoughts flitted through her mind - Gabriel, the angel of old, the Un-locker? Am I dreaming? Is this another trick?
She'd been tortured like the rest, the slurs and insults were the least of her punishments when Hell had opened and consumed the planet. The child of her rape had been ripped from her at birth, and she'd only recently found out he still lived - a miracle in itself.
She knew some of the whole story as well; only scraps that she'd overhead in the palace, yet could never comprehend the enormity of it all. What she did know was this:
- Something had tipped the balance of their wretched world
- Gabriel had handed the key to the Gates of Hell to Lucifer
- Fire, death, misery and suffering - the end of everything
- The demon lords ruled all - Lucifer was supreme
- Hell was now the Earth, and humanity was being punished
But now, God is dead? To be honest, this was not too difficult for her to comprehend. Religion had been mocked before the Unlocking; that was until the Inquisition-Neo.
'He's dead, and has been for some time.' Gabriel's eyes flitted over her, and she thought she saw a mild flicker of disgust.
'You have no idea what you did, do you?' he quizzed.
'No,' she answered.
'Well, now you have a chance to atone.'
![hell-11g[1].jpg (11 kB)](http://stuff.ubersite.com/118900546996773123/1/hell-11g[1].jpg)
User Reviews
Submitted by zwerg (user info) at 2007-09-06 10:35:04 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
more more more
Submitted by beer-turtle (user info) at 2007-09-05 21:05:35 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
Not a big fan if religious genre's but this one is interesting.
I am probably way off...but for some reason where cruelty is the rule, "evil" would be what we know as love.
weird thought.
Submitted by JonnyX (user info) at 2007-09-05 17:22:09 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by experima (user info) at 2007-09-05 16:19:17 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by SgtHartman (user info) at 2007-09-05 15:04:53 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
The kick is up..... AND ITS GOOD!!
Submitted by TheUniter (user info) at 2007-09-05 14:43:15 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by ShapeShifter (user info) at 2007-09-05 13:50:10 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Do you ever suck and fail at posting?
Submitted by orph (user info) at 2007-09-05 12:28:40 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Worst one yet, locksly.
Submitted by Surgeon (user info) at 2007-09-05 12:20:06 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
antiseptic..
Submitted by HurtByTheSun (user info) at 2007-09-05 11:50:43 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I haven't started reading these yet. I will soon!
Submitted by CaptainThorns (user info) at 2007-09-05 11:37:30 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
He shoots, he scores...
Submitted by monkeyswithguns (user info) at 2007-09-05 11:34:32 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by hour_man (user info) at 2007-09-05 11:27:28 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Stop what ever you're doing.
Write more.
Untill your hands fall off.
You bastard.