Chapter
2 – First Blood
The prince makes his way through a
rotting forest while keeping an eye on his guiding star. He steers clear of
rotting animals that choke on rotting food since there is nothing much else to
eat. Carnivore-type animals feed on the bare remains of other animals that are
more bone than flesh. Some herbivores have even resorted to eating meat in a
desperate attempt to obtain some kind of food. He feels weak for a second and
stumbles for a bit.
“Oh, prince of a mighty nation, why
do you struggle? Your life will be over soon. You might as well spend the rest
of it doing what your heart loves,” the voice from the dark questions.
“Because what my heart wants isn’t
right,” the prince says.
“And your mind is right? You’ve
abandoned so much because you’re following a hunch that this star may lead you
to someone or something that can save your soul.”
“What are you then? Are you not the
one who's been guiding me?”
“I have and I am. This has been a hard
lesson to teach you the value of what you had back home. Why will you not go
back? You might live a little longer if you do.”
“No, I will not. I will not wear
the skin of others nor take their lives. I trust in the God of truth to guide
me to what I need to see and where I need to be.”
The voice in the dark quiets down
for a bit until a small group of people that are hunting the prince show up.
They hunt the rotting animals of the forest for their skin that they place over
the rotting human skin on their bodies that is slowly falling off. Among them
is a human being clothed in human faces. These faces have horrifying expressions
on their faces as if their faces were taken off while they were still alive.
They also are peeling themselves off the person’s body to reveal other faces
underneath. Even their own head is comprised of many layers of faces with the
true one being lost in the mass of flesh.
“This is a nightmare,” the prince
says to himself as he knows who the person is or at least the legend.
This person is a hunter of faces
and is properly known as the Wearer of Divinity. Since it is said that men are
made in the image of God, this hunter wears the faces of his victims as if
saying that he’s carved out the face of God and wears it proudly as his armor. This
person’s true identity, history, or even their simple sex is unknown. When he
was younger, the prince’s family told him that they had this legend under their
control and would let him loose on their enemies for secret assignments,
however, since he never saw them and few claimed to see this person without
eventually disappearing and being later discovered without their face.
“Search for him. He couldn’t have
gotten far from the village,” one of the prince’s hunters says.
The Wearer of Divinity heads out on
their own and seems to have a good idea of where the prince is. Not knowing what
to do, the prince looks up at the star for guidance and feels it pulling him in
the direction of his hunters. Unsure of doing this, he thinks about it for a
second before remembering that his lack of trust led to the deaths of the
villagers so he bravely exposes his location to the hunters with his rusty
sword drawn. Before they can speak, the rotting wildlife sneak attacks them and
throws the group into chaos. The prince takes advantage of this to make his
escape.
“What are you doing? This is the
perfect chance to kill the legend. If you kill that monster that mocks God,
then I’m sure He’ll reward you,” the voice from the dark suggests.
A familiar feeling of using
violence to protect what he treasured makes the prince turn around to look at
the Wearer of Divinity to see that they’re after him despite the many vicious
animals around them. Even a rotting lion is nothing for the living nightmare
with their cleaver. Afraid to even fight them, the prince runs away in the
direction of the star. He tries to make the Wearer lose sight of him by going
through a dense mess of thorns and dried leaves. In the process, he is cut up
and loses bits of skin because of the sharp thorns. Despite, the distance he
covers, the prince still sees the Wearer headed right for him, so he continues
to run as fast as he while desperately looking for a way to lose them.
He finds his way to a farm that
seems to be abandoned until he makes his way inside to find a family arguing while
eating dinner with each other. Each member of the family has most of their skin
on their body, but as the argument goes on, it seems to slowly rot. Seeing
this, the family stops their argument and this stops the rotting. The prince
then hides in a food storage closet as he is almost seen by one of the
family members who is late to dinner. He peeks outside of the closet before
looking outside to see the Wearer heading straight for the farm.
“What am I going to do?” the prince
asks himself as his fear and indecisiveness pins him in place.
His fear is deepened once there are
three seemingly slow knocks at the door. It feels that time slows all around
him as he watches one of the family members answer it only to be shocked by
what they see. Soon, the family is massacred by the Wearer who then cuts off
their faces one by one with the last member of the family having the horrible
fate of their face being cut off while being alive. The prince takes advantage
of this opportunity to leave the house and run away as far as he can. After all
these events, the prince rests near a rotting apple tree to catch his breath. He
looks up to the sky to see that the star seems to be in the same place it was
when he last looked at it. More of his skin has fallen off along with his
strength.
“Can’t you give me a break? I’m
almost dead,” the prince says to the sky.
As if cruelly answering his question,
the prince’s attention is turned to see the Wearer approaching from a distance.
The prince’s strength is all but gone because of all his running and can’t get
up as a result.
“Adding another face to your
collection, you monster?” the prince asks the Wearer.
They stand over the prince with
their cleaver drawn and say, “You see a monster. Others see divinity.”
“I see a rotting corpse with faces
falling off it.”
“I’ll be adding more faces to it
soon and thanks to you, I’ve extended my life by leading me to fresh faces.”
“You and everyone who takes the flesh
of others are insane! Doing that atrocious act over and over again will not
extend your life and will only shorten it.”
“How so? This skin protects us from
disease and the cold. This intimidates my enemies and prey to give me an advantage
over them.”
“It can’t protect you from the
spiritual disease of your sin.”
“Regardless of what you think, I
will live forever like the legendary skin wearers before me. I do have the face
of God on me after all. I was going to kill you since your parents didn’t mind
if you came back dead or alive, but since you were so kind as to lead me to
fresh faces, I’ll keep you mostly alive. You can live without a face after all.”
Knowing that there’s nothing he can
do, the prince places his trust in God. Soon after, the animals of the forest
come out and tear apart the Wearer. Many of their faces fly all over the place
with the Wearer being hardly able to defend themselves. The prince uses this to
escape and continue to chase the star. He travels for many miles until he sees
where the star is hovering over and seems to follow.
In the distance, he sees a family
of three, a child, a father, and a mother clothed with grace traveling with a
donkey. The mother and child are on the donkey while the father leads them.
“What is this?” the prince asks
himself.
“This is how you will be saved,”
the voice from the dark says, “Do you see those people down there? Kill them.”
“Why? They are clothed in grace.
They are holier than me.”
“That’s the point. I know what you’re
thinking. If God loved you so much, then why didn’t he make you like them? Why
did he put you in a family that would lead you on the path of damnation and
rot while favoring this poor family?”
“Who are you really?”
“I have been the one guiding you for
your entire life. I am the influence of kings and queens, god of many
religions, and the fooler of shepherds.”
“So, you’re the god that my family
worships then.”
“I am and I command you to
slaughter the child, drink His blood and eat His flesh. That is how He will
save others when He institutes His sacraments, so why not take it for yourself?
He gives Himself to all after all.”
“What about his parents?”
“Kill them as well. The woman is said
to have immaculately conceived of the child in her virgin womb, but I will tell
the people that she slept with many men including her husband. The father is a
silent carpenter born from a disgraced royal family who will have no impact on
history or the history of the religion that will come as a result of the family.
He will be forgotten. Such is the fate of a fool who marries a woman whom he
didn’t impregnate. If his family couldn’t keep their country, what makes you think
they’ll save the world?”
“I still don’t know.”
“Do it and the God of truth will
finally understand your suffering. He will lift you up to Heaven because of
what you will do and make you the ruler of men. You will be crowned king of
humanity and known as the slayer of God more than that so-called Wearer of Divinity.”
With his heart blinded by jealousy
and the promise of life, the prince approaches the holy family with his sword
drawn. He can feel his life drain away from him and rushes at them as he feels
that his death is near, but when he gets closer to them, he is stopped by the face
of mercy that looks down upon him. The prince remembers who he is and seems to
know who they are as if told by a divine whisper. He then falls to his knees as
he coughs up blood.
“Hurry and kill them before you
die!” the voice from the dark demands.
Looking at the face of the mother,
father, and child, the prince sees the faces of pity who seem to wish to help
him.
“I see now,” the prince says before
losing the last bit of strength that he has left and falling into the dirt, “I
trust and offer my soul up to you, my Lord. Do with it what you wish.”
The prince then slowly dies and as
he feels the last bit of life leave him, he feels a drop touch him. This was
from the child who shed a drop of blood for him. In death, the prince sees that
his soul has been cleansed from all sin as he regains his original appearance
as envisioned by God and joins the other holy souls in the Bosom of the Father
of Many to await the savior. While waiting, he reflects on his life. He sees
that his entire life was meant to lead up to this point and it is thanks to his
decisions that he ended up where he was meant to. His sins are nothing but dust
in the wind and though he will be forgotten by the world and his life was
short, he will be remembered forever by God and eternal life is his, a gift
more valuable than fame, fortune, and long luxurious life.
The End
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