Chapter
4 – The Third Sorrowful Mystery
If I didn’t know any better, I’d be
scared of being here. The grey sky hardly hides the blood-red moon, the trees
and leaves are Fall-seasoned colors, and there are many pelicans in the sky and
oversized insects and animals that prowl around. In the case of the insects,
I’m almost tempted to kill them since they look like fire ants and they’re the
size of horses, but the men of the land move them away as if the ants are mere
housebroken animals. Walking to the nearby city with Jude, we somehow find
ourselves in what feels like a less welcoming place with jagged walls and large
buildings with spiked roofs. The churches even look threatening as their bell
towers look like the spiked maces and weapons carried by the people of this
hidden and normally unreachable land.
The people of this place bleed from
their feet, hands, head, and side, which are the clear signs of stigmata. Some
wear penitent masks while others wear simple sack clothes and do penance on
almost every corner. It’s no wonder why this place hasn’t been touched by my
curse. These people are in a constant state of penance so whatever effect that
my magic has is minimal at best. The man I saw before with a devil mask with
broken horns approaches us with a crowd of knights, priests, citizens, and
strange men who are walking corpses since they’re missing most of their skin.
“I’m glad you both made it,” the
man in the strange devil mask says. “Priscilla. You will come with me to where
part of the true cross is being kept. Pope Jude the Third, Your Holiness, you
must be with the people. This is the first time a pope has set foot in this
land ever since it became the bleeding land that it is and you will receive
your own blessing from us.”
I look over to Jude who I expect to
disagree with the man, but he says, “As you wish. Be strong and accept the
blessing that God will give you, Priscilla.”
Jude confidently smiles at me and
puts his hand on my shoulder for a second.
“Thank you. Don’t get too wrapped
up in the attention. I probably won’t be long,” I say.
Jude chuckles and then we head our
separate ways. I am led into a cathedral with many priests and knights in it.
It’s dead quiet in here except for the sound of blood dripping from the people
here. The man I’ve been following brings me to an altar where I am surrounded
and the wood of the cross and a crown of thorns are in the hands of a priest.
“Stand at the altar with your hands
outstretched just as our Lord Jesus is,” a priest says.
I do so while anticipating pain.
Sure enough, it quickly comes and hits me with enough force that I feel like
falling back, and yet, something is keeping me upright. Pain surges through my
feet, palms of my hands, my side, and my head and then spreads through my body.
In response, my skin feels like it is coming apart and trying to escape my
flesh as if attempting to flee from what is being done to the rest of it.
My face feels like it splits in two
as a demon talks with the other part of my face. It says, “See? The future that
God promises you is nothing but this pain and nothing more. He’ll use you and
throw you away without a meaningful reward, as He always does.”
I accept it. It’s the right choice
to make after I’ve made so many wrong ones.
“We will go through a litany of
humility that everyone in Onocrotalus makes that you must also make in order
for the wood of the cross to become part of you. Do you accept that everything
good that you do is because of God?” the priest asks.
“I do,” I answer.
“Do you accept that only God is
good while we are not?”
“I do.”
“Do you accept that life is a burnt
offering, of toil and suffering, that we must gladly offer up and enjoy the
little that we can?”
“I do.”
It feels like time stops at this
moment as the other half of my face screams and writhes in agony along with the
rest of my body.
“You don’t really mean the words
that you said. You don’t want any of this!” the other half of me says. “Your
work and reward is only more suffering.”
Evander and Leif appear from the
crowd to put their hands on me.
“You can do this, Priscilla,”
Evander says.
“Prove to the demons you’re
stronger than they think,” Leif says.
Time resumes moving along with the
litany.
“Do you accept that serving God
doesn’t mean that you receive a happy life on earth?”
“I do.”
“Do you accept that you won’t get
everything you ask for from God?”
“I do.”
“Do you accept the times that God
has let you down?”
“I do.”
Time doesn’t seem to stop this time,
as it feels like my skin is stretching and tearing as much as it can to
get away from this.
“You don’t really want this! You’re
just doing it because you think it’s the right thing to do, but you don’t
believe it wholeheartedly. Why don’t you do something you actually want to? Why
don’t you follow your heart?” the demon says.
Dominic and Harald come to my aid
this time to put their hands on me.
“I’m with you, mother,” Harald
says.
“Be the hero I know you are,”
Dominic says.
“Finally,” the priest says. “Do you
accept that everything you are, think, do, and say are to be dedicated to God?”
Everyone that I’ve known for the hundreds
of years I’ve been living surrounds me and lays their hands on me as I split in
two.
“I do.”
“The litany is complete. Bear this
suffering you have embraced just as our Lord did up to your Calvery and free
the world from evil.”
Looking down at my hands and feet,
I see they are pierced by wooden stakes. My head is bleeding as a crown of
thorns rests upon it, and yet, despite the pain, I don’t mind it. I’ve finally
embraced doing God’s will not just because it’s the right thing to do, but also
because it’s what I truly want to do. The crimson fog descends upon me and I find
myself with Jude back at the Vatican.
“You did it!” Jude says with a concerned
smile on his face.
“And you received your blessing as
well?” I ask.
“I did, but yours is…”
“I can bear the pain. Don’t worry
about me, just pray.”
Before we can breathe a sign of
relief, demonically possessed people start attacking us in the street.
Weaponizing my suffering, my arms split in two, and from them, long blessed
blades come out that I use to free the possessed from their demons. My arms
then form back together as I raise my hands in the air, offering up my suffering,
and freeing more around us from my curse.
“So, this is the power of the
cross,” Jude says.
“It is the power of God, of true
love’s cost,” I say.
“What do we do now?”
“We free the world from my curse,
and with God behind us and the solution to our problems within me, victory is
assured.”
Jude confidently smiles and nods at
me as we move forward together, gathering everyone we can, offering up our
prayers and suffering to God to finally break the curse throughout the world. From
the bottom of my heart, I sincerely thank God for everything for the first time
in years.
The End
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