Chapter 2 – Crowned with Blood and Muck
While heading to the sewers, Adela
is scoffed at for her smell and appearance. No one thinks that she got in trouble
or needs help since they have troubles of their own to attend to. Veritas leads
Adela to a certain entrance of the sewers, which she enters while trying not to
breathe in the putrid stench. In this section of the sewers, she finds that the
sewer is dry. Going further in, she finds signs of its former inhabitants with
dried blood, clothes, rotten food, cooking appliances, and even bullet holes in
the walls. Eventually, Adela reaches a chained-up door that’s locked.
She knocks on it and says, “Hello?”
No one responds to her. “Are you sure this is the right place?”
“Yes, it is. Put your faith in me so
that I may speak through you,” Veritas says.
“Okay. Open the door. I’m a friend
of Veritas.”
The door unlocks and a voice from
the darkness says, “What a relief. So, the time has finally come, has it?”
“It has,” Adela says while not
knowing what she means.
She assumes that Veritas is
speaking through her and a worrying thought enters her head. A worrying thought
that Veritas might say something through her that she doesn’t want to say, but
there’s nothing really that should make her distrust the snake so she puts
aside the feeling for now. A boy walks out from the darkness and startles
Adela. This boy is clothed with dirty rags and appears to have various nails pierced
into his mouth, arms, fingers, legs, and other parts of his body.
“Are you still doing penance for
the sorry souls of this world?” Adela unexpectedly continues.
“Yes, I am. Did Veritas tell you
that?”
“He just did.”
“Someone needs to be thinking about
other people’s souls and I’m one of the only ones who do besides you and our
other friends of course.”
Entering the boy’s dark room, Adela
finds various tools of penance such as whips and ashes along with various kinds
of books.
“Is anyone else here with you?”’
“No, it’s just me here.”
“Why are you here by yourself? Are you
an orphan?”
“No, I have parents. I’m here
because I want to change the world for the better and I’m the only one here
because there are few brave enough to try to change the world like us.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t ask you what
your name was. I’m Adela.”
“I’m Doloro. It’s nice to finally
meet someone who’s, well, nice.”
The uneasy feeling that Adela had
about Doloro is gone and is replaced with a feeling of pity for the boy that’s
her age.
“Are you ready for the show?”
“I am. The fruits of my training
will show today. The other noble snakes have told me that their actors are in
position and ready to help us.”
“Other noble snakes like Veritas?
Am I an actor also?”
“Yes, and in a sort of way yes. You
aren’t an actor like our friends, but you are an actor in the greater plot of
the snakes.”
“Is everyone assigned a snake like
I am?”
“If by assigned, you mean in
contact with one then yes. The snake that gave me the idea to do what I’m doing
now is named Gratuiti. A scarred fellow that cut itself into several pieces to
show its devotion in doing penance for others before it put itself back
together.”
“Veritas was different with me.”
“I know. It’s an honest snake that
will be our voice that will convince the world to change. How does it tell you
to speak like it?”
“He, uh, we have a close
connection.”
Adela wants to explain how Veritas
replaced her tongue and how it makes her speak what it wants but feels unable
to for some reason.
“I won’t pry any further if it’s
personal. Would you like to go now? The start of our work is about to begin.”
“Let’s go.”
Doloro puts on a cloak and better
clothes to hide the scars of his penance before they head out. After the two
exit the sewer, they are immediately greeted by the scene of someone jumping
off a building and being splattered on the ground. Adela is stunned by this while
everyone else around her reacts similarly before going back to what
they were doing with only a single person calling an ambulance to clean the mess.
“This common sight must be made rare.
I’ll have to do more penance to ensure this,” Doloro says.
“I haven’t seen it as much so your penances
are working,” Adela says.
“Thank you for assuring me of that.
Now that I see you in the light, I see the putrid mess on you. Are you alright?”
Adela has to take a second to
absorb the irony of Doloro asking if she’s alright before she says, “Yes, I’m
fine. I’ll be better after the show is done.”
“Then let’s get it started. We’re not
far from where we’re meant to be.”
Doloro leads Adela to a stage that's set up for the town’s New Year’s celebration. Stage attendants
and guards let the two up to the stage while communicating to other people
through their earpieces. What’s about to happen really feels like a stage
performance and Adela is nervous since she’s the only one without a script and
hopes that Veritas will say the right things for her.
Before she steps on the stage, a woman
runs to her, pulls her back, and asks, “Are you Adela?”
“Yes, I am.”
“Then you must come with me. An
icon like you can’t be seen as you are.”
“I was waiting for you to fix up my
appearance. To think I was going to go on stage looking like this What took you
so long?”
“Forgive me. There’s just so much
to keep track of.”
The woman leads Adela to a place
where she’s dressed up. Adela is cleaned up, adorned with pearls, precious metals,
and a golden dress with a snake design in the middle that appears as if that it
was meant for a princess. In addition, she is given a golden wig to add to her royal
appearance. Now more confident in herself, Adela steps on stage with Doloro and
several other people taking their places on the stage, around it, and beyond
it.
Adela then speaks in a microphone without
knowing what to say, “Listen to what I have to say, you who needlessly suffer.”
People in the crowd begin to pay
attention to with some being corralled so they don’t move from the area. In
addition, there are cameras from news organizations and social media influences
that have their eyes on her thanks to the allure in her voice. Doloro steps forward
and reveals the scars of his penances. He presses the nails deeper into his
body to allow it to bleed without so much as winching.
“This boy bleeds and hurts himself
for your benefit. He offers up his pain so that the consequences of your sins
don’t end your lives early. Why aren’t you like him? Why don’t you apologize
for your actions or do anything to atone for them? Is it because you think you
are blameless or your reasons for committing evil deeds are justifiable? I have
no pity for people like you or like this one right here.”
A man with a blindfold is brought
up to the stage next to Adela.
“You may recognize him. You may
have even given money to his cause. A cause that he uses as set dressing to
enrich himself and his friends. I spit at trash like him.”
Adela spits at the man as Veritas says
she does through her. The man’s crimes are shown on digital billboards and the
TVs around the area resulting in the crowd yelling at him and criticizing him.
“Oh, if it only were so easy to be
so harsh on him and call him irredeemable. All of you have similar sins that make
you look the same or even worse than him.”
Videos and images then show on the
TVs of the crimes of everyone in the area, which makes them walk away in shame,
but these people are prevented from moving because of Veritas’ allies.
“Be ashamed of what you’ve done,
but do not despair. Join me, and together we’ll expose the evils of the world
and remake it into a better world. A better world that we all deserve.”
The crowd cheers for her and say
that they’ll join her. From the smallest child to the wealthiest adult, many
come to her and her allies to enlist their aid.
“I see that many are willing, but
who is able? Bring forward more of the guilty!”
More people like the man on stage
are brought on stage with their legs and arms restrained, and their eyes blindfolded,
and a cloth around their mouths so they don’t speak.
“Do with these people what you know
is right! Bring them to jail, humiliate them where they stand, do whatever you
choose. The innocent have the right to do with the guilty what they want. Do
not worry about the authorities nor what others will think or do to you. Just
do what is right because you are blameless!”
The people do as Adela says and do
what they want with the guilty people on the stage. Some bring the guilty to
the cops while most beat the guilty until they’re barely alive or dead. Either
way, Adela is drunk off the excitement that is happening and the following
month seemingly passes by like a dream. She becomes one of the primary voices
of the movement, her parents are proud of her, and, most of all, she can do her
gardening more often. It’s a dream come true, however, the public displays of
justice and ruining the lives of their enemies make Adela feel uneasy. On the
other hand, she is constantly reminded that she is doing the right thing by her
friends and family and the results of her actions appear to do the same with the
lives of everyone improving around her, or at least that's what it seems.
