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Saturday, April 20, 2013

Listening For That Sweet Tune-Chapter 25: The Flaming Locust On the Red Sea Pt. 1


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Previously on Listening For That Sweet Tune:






I looked around for Captain Grey around the docks and he was at the very end of the pier. Looking at him now I could only feel distrust in him because my suspicions of his son being one of them, I tried to make sense of it in my head. The man who was being beaten, I never saw the man’s face, maybe it was not the Captains son but someone else that came in contact with my story. I stepped up to the boat and looked toward the Captain as he had his back towards me. 


'Did you find him? My son, did you find him?' He asked. 

'You never told me he was one of them.' The captain raised his head from whatever he was doing and turned around to me. 

'He’s not one of them! He's either dead or alive, which is it?' I thought for a moment and figured that maybe it was Odious and the body of Odysseus. Odysseus's lively hood must have been sucked into a wretched to make Odious and he took Odysseus's form but why was the covered man still screaming? I stood in confusion for a while as Captain Grey looked at me furiously. 

'He's dead.' I said and lifted the photograph up to his level. 

'Where did you get this?' Yelled the Captain while snatching the photograph from my hand. I didn't know what to say. Where I was, was someplace that was summoned by Odious. Maybe it was his plane of darkness, every Wretched had their own places to live but I couldn't tell Captain Grey that. 

'It was on him.' I lied. 

'Then the sacrifice did work.' He whispered. 

'Excuse me? Sacrifice? You mean you killed him?' He looked up to me with tears in his eyes and began to cry. 

'We thought a sacrifice would push the daemons away, to appease them but it was interrupted by one of those monsters. I stabbed my son hoping that the madness will stop but he was sucked up then he announced himself as Odious. He took the soul of my son and is using his image as his own. The Wretched seem less hostile when they take human form.' I thought of Anathema and then the strange man inside the house—maybe they were the same. 'I’m sorry I lied to you but if I had told you the truth you would have called me crazy.' I thought of this whole situation and everything seemed crazy to me. Maybe I should have told him that his son still had some life in him but it would only make him mourn more. 

'Are we ready to go?' I asked and he nodded. 

'Take a seat it's going to be a long journey.' I closed my eyes after we set off and I could hear the crashing of waves up against the boat and ropes being untied for the sails. I was sleepy but I knew better than to fall asleep. At times—because I stayed awake—the Captain asked me to pilot the boat for him as he slept. 'Go that direction.' He told me while pointing forward. I couldn't see much at night not only because of the darkness but because of the fog that still lingered over the sea. 

I thought of Serenity as the lonely nights passed, one night then four nights. I felt so lost without her but then again I was only with her for a short period of time. 'Could she have gone this way?' I would ask myself. 'Did she find a boat for herself? Who gave her a ride? A tingling sensation pulsed through my fingers and for some reason I knew that she was waiting for me, sitting in some dark room waiting for my light to enter and she would run to me with such happiness. Could she have known about my condition? It would only make sense since she watched me as I slept, making sure I was safe. She might as well been perfect in my eyes, she never did anything wrong, she never meant to leave me. 

The Captain offered me food in his dining hall under the deck but I couldn't eat anymore—not since I ate a part of that one man. I feared in my heart on how much I indulged over the action of eating another man. It was sweet and all the good things that people want in their food. It sickened me to think that it was better than any food I had ever eaten but it was true and I couldn't hide it. At times when the Captain was sleeping I would stand over him as he smiled through his tender dreams. 'Nobody would know? What are you so scared of?' I would ask myself. It was as if I was in some form of trance but I had to rush back to the wheel hoping that the boat didn't turn around. 

One day the wind stopped blowing and we were stalled to a halt but there was nothing we could do. From what I learned from casual conversation was that the man was about sixty-four years old. Long white beard and nearly balding he never let anything get in his way. He lived most of his life as a Bishop to the local church and many people looked up to him before 'The Event' happened—which has always been something vague when he talked about it. Just one day while he was preaching his sermons a dark fog went over the world and blocked out the sun for days.

'Sometimes the fog would vanish in thin air for minutes to hours at a time and we never really understood why but then again we never even figured out why it came in the first place. Monsters came out of the fog and it seemed like he'll itself but we soon found out it was The Wretched that we were praying to the whole time.'

'How do you mess something up like that?' I asked. 

'We never knew who they were till they actually showed up. We thought we were praying to gods who left their artifacts and buildings behind. Forgiving gods, gentle gods, gods who understood us. Now, we don't even know if there is a god, there's no proof of one just these things that crawl out of the ground and fall from the sky. They wanted to hurt us, murder us even! We didn't know what to do so we hid, something we always could do easily.'

'What do you mean?'

'Us. The people that live throughout Belle's Dawn. If we don't want to be seen we can disappear from sight. Something that everyone can do.' This explained why whenever I got near someone, they vanished. 

'Some things are starting to make sense.' I said. 'So that obelisk—'

'Made by The Wretched.' He interrupted.

'And you said they made full buildings?' 

'Yes. None here though there were a few in the neighboring city and some in the wilderness but I've never been in one.' I thought of the two swirling buildings before I met Moony. 

'Do you know of a light that shines that has to do with The Wretched?' I asked

'I remember a bright light when they took my son from me. The only time light comes out of The Wretched it has to deal with taking ones soul.' I thought of all the times the light shined on me. 

'What if they touch you?' I asked worryingly. 

'They are an infection. Everything they touch becomes one with them. You didn't touch one did you?'

'No' I lied. 'But they came close. 

'Then they desire your soul my boy.' Behind Captain Grey I saw a large black silhouette in the distance. I pointed out towards it and the Captain turned around. 'Its a ship!' He yelled. Starting to jump up and down screaming 'Help! Help!' It was a large shipping freighter that stood hundreds of feet above the water. It was moving slowly towards us while we were moving slowly towards it—the engine was off. When our boat got close enough Captain Grey took a piece of rope and tied it to the rope latter that was dangling down the boat. 'We're saved.' He whispered to me but as I looked up to the old rusty boat I could only feel that I saw this in a dream. 


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