NationStates Jolt Archive

Prologue

Now that it's all said and done,
I can't believe you were the one
To build me up and tear me down,
Like an old abandoned house.
What you said when you left
Just left me cold and out of breath.
I fell too far, was in way too deep.
Guess I let you get the best of me.
- Over You, Daughtry

Kingwood,
Thirty-four miles south of New Christendom,
The Republic

His hands were shaking, his heart was pounding -- he fought to hold back the tears he felt rising. He mind rushed this way and that, flipping threw the pages of the past like a teenager looking at a porno mag. The rage inside of him grew as she stood there in front of him, cold and distant. He thought what they had was special, he was her first and she was his, something rare even in a religious country like Jagada, she said forever, and so did he, yet here they stood with forever seperating them. He could think of nothing to say, his words chocked by the shock of what she was saying. Something else? Moving way too fast? He's better than you? This is God's will? God's will? What the fuck is that? This man, whoever he was, was someone she found at the mall, with one look she said she fell in love with him and he felt the same way. The words kept coming out, and the shock only grew deeper ... they already had sex? She was cheating on him!? He searched within his heart, left, right, up and down ... yet nothing, nothing could save him from what he knew what happening. A bad dream this had to be, it had to be! Finally, he found one sentence, one thing he could say.

'But we are in love,' he said almost like a child looking for one last way to get what he wanted.

She stood there for a second, and only for a second did he think he saw a tear in her eye, 'I don't love you anymore ...'

His heart stopped, his lungs froze, and it felt like his blood froze in his viens. He heard cracking, literally, and then in his mind something shattered. Only years later would he realize it was his heart, breaking into a thousand tiny pieces. Now, though, he couldn't understand, still, what was going on -- but her words pierced him like a bullet to the brain. He felt his very soul stop turning, stop living. His silence gave her only one choice, she turned and walked away. He stood there and watched her walk away towards her new lover's car. He fell to his knees, and thats when all his self-control failed him, his eyes watered and streamed down. A broken heart often poured out the soul of a man in more ways than he was aware of ... in this case, more than the world would ever know.

Five seconds later he felt something that scared him at first, but he soon found comfort in it. Rage. Pure, uncontrolled, untaimed, unreasonable rage. Ambition, in its darkest form filled his soul and hate coarsed threw his vains. He felt an arctic chill cover his body and wrapped him like a twisted blanket. He looked up and saw her reached her lover's car and turn arouind and look back at him one more time -- cold and distance. As she got in, his voice deepened and his heart pieced itself back together.

He forced out the next words, 'The world will regret you were ever born ...'

Twenty-five years later,
Unknown Location

The darkest that filled the room seemed more real than anything he had seen before, almost like it had a mind and a life of its own. A chill went down his spine, and he wondered weather it was just him or if the darkness touched him -- both were very likely in his mind. His large and old body, however, kept on moving down the large tunnels. He'd been down here a hundred times before, but never for what he was about to do. Shame filled his body has he thought once more why he was even down here -- sin. He was about to commit a sin, well multiple sins, in the name of pleasures. None could know of his sin, for if they did, many would fall and many more would rise -- something he didn't wanted and couldn't afford to happen. The men that surronded him were those he knew he could trust, men and women that he'd raised or had trained since they were children, they would never betray him. He glanced over at each of them just to reassure himself of that exact thought. Their faces cold and distant, but their minds, he could tell, teethed with thought as to how they may make his day and his life better. Just what he'd trained them for. He smiled and kept his pace equal with their's, or rather simply they kept his pace since they followed his regardless.

A little ways down the downward slopping hallway was a door, one of his children stepped forward and opened it for him, but before he entered, two more walked threw to check the area -- it was clear. No one would be down here, except for those people he allowed, and he had allowed no one this night. This night was especially for him and his sinful desires. The hallway leveled out one he went threw the door, and in the distance a white light on the ceiling illuminated the door undernearth it -- his destination. He fought to hold back his desire, if he wanted God's protection he would have to at least pretend he didn't enjoy his sin. If he wasn't who he was he would have abandoned his station long ago and plundged himself into his desire forever -- maybe even opened up his own factory.

He put such thoughts behind him as he appoarched the door, other doors and lights lined the hallway, but they were all dark and silent -- only one awaited him. One of his children walked ahead of the group and unlocked the door and opened it -- the interior was lit only with candle light. The old man smiled and thanked his child, he told them he would be out in a few hours and to not disturb him for anything. With that he entered and they shut the door behind him. Inside the rooms had several tiny shelves on three ways, each shelve had neartly a hundred candles on it, combined they produced quite a bit of light. In the middle of the room was a body, more like a living person -- but he perfered to think of it as merely a body -- it made his desire all the more ... sinless, if that was possible.

He walked close to the 'body' and smiled as his hand patted the back of its head, and suddenly it sprang to life and jerked and squealed and growled. Its short dark hair and above average body build suggested that it was a full grown male, but with the cloth sack and mouth piece it made it hard to be for sure, some women didn't have breasts and were built rather large ... maybe this was one of them? Doubtful he thought as he removed the sack and was proven right. The dark eyes of the man in the chair screamed fear and rage. Good, he liked raged, liked how it felt in his bones, how it made his skin crawl.

'Ah, my lovely man,' he said in an almost sadistic voice, his mood was changing, his public face fading, the mask being removed, and his true face being revealed.

He continued, 'You know, in each of us there is something called the 'animal', the 'beast', the 'monster' in us all. We all have it, its a matter of how hard we try to resist it. Some of us allow it to feed its savage needs threw video games, some threw television. Unfortunately in Jagada we do not have violence to allow our violence an outlet. Thus we must resort this ... monsterous behaviour. I am sorry our people are too hard nosed, or else you would not be here.'

He could hear the man cursing at him -- prey that squealed and wanted to fight was even more enjoyable. He chuckled and looked over at a table and on it was a variety of devices, all made for one purpose, inflicting pain on the human body. As he walked over to it he noticed something of particular interest. A high-powered taser, well more like a gun-sized verison of one, with thousands of bolts of electricity coarsing threw it when the trigger was pulled. He picked it up, exaimned it and smiled.

'You know, I personally requested this one when we did our last supply order,' he said activating the device, blue electric bolts being visible for only a moment and then vanishing, a sign that it was in fact in perfect operating condition. He leaned it towards the man who now screamed for mercy, and tapped it against his skin for only a moment -- sparks flew and the man screamed in pure pain. He now reacted violently and tried to break free of his iron bonds, hell bent on killing the old man. He old man growled and pressed the weapon against the man for nearly five seconds. Sparks flew and the man's body shook violently, his screams were loud enough to hurt the old man's ears. This time when the device was withdrawn the man did not violently react, instead he breathed heavily and wept.

The old man shook his head in pride, 'You should learn to respect your elder, especially me. I am a man of extreme importance don't you know?'

When the man did not respond the old man tapped him again with the electrical gun, he screamed and flun his head back, his skin turned black and smoke rose from it as the eletricity forced its way painfully threw him, 'You don't know how hard it is to be Patriarch of the High Temple of the Messiah! You are always expected to be humble, to be submissive, to be organized, to be loving and caring!'

In a bout of rage he tapped the man again with the gun, and again skin burned and screams rang out. 'You must always be in 'God's' will ... always trying to follow his plan,' he said with rage rising in his voice, 'And you know what I get in return for all my hard work ... I get an ass kicking by Congress, by dozens of pastors because I didn't happen to do something exactly as tradition dictates! They tell me God will punish this entire nation if I step out of line!'

The man's silence only enraged the Patriarch more, 'Well you know what,' he screamed and looked up at the ceiling, as if he could see God right there, 'This is what I have to say to Your damned traditions and faith!'

With that he slammed the gun against the man and he shook violently and screamed in utter pain as blue-white viens of electricty coarsed threw his body. Sparks flew from his eyes, ears, and mouth for several seconds. Finally the priests withdrew and the man's body went limp, all his skin blackened and smoke billowing out of every hole in his body. He was clearly dead. The Patriarch exhaled. He walked over to the door and tapped three times, halted, and tapped two times. He heard his children unlocking the door, and while they did that he turned off the gun and tossed it on the floor. The rage was unleashed once more and he would be free of his dark desires for a few more months at least. He looked back the burnt body in the chair and felt remorse -- either him or someone else, might as well be him.

The door opened and his children greeted him with their usual blank stares -- he didn't smile as he did before, he was ashamed of him. As he went to walk threw, the door at the end of the hallway, which had been closed up until now, suddenly swung open. His children turned around, looking at the darkness that prevailed beyond the door. For nearly ten seconds there was dead silence as the Patriarch looked at the darkest, his fear growing steadly. Could the Yari Samurai or the Eye have found out about him!? Suddenly he heard a shriek of horror and from the darkness came a beast of unparrelled horror, his claws and fangs protruding from every which direction, the monster, its skin red with what looked like fresh blood flung itself down the hallway. The Patriarch screamed and quickly backstepped into the torture room. The first of his children didn't even have time to properly react before the one of the monster's set of fangs dung into their neck, their screams drowned out by blood and bone and flesh. The monster threw the corpse aside and attacked another. The Patriarch slammed the iron door shut and locked the internal lock, all the while hearing the screams of his children. What in the fuck was that thing?! A demon straight from hell it looked like! He went up to the door and opened the eye slit and saw the eyes of one of his children staring at him in pure terror, the flash of gun shots and the screams of others going on behind him.

A tear rolled down his cheek, 'Help me ... Father ...'

The Patriarch's eyes widened, but before he could do anything, the mouth of the monster wrapped itself around his child's head and in a single, fluid, move crushed it between its jawls. Blood, brains, and bone splashed threw the eye slit. The Patriarch stummbled back, his child's remains covering his face. Terror swept threw his bodyh and he felt his heart pounding -- he felt like he would have a heart attack.

He never noticed the burnt victim behind begin to move, his skin crack as it was forced to twist. Nor did he ever hear the bones of the victim break as the seemingly zombie-like victim make his way out of the chair. Only when the victim stood did the Patriarch hear anything, and only then because pieces of burnt flesh slid off onto the floor. The look on the Patriarch's face was one of pure horror as the corpse walked towards him. Its eyes slowly turning red.

'God preserve me! Give me salvation from this monster,' the Patriarch cried, like a child weeping for his mother.

The corpse stopped, and cracked a grin, 'There is no salvation from me ...'

The screams that followed never left that room -- neither did the Patriarch.