Surprise! Now die...

CW: Physical violence, gore and references to sexual violence

“It is time.”

He looks at the city beneath them. The sounds the city normally makes are gone. Today the air is filled with screams of terror and agony, filled with smoke from the sea of flames that is spreading across the thatched roofs. His sister stands next to him and grabs his hand.

“It is time.”

Her voice trembles and he squeezes her hand to comfort her in her final few moments of living. Beneath them soldiers shout and steel hits steel as they try to defeat an enemy that is too strong and too many.

“There is still hope! The walls haven’t been breached. The inner city is still safe!” on of the other three priests says.

He tries to keep a stern face to mask his own disbelief. They don’t listen and walk over to the large cabinet made out of cast iron. He takes the key hanging around his neck, while she drops her black robe to the ground. Her naked body is shivering as a protest to the dreadful decision her mind is set to.

“NO!” the priest shouts while the brother unlocks the cabinet and opens the squeaking solid door.

Behind it stands a granite container.

“Yes. We have been defeated and the entire land knows what that means. This is our sole purpose. The time is now.”

“You are a monster!”

He walks over to the brother and tries to grab the granite container from his hands. He pushes him away, guarding the container with his body.

“We cannot win!” he shouts to the priest.

“And thus you will end us all?”

The priest turns around and looks at the other two priests.

“We must stop him! He has gone mad!”

They drop their heads and look at their feet in silence. Now that it is really there, they are paralysed to make this decision of certain death.

The brother and sister walk to the massive throne in the middle of the room. In it sits a statue, black as the darkest night. His face filled with anger stares into the empty throne room. All that is there are the five of them, the cast iron cabinet and four polished granite pillars that carry the domed roof high above them.

“You don’t know their motives! Maybe they will spare some of us! You cannot wake him and kill us all!”

The priest walks over to him and drops to his begging knees.

“They are only attacking the city from one side! The women and children can still escape via the other gates!”

“They will know and they will hunt them down. They will torture, rape and slaughter and get away with it all. I will not let my enemy live merely to hunt down my people.”

“So you will kill them yourself?”

He ignores the man and opens the container. In it is a thick oil that smells like decomposing death. With care he starts applying it to the pale naked skin of his sister. The priest jumps up.

“STOP! I command you to stop!”

He takes a small knife out of his tunic and rams it into her shoulder. She screams and falls forward. The brother swings the granite container at the priest and hits him in the head. Blood runs over his face while he drops to the floor. The sister manages to get back up, he does not. She’s clenching her fists and jaws to ignore the pain. He rubs the oil on her body as quickly as he can. It is almost over. The other two priests look at them, frozen. Too frozen to notice the heavy doors behind them opening. Too frozen to see the battle axe soaring through the sky. It hits her in the back, cleaves her ribcage and cuts her heart in two.

Two black eyes in a red scaly face look up at the black statue. He scoffs and looks at the five slaughtered humans. Blood drips from the battleaxe in his hands.

“They nearly had us! We were almost done for!”

He looks at the statue again.

“The god of death remains asleep. Victory is ours! These lands will finally belong to us again!”

His eyes lock onto the crest on the chest of the statue and a confusing frown runs over his face. He recognizes the symbol of two claws on a shield.

“Officer! Isn’t that the crest of your clan? Is this were your crest comes from?”

He turns around and looks at his first officer standing close to him. Behind them some soldiers from the first officer bring in a small, scared, naked, woman.

“What is that? What are you doing with that human?”

“Your clan may be the biggest, general. But we…”

He taps on his crest on his shoulder pad.

“…we have a god of death on our side!”

Without hesitation he drives his dagger deep into the general and steps back. The general gasps for air and pulls the dagger out. Dark blood starts pouring from the wound and forces him on his knees. He pushes his hand on the wound but blood keeps seeping through his fingers. With a pained smile he looks at his first officer.

“You’re not only a traitor but an idiot as well. No god will obey low scum like you. He will use you and kill you as he pleases!”

“We will take our chances. Everything is better than serving under you!”

A low unearthly rumble shakes the entire temple. The pillars tremble and pieces of the roof come falling down. Slowly the black stone turns soft and dark brown. A deep angered scream fills the throne room. He opens his eyes and takes an eerie sounding long deep breath. Slowly his vision comes back and slowly he recalls where he is. A foul stench of decomposing death enters his nostrils and he looks down. On his lap lies a naked woman covered in oil and looking at him with dread in her eyes.

“Why are you naked?” he asks with a deep but oddly warm voice.

She is too afraid to answer. The first officer steps forward from behind one of the pillars.

“She is our offering to you! Oh great god of death! We are your followers!”

He looks a while at the officer and then back at the girl.

“Your offer is a naked lady covered in stinking oil?”

“She is a virgin!”

He shakes his head.

“You were only supposed to put the oil on me. Who made the whole naked virgin lady thing up?”

A silence follows. He picks the girl up and puts her on the ground. His eyes glance over the burned skin on her chest where they marked her with their crest. He gets up and walks to the window.

“Oh great god of death, you are one of us. We carry your crest! Together we can rule these lands again!”

Outside the fights continue and more and more houses are engulfed by the flames.

“What do you know of me?”

“You are our god. When you rid these lands of impure life you went to a deep sleep. But then our enemies trapped you and kept you from waking. Till now, now you can claim back your land, our land!”

Silence follows.

“So you do not have my staff? My staff that gives me all my power?”

“Your staff?”

The soldiers march over the path through the dense woods. Old trees loom over them and cast their shadows down. Some of them seem to whisper with their leaves. The first officer makes his way to the front on his beast-like horse.

“Death, how much longer is it to your secret hiding place? The other clans have learned our plan and are in pursuit.”

“They won’t make it. Don’t worry.”

The officer looks at the smelly naked woman he holds cradled in his arms.

“You should get rid of that. She won’t last one night with my men around.”

“I’d like to keep her as a souvenir.”

The first officer shrugs and falls back through the verge. Brambles try to grab the legs of his beast-like horse.

“Why are you keeping me alive?” the woman whispers.

“Because you are the same as me. Marked by our enemy.”

His hand slides over the scarred tissues on his chest in the shape of their crest.

“You are not one of them?”

“No.”

“But you bring death just as they do.”

“Death followed because I was petrified, not the other way around. I was tricked and cursed. Set to stone for so long that not even they remember who I am.”

Branches above them scream like out of tune violins when a sudden gust of air rubs them together.

“Who are you?”

The trees around them start whispering and shaking their branches.

“I am the god of vegetation and I just lured them into my domain.”

He shouts in unknown whispers and suddenly the whole forest comes to live.