Like sitting inside a running car, looking out of the window, the images pass by you in a blur. Every pieces doesn't seem to have permanent positions in your eyes. They move along with your thoughts from observing about one of its pieces to another. Not really sticking long to form a bigger thought. The images in her mind were like that. Like a psychedelic dream where you can feel and sense sitting inside the moving car and out of it from far away at interchanging seconds. They snap a familiar feeling of being a memory and at the same time being an imagination. Her eyes fluttered upwards as more of these images danced inside her. Her head stretched further upward as her body started in little spasms.568Please respect copyright.PENANA25ToiCbGJn
There was a girl at the top of a cliff over looking the ocean. Her long hair was whipping against her face to and fro with the strong wind. The image of the girl sent shivers down her spine. Her pale skin looked grayish blue, belonging to the dead and her wet clothing was flicking against her body. Her hair looked like it's alive. It grew longer and longer, closer to her. It's damp and dirty strands throwing itself towards her. The girl's head abnormally moved little against these movements. When she blinked and opened her eyes, in the dream, she was looking at a ceiling. It's cream color emitted warmth and safety. There was a soft beeping sound. From the corners of her eyes, she could see the rays of the sun cascading down inside the window. But she still doesn't feel utter control over herself, like a jelly with heavy black magnet inside. She moved her head to the left where there was a boy who was bent down. Her breath was caught in the middle of her throat. The boy's hair was thick and black as a raven. His shirt was made up of thin cotton that clung to his body. Curves and dents of his bones stuck out beneath the cloth. He wasn't moving. He wasn't breathing. She couldn't see anything aside from his head and a bit of his back. The body beside her was like a rag doll, limp looking yet rigid in it's position.568Please respect copyright.PENANAp2V1YSV0bD
This woman was inside a displaced room. You can tell it exist by the mere interior of it, yet you wouldn't say the same outside of it's walls where the words logic and reason aren't applied. No other furnitures were inside the room except her bed and the wheel chair the boy was sitting into. She was stuck beneath the tightly folded bed sheets on top of her. Even if she wanted to get out of it, she has no strength and control on any of her limbs. Only her active mind was imprisoning her from the situation. Applying fear and confusion on nearly every dominant detail she casts her eyes upon. Her efforts are frail of trying to get away from these images.568Please respect copyright.PENANAZ6CpqJ8wEt
The room starts to contort in itself. The walls becoming like rubbers at it twisted down smaller and smaller into the free interior space. Her eyes went wide in desperation to get move, only her breathing went faster. She couldn't scream. Again, she is only privileged with her consciousness.568Please respect copyright.PENANAkRMpM2N2YB
The rubber like walls finally reached up to them. First, devouring the boy. His body crumbling like an old clay pot in between the fat tight bulges. The woman can only watch in horror as her lower body contorted along and being sucked in. Then her head came next. She screamed inside. The pain was the same when you let someone twist the skin in your arm. Her skin felt like they were being burned and she could feel her bones breaking. It was the worst that the sensation of pain wasn't like what she was used to. It didn't hurt as a whole as the form of her body got twisted and squeezed in between the folds. The pain was alive. It pulsated and throbbed in random but on certain areas that hurt the most. The pain was like a cold sword teasing to pierce against a shivering skin. Nevertheless, being generous to punch in heavy pain around the woman's body.568Please respect copyright.PENANAZNmPdQzE4d
Receive me as I embrace you,568Please respect copyright.PENANAVQr0qpHrdB
A soft whisper echoed in her mind against her own voice that was screeching and screaming.
The next thing she knew, she was standing. Head bent and staring at her bare feet. She gave out a heavy sigh of someone who hadn't breathed in years. She felt ancient inside. She looked at her hands and found them shaking. In weariness, she examined her surroundings. She found herself utterly drained. If she didn't have any control over her body earlier, she had it now but was dog tired. She doesn't want to think about why anymore. She started putting one foot in front of the other. Finding her balance. Then the other, until she started in a slow walk. She found herself wearing a thin dress. Almost similar to the girl's earlier.568Please respect copyright.PENANAaYPOmSiH6Q
How long is this going to go on?568Please respect copyright.PENANAhZAmGPSBax
She thought to herself. She was standing in the middle of a footpath. Big and tall grass at the side of it. Moving like how it should underwater. It was odd, when she was breathing fine. Then something came into her mind. She moved her arms, didn't notice the purplish bruise around the elbow, and started punching the air. She made a bitter laugh.568Please respect copyright.PENANAO0CMKXchq1
She was underwater.568Please respect copyright.PENANATEGThC5Ykx
A large shadow caped the light around her. She looked up, her hair floating like a ghost around her neck. A big rotting whale swept pass her in slow motion. It's left eye intact and watching her in deep mysterious gaze. It's gills had a brown strip of flesh coming out of it. It's stomach torn down in a messy whole. Various marine scavenger cling onto the remaining of it's flesh in a heated eating bonanza. The porcelain like bones that came clean of one of it's flippers looked foreign as much as the floating carcass of the animal was. She stared at it, mesmerized.
Within that time of the night where people are half awake and asleep tucked in the comfort of their warm beds, shadows began to slither and move from the dark corners of the city. Awake from a long slumber, heavy from the time of being unstirred by the song. Their sounds of like a dry whisper. Crawling into the concrete, earth, and underneath the shadows of mere objects like a thin shimmering black coat. Their numbness began to flake away as they pranced longer and longer into the modern world. The air began to grow colder by the sense of these shadows, bowing down to the ages they had exist upon the realm, in silence they shiver and greeted them.568Please respect copyright.PENANA54gjASb7lx
Within the outskirts of the city the shadows went where abandoned and run down buildings are. Rusty fences, rotting old cars scattered around the area. A number of cats on a midnight loiter noticed these moving shadows and idly watched them in secretive gazes. At last they arrived at the source of the song, it was within a regular alleyway, looking just like the others but at the same time different. There was a smell. A smell that was luscious, voluptuous and distinct that drove the shadows a burning energy from within. Releasing the ancient outer skin and forming, growing into humanoid shape. Their color of shadows gracefully formed into long ancient hooded tunics leaving only half of their faces to be visible from the light. There were 13 of them and they spoke no word we could understand today. Their tongue spoke ancient forgotten language. A language discovered accidentally by an aging archeologist in Germany in one of it's oldest Cathedrals. A discovery that would get on the level of fame and mystery as the Voynich manuscript. These shadows turned people talked in hushed tones then went quiet as clear footsteps echoed from the alley.
Good evening, my beloved brothers.
A tall and lean man emerged from the corner and stopped in the middle of the alley. The way he stood and brought himself showed great upbringing and class. Yet there was a hint of stodginess around his face.
Esaias.
Goran. Everyone, please follow me. The man called Esaias said directing an arm to the direction of where he came from. When Goran and the others didn't move Esaias gave out a short chuckle.
Brothers, she is waiting for you.
Receiving a welcome from her most treacherous child, how can we trust you?
Don't you see? her scent is everywhere. She is being awoken by my sweet brother Yngve. The ritual is about to begin.
How do we know this is not a trap like you've done so much to us before. One of the hooded people said behind Goran.
You've fed Hedvig, Ebbe, and Otto to those rapscallions! Traitor!
Hush! Goran warned those behind him.
Prove you are of no harm treacherous Esaias.
Esaias sighed crossed his arms. He looked at his right and whined.
"I told you they wouldn't listen. You just made me waste my time."
Another man walked into their view from the same corner. He had the same build as Esaias but a little taller, had more broader shoulders, sun-kissed bronze hair and had several silver piercings on his ears.
I'm sorry for the misunderstanding, my dear brothers.
Yngve, as he was called, was the eldest and the most handsome among his siblings. He was the first chosen and guardian. The obvious stigma was his pale cloudy eyes. Like those of the dead, devoid of life, full of an unnamed ancient and secrets.
She is waiting.
Everything was dimly lit except for a large cylindrical container around the center of the room. What was inside of it wasn't visible with the strong air bubbles being pumped inside and from under the vessel. The liquid was dark yellowish like an old formaldehyde. Goran and the others stared at the container in suspicion and curiosity. Having to see hints of a tuft floating inside.
Yngve and Esaias ushered them further inside their well equip and state of the art laboratory. Passing by several smaller cylindrical containers. The thirteen saw different kinds of experimentation they had done all throughout the years. Grotesque , malformed and alien looking creatures than they had seen before. Some fetuses or what looked like one were even preserved in their moments of malformation into monsters. Some of these creatures were combinations of the ones they used to exterminate and endanger what they deem sacred. Bat like heads, long snouts like a dog's, large upper body with more bones than muscles, large bulgy eyes; one had sets of eyes that reminds of a spider's yet the irises looked like tadpoles in a tear shaped and transparent sclera. It's body armor similar to that of a crabs.. and they go on.
They had been playing God.
Yngve explained to them the association with Esaias in this new awakening. As they had slept for nearly 200 hundred years, Esaias the exiled had acquired wealth and knowledge about the modern world to his advantage in modernizing their brotherhood and the protection of their existence. He has managed to infiltrate the largest of organizations and governments to his will, deepening in influence and control over what information goes in and out. Of what they had been protecting of has remained hidden like Yngve has sworn to keep after they slept. Esaias has no longer interested himself in the affairs of the paranormal and found pleasure meddling with human affairs to his entertainment. All these experimentation and search for the extent of what they deem as holy has all been done by Yngve. But of course he wouldn't say the latter to the thirteen.
"Hold her down as I fasten these." A muffled voice said. Heavy pang of pain and nausea flowed throughout her body. Making her mouth overflow with body fluids, her eyes continued to flutter upwards as her spasms went worse to violent convulsions. She can hear them but they seem to be so far away and she was at the bottom of the well, underwater. Her body felt very weak. She has no control. She remembers the voice
Receive me as I embrace you.
To whose voice does it belong to? Why does it seem so familiar?568Please respect copyright.PENANAHNl1lNselT
A tear flows down from one of her eyes as more of life is being sucked out of her body.
Within the same building the thirteen was being toured by the brothers, she was being held in one of the separate buildings further down from where they were at. An exclusive and private facility especially made for her. Around 52 needles and tubes stuck out from her body. The hollow clear plastic turning dark red as blood gurgled inside it. The her body physically grew thinner as the process of extracting liquids was too fast to keep up with the regeneration.
She can feel herself loosing consciousness once more and before everything went back into dreams she called out the name she wanted to see right at that moment.
Esaias!
Opening a large metal door, two large men in black suits and heavy weaponry went back to their positions at the side of it as the men came inside. They didn't smell human noticed by the thirteen. Much more stronger and foreign but nothing superior. Inside there was a large circular table with minimalistic table arrangements. The table and chairs look ancient. The walls were filled with renaissance paintings of girls and women in various ages and style of clothing. The whole room was white and empty, no windows or even another door.
Please, make yourselves comfortable. This is the modern era, I apologize if this looks to light? for you? Yngve said as he took his seat in one of the chairs.
Once they were all seated, except for Esaias who stood a distance away from them, a sad look on his eyes, Yngve ordered them to take off their hoodies to start the ritual.
All faces exposed from the shadows of their clothing Yngve took serious long looks on each one of them. Bald, malnourished looking, devoid of any lush of life, these men before him were chosen by the her children. Not her herself. And whatever comes out of them the children has the right and privilege to decide. Even as these men became true and loyal to their vows Yngve has no longer use of them weak dependable pawns of the old and well...
Let us commence this new life!
The thirteen took the red velvet cloth in front of them. The smell becoming more prominent and strong around the room. Their thoughts distracted from their hunger. Their whole body system squirmed in wild thirst.
On top of a porcelain plate was a droplet shaped glass jar. It's shape influenced from a storm glass.568Please respect copyright.PENANAoJjeUOgFRE
Inside the droplet jar was a dark red liquid. A golden cap covered the thin lip of the jar.
Yngve was the first to uncap his. Held it high and proclaimed the vows in the unknown language
Pearl, to delight a prince's day, 568Please respect copyright.PENANAIm6fw4Dzpn
Flawlessly set in gold so fair568Please respect copyright.PENANAkOBainLZsO
IN all the East, I dare to say,568Please respect copyright.PENANAqQ39ajkOcl
I have not found one to compare.568Please respect copyright.PENANAJ0b709Skxg
So round, so radiant in array,568Please respect copyright.PENANAjyiC0jCebQ
So small, so smooth her contours were,568Please respect copyright.PENANA6L4mEmIXlW
Wherever I judged jewels gay568Please respect copyright.PENANA9HUYX7UrIP
I set her worth as truly rare.568Please respect copyright.PENANA7eElvWXGaK
I lost her in a garden where568Please respect copyright.PENANAjUgK0hWBxC
Through grass she feel to earthen plot;568Please respect copyright.PENANA7hHsMIOzNS
Wounded by love beyond repair568Please respect copyright.PENANAbmU2Br0qPk
I mourn that pearl without a spot.
Since from that spot it fled that day568Please respect copyright.PENANATmUnw0iK3e
I waited of, in hope to see568Please respect copyright.PENANAzuxq3x9Sjq
What one could rive my gloom away568Please respect copyright.PENANAbFPO9fOlTT
And charge my very soul with glee. 568Please respect copyright.PENANAje8uDbeA7m
But heavy on my heart it lay568Please respect copyright.PENANAjuASWB5CfK
And filled my breast with misery.568Please respect copyright.PENANAJdrYM2nojF
Yet no song ever seemed so gay568Please respect copyright.PENANA7kAkdtUWWV
As that quiet hour let steal o me568Please respect copyright.PENANATbNRPCmBws
Though in my heart one thought ran free,568Please respect copyright.PENANAlnmoXCn4B3
Her fresh face wrapped in earthly clot;568Please respect copyright.PENANAZGBaOM1w2G
Earth, you have marred her purity,568Please respect copyright.PENANAn27LnxpHSP
My secret pearl without a spot.
Together the thirteen chanted the poem. Together their heart ache for the sin and blessing they were about to take. Together their thirst writhed to be quenched. Together they drank the jar empty.
Esais stood in the corner. Away from his brother's escapades and plans. He shall remember their names and faces forever in honor and in utmost shame. He couldn't look on to them any longer and bowed in his head. His sadness and guilt came to a halt when he heard her voice in his head calling his name. He perked up from his thoughts, alert. Turning around and specifically coming towards a side of the wall he pressed an invisible switch that moved backwards. A door slid slightly open before he slipped in quickly and closed it before any of the men could notice him. Yngve stared at his spot in the corners of his eyes.
As Yngve emptied his own small jar. The other men relished the taste of the blood that was offered to them. The thick liquid flowing inside their system. Melting into their veins in energy. They felt powerful once again.
Yngve sat down. A stoic expression on his face. Eyes cold in any warmth of love. They seemed to grow more cloudy and white by the moment. Then one by one, the thirteen felt the suddenly change of that feeling. Jolting and squirming in pain, 9 of the thirteen screeched and screamed. Their voices coming from the pits of hell. They fell down to the floor, while the rest of the four who remained frantically held their brothers in their arms. Yngve looked down on all of them, all clad in cold apathy. Some of the thirteen threw up globs of black goo out of every opening in their body. Their eyes popping out in the pressure from the inside. Some began to morph into something along with those creatures inside the cylindrical vessels outside. They soon died with unfinished formations in their body. Bones sticking out, muscles and intestines sprawled out on display, body liquids oozing out spreading a disgusting smell in the room. Goran crawled towards Yngve, hissing and mumbling incoherent words in his monstrous body, a mammal shaped hand outstretched in his direction in act of strangling him. But Goran never made to touch him. Goran or what was left of it fall flat with a sickening thud on the floor as he died. 568Please respect copyright.PENANAwzusZtugX0
Thank you for reading!568Please respect copyright.PENANAvFMlfuI5Cr
Just a note that the poem isn't mine. It's titled "Pearl", a medieval poem I read before. If I had more time I would had gone more to the part of the blood libel scene but oh well, that was a fun write. 568Please respect copyright.PENANAMNpxS3W2rx