60
Pitch black night fills my veins and I’m flying down a road consumed by darkness.
There are no lines on the pavement, but I cut straight as an arrow through the apocalyptic reservoir.
The void.
Faster and faster, I accelerate.
Light begins to explode around me.
Exceptional bolts of lightning crash on all sides of my vision.
Miles ahead, I see a colossal beast, foaming at the mouth.
Eyes red and menacing, they lure me in like a pair of dueling burning suns amidst a cloudy shifting body.
Volcanic, it is swallowing the world.
This is the devil incarnate, breeding and growing in its existential form.
I fly straight towards its chomping, starving mouth while the lightning strikes in battle.
The luminosity flashes from all angles of the sky, bursting from the outskirts and fighting for ground.
One second alive, and gone just as fast.
I stride forward with more urgency, but the road is but a path now, and beneath me is a horse.
A white stallion with a long flowing mane is bucking and galloping against the current of the wind.
It lets out deep howls of courage.
I wind my hands and arms up in its enchanted hair.
Faster and faster we ride.
The lightning engulfs most everything, all but the beast which roars, pitted against the boundless noir expanse.
Closer we speed, gaining ground.
Fearless, set against it.
The stallion roars beneath me, a revolutionary noise.
The beast ahead is growing more vicious, magma pouring from its teeth.
I sense its ancient power.
It lets out a scream so vile it makes me flinch.
Carnal venom moves the air.
Onward we push.
Guttural sounds of war emanate from me.
My ancestors fill my lungs with bravery, every soul that’s faced the devil before me.
I am the last of us.
We are thunderous in attack.
We are scrapping for ground against the shrieking devil.
Phenomenal wind batters our bodies.
The muscles of the white stallion are tremendous, undaunted, meshing with my flesh.
We are one.
We are the same.
We are the only hope.
The devil’s open mouth grows wider, gaping and drooling lust and at last, no distance between us remains.
We have crossed the grand frontier and the ground shakes.
As the lightning battles on we ride into the mouth of the beast.
To the beast.
To the beast.
To the beast.
The walls of the stomach drip with hate and death.
The slime reeks of hell, and here in this belly is my father.
He is lying on his side in a heap.
Barely breathing, lifeless and weak.
Renewed with desperation and strength, I charge on into the land which he passes.
I jump down off my stallion and run to him.
All around me is the air of decay, mangled dreams.
The rotting souls of millions waters my eyes.
I am in the untamed graveyard of demons.
The wind runs hot like breath and encircles me.
I kneel by my father.
His eyes are closed, lifeless on the wet dark ground.
I pull his frail body into my arms.
I carry him on my shoulders.
I mount the stallion once more.
Together we ride back the same way we came, while the rotting breath around us grows more thick and vile.
It rumbles and hisses.
Back back back we rage through the path while the lips of the monster are closing.
My father, dying on my back, is light enough to carry but becoming heavier.
The stallion rallies.
It fights every stride while poignant piercing light flashes on my skin.
The devil’s mouth is closing around us.
In moments we’ll be swallowed.
We charge on.
Every forward stride renews us with faith.
Enormous, out beyond the grave, the light starts beckoning.
On and on and on.
We exit the mouth of the beast just in time, just before it closes we escape.
It’s some miracle of love and bravery.
The power fills me with light.
There is nothing that cannot be conquered by light.
The stallion flies through the air with my arms completely entangled in its mane.
With the lightning and the beast behind, I begin to speak to my father.
Dad.
I have you now.
Do you know what you’ve done? Do you see what you left behind? Dad, don’t you know that I love you alone? At the base of your feet, I am loyal, bound to your every step.
For your heart I have toiled my life! Where have you gone? What have I done? Dad, do you hear me? In the void, searching, screaming, desperate, was I always to rescue you? Have I failed? Where have you hidden the truth? This is darkness, this is the bottom of the pit.
I cannot leave you here wailing.
We will not leave our hearts here to die.
I do not sleep.
I will not stop.
There is nothing.
I will travel to hell for you, don’t you know? You could have been anything, if you loved me.
Was your back turned from the start? Dad, do you hear me? I am your son.
You are broken.
You are small.
But I have you.
Dad! Back back back into the void I have traveled, for my life I have wandered for you.
And you never knew.
I found nothing in broken cathedrals.
There were no spirits in the ruins which I waited, wishing and wanting for you to return.
And now you are dying.
You will be taken from this land to the next.
In your closing eyes just whisper you’re sorry.
I know that you are.
Dad, I am scared.
I am a boy all again.
What awaits you in the void? What will God do with you? It scares me.
Dad.
You did not make the leap, but I am here.
I am here and I’ll save you.
I’ll carry you from the mouth of the devil.
Even after this life, I will find you.
I will throw myself from this high mountain in pursuit.
You are safe now. Forgiven. You will not take the journey alone. In this world and the next, I’m your son.
I love you, do you see?