Divinus Petram

Epilogue

A disturbingly short time ago in a land uncomfortably close by there was a tunnel. Not a special tunnel, it didn't grant magic wishes, it didn't lead you to magical places. The tunnel was nothing. In fact if we wanted to we could probably have found a different tunnel, a better one to keep what was truly special inside. Inside the tunnel was a glowing slab of mystery stone, with ancient and undecipherable characters carved into its rocky exterior, philosophers, geologists, translators, and historians alike had tried to translate what was carved on the stone slab but failed. The only thing that could be translated on it were the words, "Dying for betterment." No one knew what it meant until the third disappearance which was the only one caught on camera, The cameras showed a man seemingly sucked up by oozing black matter that seeped through the carved characters and pores of the stone deity. The scientists working on this rocky mystery decided that for the safety of everyone it would be best to keep the stone, which they called "Divinus Petram", in a safe place where it couldn't hurt anybody.

However, one disagreed and rather than trying to change the minds of his colleagues, decided they'd be the perfect first sacrifices. He thought that finding this stone was a message from God, and that in order for some people to go to Heaven, more would have to go to Hell, through the Divinus Petram.

From then on the tradition began. He and his followers would draw stones from a red velvet drawstring bag and whoever chose the one with the number four painted on it would be sacrificed. One sacrifice a year. No one knew for sure what happened once it had you. Whether you died immediately or suffered, or whether you even died at all. The only thing those who were allowed to know of the rock itself, knew about the rock was that it was that being chosen was both an honor and a curse.