Snake King

        Today his blood would pour from his body in an effort to appease the Gods. It wouldn’t work, of course, because they had made the Gods unhappy with all the destruction of their world around them---war, conquest and building of giant pyramids to honor themselves or the Gods had sucked the life from the Earth, and they were paying the consequence.

              He would die for nothing, other than a reason for the King and his elite to have a celebration for a job well done. Without the shade of trees, the Mayan sun bore down upon the limestone streets with a punishing glare. He shaded his eyes against the rays and ignored the cold sweat that beaded on his forehead as he watched the first of the victims happily walk towards the pyramid.

              Inside, he was shaking with fear that the Gods would read his mind and know that he didn’t want to die for their pointless sacrifice. If his fellow man knew his heart, they would have killed him without ever bestowing the honor of ritual upon him and if he had to die---at least would have a chance at an afterlife.

              As a Mayan he knew the importance of afterlives and rituals and he understood that his sacrifice would seem selfless to his fellow people. Even his wife and children stood proudly next to him because he had such honor. How could they not see what a futile and pointless thing this was? A waste of precious life and for what? Rain that wouldn’t fall. Soil that wouldn’t allow the plants to grow.

The sun baked into his skin as he watched the Snake King’s parade march through the streets, and he loathed every step the elite took towards the pyramid for the sacrifice to the Gods. They had done this same ritual every day for a week and the only thing that spilled was blood and an abundance of food for those still among the living.

The Snake King’s vibrate Jade necklace matched the large headdress he wore for only this occasion and the gems from his conquests glittered in the noonday sun like beacons. He was formidable and powerful but smiled at the females whom he was sure to bed after the celebration of the sacrifice was over. As the Snake King ascended the pyramid the man's time was at an end.

He hugged his family once more and shuffled his way towards the stone steps of the pyramid he, himself, had helped build. The crowd cheered for him and for a moment he smiled at the exuberance until the harsh reality washed over him. These were his final moments. His last steps. His last breaths. For Gods and land, he would die on this pyramid and his life blood would flow down the sides like a morbid waterfall. He wanted to run, to hide and to be anywhere else---he took his first step onto the pyramid.

Above him the sacrifice had already begun as a young girl with gorgeous breasts and a lovely face, smiled as the Snake King ran his stone dagger over her throat. As her blood ran free, the crowd cheered, and the man hated them all again. When she was drained her lifeless body was carried, reverently, down the pyramid and placed into a cart to be carried away.

Next was a young boy of early puberty and his final words were ones of faith, honor and foolish youth. He died without fear as the crowd went wild and his mother wept silently for the loss of a child, noble though it may be to her. The next two went off much the same with fanfare, festival, and smiles all around.

Now it was my turn, and I wasn’t smiling. The Snake King blessed me, completed the ritual and I knelt on the roughened limestone steps as I gazed one final time at the gathered crowd.

“Last words for us, brave warrior?” The Snake King asked.

I could have said how proud I was, how noble I felt and how much being chosen meant to me but instead I chose to speak the truth.

“This is a pointless, waste of life. How many times must we kill our own people before we realize it isn’t the sacrifice that the Gods want? What they want is for us to take better care of our environment before we destroy it and ourselves. I don’t want to die for your stupidity.”

There were shocked gasps and random boo’s, but the rest of the area had gone silent but for the songs of the animals in the surrounding wood.

“Can’t you see that this spilling of blood does nothing? Look around you. We are dying while the Snake King continues to build more and take more without being able to tend the subjects he has. Instead, he relies on faith and our compliance to get him through another day. I can’t be the only one here that sees the truth of this!”

              Still, no one spoke a word and his hope dwindled to a withered stick. The Snake King hadn’t moved but the single tick under his eye which told me that he was furious. Finally, he yanked the man painfully by his hair and held me out in front him.

“He has no honor. He will poison the ritual with his blood. The Gods spit on him.”

The Snake King kicked the man's back and he tumbled down the hundreds of stone steps. By the time he reached the bottom both legs were broken, as well as his arm and a few ribs. He lay broken at the base while the rest of the gathered crowd ignored his whimpers.

When the Snake King announced that the Gods had chosen two new sacrifices to take the man's place, the man was powerless to stop it. He watched through tear filled eyes as the guards dragged his children to the top of the pyramid. They were too young to understand what was happening and cried for their mother.

The Snake King bled his children while the shattered man watched, and his wife wailed. When the children were dead, his wife walked over to him and using a guards blade drove it right through his heart. As he lay dying, she leaned down to him. “It’s your fault my children have perished this day.”

The Snake King’s shadow fell over them and the man’s wife bowed. “I am sorry for the shame my husband has caused.” She wept.

“I am sorry that the Gods demanded your children. But with their sacrifice the rest of us shall live. I feel the rain coming.” The Snake King smiled down at me. He held out his hand to the man’s wife and she took it, flattered by his request.

Without a backward glance, The Snake King and his wife walked towards the center of town and the celebration that awaited. Maybe his effort was for nothing, he thought as his last breaths, slowed but he knew he was right and sooner rather than later they would all pay for not heeding his words. In the end, he’d be the victor.

A group had gathered around him and a woman knelt near his head. She brushed away a strand of hair and smiled. “You’ve started the seeds of revolution here today. Your death hasn’t been in vain.”

Smiling, blood trickled out of his mouth and the darkness took him to the afterlife.