Morgan Mitchell
Fiction Editor
And so, on that fateful day when he entered the room, did the heretics and sinners jump up and proclaim, “There he is, our beloved friend, he who we have known for decades.” Unanimously did they approach him; in perfect harmony did they reach for him and ask, “Good friend, might you answer my prayers? Dear friend, might you grant my wishes? Oh sagacious one, do you remember when I aided you? Oh great one, we know you and have known you for our lives; will you please grace us?”
But the man simply looked at them all, his eyebrows raised. “Why do you ask these things? I do not know you.”
And without pause did their ‘love’ turn to envy, to spite, to anger, and hatred. “What do you mean! How can you not know us!? Us, who put up with you from sun break to sunset! How can you not know us for all we have done!”
“Hypocrites you are,” the man shouted, silencing their pitiful rages. “I do not know you, but I know of you. I am not the peer that sat next to you from sun break to sunset. I am not the one who you denounced and blasphemed against! I am the one who he foretold was coming! The one who granted him the wisdom that you all ignored as madness! I am not the student but his master. And my glorious student told me all about you curs.”
It was here that their faces turned pale, for their lies and transgressions were known to the one that reigned above them. For once, the words of their unwanted peer now rang strongly in their minds and hearts, and they now know that their souls shall pay the price of their arrogance.
“When I walked among you all, you wanted nothing to do with me! I extended the hand of friendship, and you all swatted it away! ‘Begone from us creep, coward!’ When I approached your shallow circles, you all turned your heads, ‘I do not know him; why does he seek to pester us,’ you thought in your hearts. When I pleaded, when I beseeched that you listen and heed my words of knowledge, you scoffed and plugged your ears, ‘What does he know? Who does he think himself to be? How dare he cast
light onto our darkness!’ When I proclaimed the truth of the world, when I revealed my ancestry and announced the Realm of the Lord, you scoffed and demanded a sign! Yet when I pleaded for you to question your lord who only gave the sign of Jonah, you denounced me and turned away! Now you want a sign! You claim to know me, but you do not even know my name!”
“But we do know it. You are the Tailor, the Architect, the one above all. You are God.”
“Fools, all of you! Your answers ring hollow just like the smiles you presented me. You shake my hand while holding a knife in the other. You see that I design destinies, so you call me Architect. You see that I have no equal, so you call me God. I am that I am. I am the one who came before. I am the shadows on the walls and the light that cast them, and I am the one who made both shadows and light. In Rome, I was the first lord. In Greece, I was beginning and end. In the rising dunes, I was the wise lord of light. In the lands of the rising sun, I was the center of all. Many names: Primus, Omuni, Primeval King, Architect, Friend, Father, Mother, Satan, God, Lord. You ungrateful snakes. For years, you heard me but did not listen. For years, you looked at me but did not see me. And now that I have revealed the truth of this life and have cast down the young ones, you now seek to proclaim you know me.
All of you are empty in heart, and you are less than empty in your souls.
You desire blessing? You desire grace? You seek to be exalted?
Heed these words:
You are cursed, you are disgraced, and you will be humbled.
You all must walk through this life without the stars to guide you. You will fail. You may accomplish your dreams and erect statues of greatness and wondrous works that inspire terror and dread, but all of these are hollow like your soul. Your families will be brought low, your deeds undone, your belongings relinquished, and your pride shattered as you are thrown into the fires of Gehenna.
And for those who did not know me, but were genuine in their smiles. I have heard of your virtue. I will not bless you nor will I grace you, but you are not cursed like the hungry snakes around you. The Stars shine on your path, but it is down to you to navigate those of prosperity from those of ruin.”