Humanity conquered untamed lands, abolishing the remaining wild trying to thrive. Massive cities spreading the globe replaced nature with concrete and factory gases. Towers toppled under the pressure of the beasts' greed, vicious entertainment of war, lusting for power and their smiling fangs showed the ugliness of their blackened souls. Our ancestors disbanded, leaving remnants of the world in their place. Despair murdered the population, dwindling the survivors physically and mentally.
I suppose that's my mother's main reason for entertaining the idea of creating a story that would move hearts. With her deft hands she molded a person that shouldered desperation, replacing all the sad feelings with hope. I was that person: The Hope.
As a child, she ordered me to endure every single play created in my honor. Singing opera and plays kept their spirits alive for another day, but imagination did not favor the colonies, they only desperately held to one dream. My mother told me she discovered me bawling in a pile of ash, surrounded by a ring of fire. Around my neck was a golden key meant to unlock the golden gates of paradise, a sacred garden that provided sanctum against the harsh elements of our dying planet. The colonies enjoyed putting on plays of me coming forth to open those gates for them. It sickened me to the core seeing these people putting too much faith in me. I was only an ordinary, normal human with feelings and emotions just like them.
Even as an adult, a full grown man, I had trouble watching these plays.
Bony hands wrapped in shriveled skin due to emaciation were raised skyward, clasped together in a begging manner towards a proud man standing above the dramatically bowed pauper girl. Tired, faded light eyes suddenly glittered in admiration towards the smiling man. "You have come to rescue us from this place!" She burst into a joyous cry that echoed across the wooden stage.
Assuming role as The Hope, a glorious man no Modern could touch, the actor whipped aside his cloak with an energetic gesture. He offered the girl his open palm, helping her to stand. "I am The Hope! Today, all shall be saved!" His voice sang loudly, ostracizing me into someone I clearly wasn't. I hated enacting.
Watching a safe distance hidden in the shadows a crumbling building provided, I hid half of my face behind my cloak. Two gaudy dressed actors bowed and waved their arms in dramatic manners, adding flair to their display. It was meant to praise me, but instead I felt mocked. Practiced smiles showed too much yellow teeth, their fluid movements making them appearing to dance across the stage. It was a clever mirage fooling the Moderns; however, I wasn't fooled.
A meager collection of families sat huddled eagerly around the stage, gobbling up the show of the brilliant fake me sweeping a hand across the heads of the crowd. His sweetened voice provided a magnificent speech that he would guide everyone to paradise. This caused the colonials to murmur in memorization, so enraptured they took no notice of my lean figure escape.
I didn't bother concealing my wavy brown hair tinted a deep red, nor cover my face peppered in a light dust of freckles. My skin itched terribly from another case of sunburn; the sun's heat wasn't pleasant in the desolate landscape of biting, gritty wind and hot temperatures. I slipped through the crowd like rushing water, being smaller and slender made it easier to flee unnoticed. I drifted unnoticed among the clusters of people with tangled hair in massive snarls against their gaunt cheeks and pungent smells of body odor and bumped skinny frames deprived of nutritious meals. They took no particular notice of the real me.
The man on the stage I decided to name aureate presented his key, a silver shape thing with flecks of rust, an odd shape compared to my key designed to open a priest's box my mother had mentioned once. Still awe rippled through the people as they shifted forward.
I continued to shuffle past, keeping my gaze intently locked on the ground as I found staring others directly in the eyes difficult. Nomads spent majority of their time wandering aimlessly from place to place. There was a silent code of never staying long in one area. I didn't stick around long enough for Moderns to memorize my features, though if they stared long enough they figured out who I was rather quickly.
YOU ARE READING
The Revelation
General FictionMy mother told me I was born from fire in the sky when humanity died. That I held the golden key to Heaven. Now, The Saviors have arrived, and I ask, why can't we all be kings and queens? If you like the cover, credit goes to @hydratic, go check he...
