I opened my eyes but I could not see. I was blindfolded. I tried to lift my arms to remove the blindfold, but my arms were tied down. I was laying down and the surface was smooth and hot, probably some sort of steel. The cries and screams in the room were deafening. So much pain, so much agony. I could hear bones cracking and bodies falling. I could smell flesh burning, emptied bowels, and fear. Whatever was happening in this room was an utter massacre.
I was able to lift the edge of my shoulder to the side of my face and rub just hard enough to loosen the grip of the blindfold. My eyes were finally free to digest the horror surrounding me. Machines lined the walls of an industrial warehouse that looked like a makeshift hospital. There was surgical equipment everywhere, scalpels, clamps, scissors. There were doctors, or at least what appeared to be doctors, all throughout the room, their faces disguised by surgical masks. They were escorting seas of children, bound and gagged, into a giant apparatus that resembled an incinerator. Something was not quite right about this machine. The usual cogs, nuts, bolts, and beams were instead replaced by bone, skull, muscle, and skin. The engines were literally running on the blood of the forgotten, the souls of the damned. One by one the hopeless were led into a furnace built by the spilled blood of those before them.
Is it so? This can’t be happening. Why can’t they see? The blind are leading the blind into a disaster and I’m the only one who seems to care!
In the cracks exposed between the hundreds of bodies scattered around the warehouse, I spotted her. The Temptress was tied down to a surgical table, wearing nothing but a corset and a pair of torn underwear. Her shoes were missing, as was the veil, but now her long, dark hair covered her face. She angled her head towards me and, although I could not see her face, I sensed that she was begging for help. For the first time since entering this dreaded house it seemed I had the upper hand to the Temptress. Her fear was tangible. Perhaps it was intentional, just another piece of this sick, twisted puzzle.
I concentrated as hard as I could and begged for something to allow me to break free of these chains. As quickly as the thought had come, I was standing on my feet next to the table where the Temptress lay, free of my shackles. I took two steps towards the door on the far wall, completely ready and willing to leave her behind to rot. Unexpectedly and seemingly out of nowhere, one of the doctors tore the mask from his face revealing a grotesque face covered in third degree burns. Underneath the burns were two such distinct features that would haunt my dreams forever; the gaping mouth of sewage and the eyes that could destroy the earth. The Fiend took one giant step towards me and exclaimed, “All must kneel before the altar! The veiled will be exalted!
We are the flock!
In the God’s harbor all shall rest and become part of the master!”
Without even thinking I reached down and untied the clamps tying the Temptress to her fate, lifted up her body, and scrambled towards the door. Flinging it open, I turned to find the Fiend running straight towards me shouting, “Blessed smoke bellows from the beast! Bow to the gears and worship the machine!”
I slammed the door shut, the Temptress in my arms, and ran straight ahead into the blackness that awaited.
They do not hear a word I say. I can not save them all. I need you to trust me now, sweet Temptress. Don’t move, I’ll figure this out. Forget what anyone said, just take my hand, or we’ll both be dead.
