Juggernaut: Alpha

Heavy Heart

Three summers passed over without delay before the cold rain of another winter began to pierce through since the purification. It was midday, but the clouds hung over my head reminiscent to the nightmares I've forced myself to subside since my awakening. The Priest always tells me that they're typical in the resting minds of younger acolytes. That "The purification opens the minds of the young and allows them to reach their full potential amongst the worthy." and that with an open mind, it might also invite other servants into the folds of my inner self. That I must "experience these things", but these "Servants" weren't approaching the walls of my kingdom with banners of kinsman-ship. They were invaders. Vicious, barbaric entities catapulting their intentions through the castle of my thoughts. Raping and pillaging the countrymen of my morality, leaving nothing but ash and embers in the wake of every battle. Every night. I couldn't quite understand the logic presented to me, but I'd be a fool to question the judgement of our leader. The one who breathed life into us when there was nothing but a void where purpose should have been. Expressing thoughts like that would have me branded a heretic, and I've only heard of the punishments laced with heresy. But that alone was enough to make my stomach spike out of my throat. He knows what's best for us. He always has.

Caught up in the racing of my own thoughts, I felt a vice grip attach itself to my shoulder.

"Disciple, the Father wishes for your presence." followed from the direction the hand came from.

"Yes, of course."

With a pace that could catch up to the racing thoughts, I hastily made my way to the cathedral. Passing by wooden shacks that blanketed the forest almost as if they were the trees themselves leading up to it. I noticed the area became quite hollow. The casual buzzing of common prayer and small talk seemed to have been replaced with intense stares and whispers. It was unnerving at first, but I eventually became accustomed to the silence as I approached the doors to the holy foundation this fortress was built upon. Two acolytes, a few years past my own opened the door and to my surprise, the hall was full. Not that the likelihood of our cathedral being full of devoted surprised me, but they all seemed to share a similar quality. They were all my age, or at least what I could assume to be my own age. All garnishing robes and ceremonial knives attached to a belt on their waists. I've only ever seen the elder of my kin granted the pleasure of baring such things. Ignoring my own curiosity, like a lamb approaching wolves, I swallowed what felt like a rock in my throat and pushed forward into the cathedral. 

"Come now, innocent babe. Join your brothers, your sisters in true ascendance." echoed throughout the hall with such power.  

Flowing through the river of what seemed like scarlet silhouettes shadowing me, I approached the altar.  The Priest was garnished in more fashionable robes than the weathered, customary ones I've acquainted his image with. Standing behind the alter crowned with the presence of a chalice atop it, a warm grin cracked his solemn, stern surface as he motioned for me to move closer. With ease and almost without a second's passing, I greeted our Father with a gracious bow.

"Raise your head, disciple. You are no longer the innocent babe you were before you entered these halls." 

It was almost impossible to suppress the smile wanting to escape me. Almost. But the priority of seriousness fought back, and dignified, I raised my head. 

"The snake has shed it's skin, and with doing so shall receive a new garment to rest over it." the Priest's words sugarcoated by the robes held in his hands.

"With this, you shall share the same skin as your brothers and sisters in the name of our devotion to The One. This shall blanket the sin surrounding you and serve as a shield to your beliefs. No longer are you naked to the world. For you are now wrapped within the loving embrace of our ascendance."