Piety: A Review

Cryptic Mark,
Times Correspondent

This morning I didn’t need my alarm. I awoke to a sharp knock at my door. Standing before me, basking in the acrid stench of my morning breath, were two representatives of the Great Religion, the chosen faith of the Great Nation, governed by the Great Government.

“My good sir,” the male of the representatives said, “Would you spare one moment for us to enlighten you?”

On his face, a dirty beard grew. It had eaten away his neck, swallowed great swathes of sweaty, reddened cheek. His eyes peered dead cold. Shriveled behind him was a her. Her teeth sunk into puffy red gums below thick shields of glass that hung ominously from her hooked and scarred nose. The creature slid forth a gnarled claw clutching a small yellow pill: a “purine capsule”, the purest yellow substance.

“Ready for instant digestion!” hissed the hag.

I plucked it from its crooked cradle and blearily eyed it.

The man told me, “Take it and you will understand.” I placed it on my tongue and swallowed.

“ACTIVATE THE DEVICE,” BELLOWED THE MAN.

I was engulfed in flames. Raucous noise screamed the wind as it tore my house limb from limb into the darkening sky. It became darker, yet I could see so clearly. The bricks fall around me from above, to my left, my right, my back, and front; they wall me in, and the road slithers away. I am falling as if walking forward, an effortless glide into the engine of rasping breath innnn-ouuuutttt, uhhhhh-huhhhhh.

There, they perch atop a vast golden throne; they are many carcasses, black wells for eyes. Thick fronds of ivy coat their skulls. A coat of writhing maggots, worms, and vermin covers their awakening bodies. “We have and always will be here. We will supersede and you will become one.”

“DEACTIVATE THE DEVICE.” My skin peels from the inside and the representatives look at me as I close the door and go back to bed.

For more articles by Cryptic Mark, click here. To get in touch with this writer, email cryptic.mark@surrealtimes.net.

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