Father?


    I hear you knocking upon my door


    You stink of metal, how queer


    Your voice does not reach me, only rasps and gasps


    I worry.


    You had become quite morose after Mother’s passing


    It’s quite unusual for you to leave your chambers


    Let alone on a night this haunting


    I see a crimson light flood my room.


    I hurry back into bed, fearful of the night.


    Did this anger you?


    I hear knocking become desperate pounding


    But you stay silent


    Not uttering a word


    That is when I hear it.


    Thuds in the wall, vermin scattering, no doubt


    No wait, that can’t be it


    The noise is far too loud


    Am I just paranoid?


    You told me yourself, Father,


    To prepare for when our god forsakes us


    People called you mad


    But is this what you meant


    Almost as a response, I hear a twisted laugh outside my room


    A fox or something more sinister?


    I don’t feel well.


    In the span of a cough, my body begins to reject itself


    Blood pools at my sides.


    Steeping into my bedsheets


    As rivulets run down from my head to my feet


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    You have stopped pounding on my door?


    Why?


    Did I misbehave?


    Should I have opened the door?


    But you told me not to!


    When will it end?


    Questions flood my mind


    The church never spoke of such an event


    I get interrupted by a familiar voice outside my door.


    Brother, is that you?


    Have you come to check on me


    Or is it simply a facade


    Seconds pass and your voice leaves me again


    The stench of metal.


    Why have both of you abandoned me


    I leave my bed once more.


    Stepping forward, I try to glimpse out of the window


    Only to be met with bodies of suffering men and women hanging off the tips of cathedrals


    Underneath a sky congealed in crimson


    What is happening?


    I beg you Father, come and save me


    My body is growing weaker by the second


    I crave your loving embrace


    Your knocks resume


    Please forgive me.


    I do not have the strength to resist


    No longer do I care what you have said, I wish to be freed from this nightmare


    I open the door.


    Blood pours out of my mouth as I do


    Where are you?


    Father, where is my brother?


    Both my questions get answered once I see you standing over a pile of gore


    You’re not my father.


    Who are you?


    Your body is no longer human


    Nothing left but muscle and bone


    With the stench of metal clinging to your very being


    I hear it.


    The laugh from my window


    I hear it!


    It was not a laugh after all


    But just a plea from a fading soul


    Please do not come closer.


    Your jaws are far too large


    Your eyes are far too wide


    Your spine is far too needle-like


    Please, I beg you!


    A hidden choir sings a song both mellifluous and overwhelmingly loud


    A song of lament.


    Please, stay away, allow me one mor—


    The church bell dings in the distance.