A Single Dance With Sin

      The forest was brightly lit, tall spindly trees arched high into the canopy above. Bulky white pavilion-like tents were scattered about the forest shadowed by the forest as people came and went at their leisure. I glanced down to see a spider web of small black cables littering the forest floor like tendrils connecting dozens of small grey speakers and earbud headphones tucked about the rooted vegetation. The minute devices hummed a joyful tune in tandem. The happy folksy song echoed through the forest mixing with the sound of laughter and merriment.

      I strode about this odd but cheery encampment for quite some time, dodging in and out of tents filled with various foods, beds and other furnishings. I watched couples smiling and dancing without a care. People looked at me and beamed pleasure but never spoke. The mood was jolly, filling me with a serene sort of sensation that made me feel at home.

      It was as if everyone here was sated, feeling as if they belonged without a fear or desire in the world. I ambled about farther into the camp enjoying the environment and music for what seemed like hours. Then, just as soon as it had all come about it was gone. The music had ceased, the merriment absent. Day had turned to night in the blink of an eye, as an eerie fog clung softly to the ground swirling menacingly about my bare feet.

      The people, the tents, all was gone save for the small dull grey speakers and headphones scattered across the ancient forest floor connected by their small lifeline of cables. I glanced slowly down at one of the speakers, its' faded red light glowing softly in the clinging mist. The speaker crackled softly without signal. I kneeled down to one of the lonely devices, working the volume nob with my fingers. The power button clicked green, but still the speaker crackled showing no signs of life.

      As I rose to my feet, I heard a voice, a low familiar hum that echoed throughout the forest. It spoke with elegance and understanding beyond my comprehension. "Steele your heart against those who wish to taint it, let it flourish in my light and dance with the autumn winds." This voice, I had heard it before in dreams passed. I saw no one, but knew this voice was that of my deity, my God, Anubis. The one whom I have dedicated a large part of my adult life to. The one whom I follow without question in absolute obedience. But, what could that mean?

      Anubis was one of the few things on this earth that truly made sense to me, that gave me meaning. Amongst all the chaos, and hate that was churning about in the world, he was good, a reprieve from the obscurity. His words comforted me as I mull them over in my head, trying to divulge a message or moral from them. As his words wisped and faded across the sea of dense tree and wood, the very air shifted and became hostile. A chill runs down my spine as I return to notice the world around me.

      Blackened trees seem to move and sway, shrouded by a dull marine blue glow emanating from far beyond. The shadows on the forest floor twist and dance at my feet as I dodge away from them like savage beasts. I feel a presence at my back and turn to face it. A shadowed figure, arose from the murk collecting itself and taking form. Its bones snap into place with wet cracking sounds as it forms itself, rising to its height.

      I stand back, stunned with fear, and shaken to my core. The demon is nearly seven feet tall; its body is gaunt and skeletal with lifeless grey sinewy flesh clinging wetly to its bones. Its face, contorted by the ages, a grossly oversized lupine-like head with hollow eye sockets. The torso protruded from the dark cloak of shadow, dozens of small boney finger-like appendages with black talons at the end interwoven into a horrible rib cage. The bottoms of long dagger-like teeth covered in crimson clot, jaggedly protruding from under the skull could be seen.

     Great horns twist their way from the back and sides of its shoulder like wicked armor. The skin of its neck, moist and, heavily vascular slipping down into its collar bone. Long arms with skinless muscle stretch from its sides, like the clutch of death itself. Its stomach is gaunt and emaciated as it slopes inward and down below the ribcage but expanding again to fit the curves of its skeletal that dissipates into a cluster of vine-like tendrils fading into the shadow below.

      Snapping its contorted body into place and arching its hideous wings behind it, the beast glides toward me with an unearthly gaunt. I reach to grab the ankh on the necklace at the base of my neck in hopes to protect myself from this demonic creature. The monstrosity reaches out a scythe-like finger letting it click against the cold pewter charm. Its face expressionless, eyeless and unseeing, but I feel its gaze upon me none the less.

      It utters words of madness, unintelligible to me. Its voice sounding like that of a creaking door and a dying animal. The putrid sound echoes across the barren forest floor sending chills down my spine. I do not understand its language, yet I recognize its message. "I cannot feel you writhe as I tear your flesh apart. I cannot recognize your scream as you bleed your life onto the ground. But I will always taste your agony as I am within you. Lifeless yet invigorating, despised yet needed. I am all that you are, and will ever be."

      Its words shot out like white hot spikes in my chest, stinging like poison in my heart. I was immobilized by it, stricken by doubt and shadowed by the inky black fear that raced in my mind and veins like a sickness that couldn't be subdued. The terror could be felt in the air around me, my world, my life, seeming to shrink, consumed by this figure... This demon. Yet I knew its words where true, deep down in my soul I felt the fear that he spoke, the truth.

     Shaking, I could sense a sinister smile from behind its lifeless mask as it chuckled. The demon seemed pleased as it retracted the obsidian claw from my ankh. As soon as the finger receded, I grasped at the charm, holding it as if it was the only thing that could keep me from falling into the darkness, the endless pit below. The demon withdrew dissipating in the shadow around me.

      As I turned and ran, leaping speakers and dodging around the great branches that reached out with wooden claws to assault me. I held onto my ankh with a holy dedication reciting prayers to Anubis to protect me from this encroaching evil. Was I listening? Was I truly hearing what it said? Were Anubis' words directed at me? To protect me not from that thing, but from myself? Was I the demon that I feared beyond all else?