P Y T H O N G A

PHASE 13

​REDEFINE

Erin did not know what time it was through the darkness of the torrential rain. Looking passed the man sitting across from the steady burning flames she watched the countless shadows twisting and writhing in the storm. She thought it must be the effects of the wind and ripping the jungle apart. The man stopped speaking, drawing her attention back to him.

Bruno: You see the shadows?

Erin: It's just the storm tearing at the jungle.

Bruno: Did you see them before?

Erin glanced behind her shoulder: No, but the storm must be changing. It's getting darker.

Bruno: The change is with you. Your transition is beginning, and you will be able to
           see many things most humans cannot. You will see things most people cannot
           even imagine.

Erin: What are you saying? The shadows are more than just the storm?

Bruno: Only those who possess the gift of the mind's eye can see the shadows. You
           possess much more than just this sight so many things will come through to you, but for now

           we will teach you the first steps to your transition for your eyes
           aren't the only thing changing. You will have to learn how to use your new
           found strengths in your muscles, your mind, and senses to reach your perfect
           balance.
 

           The beginning stages of your rebirth will be awkward. You will not only have to
           balance your strengths, but your learn to hide your new weaknesses. This
           journey will end for us if they are able to destroy you. If they destroy you, they
           destroy us all.

Erin stood and walked slowly to the edge of the warm clearing. She was within a few inches of the thick wall of rain. The shadows screams became more shrill the closer she got. She could make out tormented images as they twisted grotesquely against the wind, and she noticed some had the same anguished faces as those in the putrid creature she encountered before. She watched them writhing, screaming, and seemingly coveting the unfathomable pain every move caused them.

Bruno: You feel your senses changing?

Erin: I recognize some of these shadow figures, but when I saw them before there
        was a horrid stench. I don't smell anything. 

Bruno: The rain is a barrier, but if you want to smell them stick out your tongue.

Erin: What?

Bruno: Stick the tip of your tongue on the water if you want to smell them. I warn
           you though it won't be pleasant, and it will actually be worse than when you
           smelled them before.

Erin looked into the darkness. She took a deep breath, and lightly stuck her tongue
       on the falling water. The familiar wave of consuming nausea filled her body, and 

       was magnified by the newness of being able to taste and smell them at the
       same time. Violently she threw up projecting it through the rain. The shrill
       screams of the shadows became more pronounced piercing Erin's ears, and
       dropping her to her knees. She knelt on the sparkling sand until the pain
       subsided, wiped her mouth, and slowly returned to the fire feeling it's
       healing warmth.

Bruno: Your senses are becoming intertwined. It will cause you to be overwhelmed
           until we teach you how to control them. At times you will be able to use them
           individually as you are accustomed, and other times you will need them to work
           at the same time. You will never take your senses for granted again for they will redefine you,
           they are you, and not just a simple part of you. They will show you everything that is

           unconditionally evil no matter where you are, or what you are doing. Beings from all other

           universes, creatures from places not in the physical realm, are coming after you. They
           have already begun their journey. Some have been here as long as we have,
           some will take much longer, but they all have one thing they must do.

Erin: Destroy me?

Bruno: They would not only have to destroy you physically, but destroy your soul as
           well. When a living thing dies, no matter what the living thing, the soul goes on
           a journey, the soul must go on their specific, individual journey. Depending
           upon the life, and the choice that energy makes, determines where the soul goes. It takes an

           immense amount of evil to extinguish a soul, it is rare, but possible.

Erin: So it has happened, souls have been destroyed? What stops it from happening?

Bruno: It has. The will of the soul to move forward, and those like me to protect
           it along the most vulnerable part of it's journey. When the soul leaves the physical being that
           is it's most critical period. The intrinsic nature of the soul leads it toward the

           next destination, but in the beginning of this stage it is it's weakest. This is the time the soul
           may be misguided. If the soul was weak in life it is sometimes weak on it's
           journey, so we must surround them while they go toward their path. We follow them to a point

           of safety, a point where a brilliant light appears to them, then they may go peacefully to their

           destination. Because of who you are , and what you are destined to do, it will take the

           presence of evil we have never seen to destroy your soul, and it will take more of us than ever

           before to protect your soul.

Erin looked at the shadows through the rain: There was a grotesque creature that smelled

        just like those tasted. It said my end is unwritten just like it's end is not written. What

        does that mean? How are you going to protect me from evil like you have never seen, if you have

        never seen it?

Bruno: Where was this?

Erin: I don't know where, but there was no light there except for what came from
        me. When I stepped, or moved blue lights shimmered. I could see it because it
        was darker than everything else. It was twisted with anguished faces. That's all
        it seemed to be, anguished faces and stench. It was angry I wasn't afraid. I thought I was in Hell,

        and this was Satan. It said Satan wished to be it. It said Satan could never be truly evil since he           was created in beauty. He could only wish to be like the creature. I don't know how long I was      

        there, or how I got there. I looked in the distance and saw flickering blue lights coming toward

        me. They went under my skin, and the next thing I knew I woke up on the coral path. I saw a

        snake, followed it, and met you here. It's all part of the same nightmare isn't it?

Bruno sat quietly then reached into his leather pouch for a dry leafy concoction, and tossed a pinch to the blue flames. Brilliant orange sparks flew quickly into the air, through the sheet of rain, and disappeared into the thick jungle. The shadows shrieked in excruciating pain, many of them racing after the escaping lights.

Erin watched the lights disappear: What were those lights?

Bruno: Messages to the others. It is time. We will teach you to protect yourself
           against the worst of evil we know, and we will be shown how to do so, when the
           time comes, against evil we are not yet allowed to see.  Understand there are two. One of  

           absolute perfection in every sense. Perfection in love, beauty, anger, and all that there is or  

           ever will be. The second is absolute evil, torture, deceit, lies, and all there is or might ever be.

           You were in the presence of what we have never been allowed to see, nor ever care to look
           upon. We have no name for it as no name has ever been spoken to us, or written. 

           The creature devours all that is filth and disgust. It must create havoc, hatred,
           doubt, and rely on it's servants to tempt souls to commit the smallest of acts
           against one another. This act leads to another until the smallest of thoughtless gestures grows,

           spreads to everything around it, and the greater it grows the more common and acceptable the

           hatred becomes. The growing hatred, leads to the sweeter and endless meals of lost souls. As

           the servants of the creature are allowed to feed on these souls they grow obese with hatred,
           they grow stronger. The creature then gorges itself on it's servants who have
           faithfully pillaged lost souls. They are now, and forever will be, fallen souls, evil
           spirits. They will spend eternity as a fragment of the foul and putrid creature.

           There is no world that does not have this battle against evil. For some the battle
           is not as vicious as others, yet others are in constant turmoil and some have
           been completely consumed. All that is left of those is blackness, a tremendous
           void. The evil spirits of this world merely came from another as did the good spirits.

           With each new world comes a new race to save or destroy it.

Erin: So you are telling me I'm the one who is suppose to save this world?

Bruno: Not just this world, but all worlds.

Erin: All worlds?! How many are there?

Bruno: More than you are able to imagine right now.

Erin: What qualifies me to do this? 

Bruno: Very little right now, but you know this is real. You feel the warmth of the
           fire, and see the life in the grains of sand. When you have been still, and quiet, you have always

           known there was something underlying, something you could never seem to reach. You know

           this is who you are, and have always been. 

Erin: Do I have a choice?

Bruno looked at the swirling shadows: There are always choices. You may make a
          choice to not follow your destiny, but you have had a minute taste of evil, you have seen                       the creature, and you must know you would end up a fragment of  that forever if you chose a    

          different path. It is a choice you may make.

          Bruno looked over Erin's shoulder.

Erin turned to see behind her, and could make out figures walking through the sheet of rain. The screams were almost unbearable from the frenzied shadows, but were brought to silence as one of the figures drew a symbol in the air. They calmly walked through the jungle chaos into the calm protection of the sandy clearing. Erin began to recognize some of them. The four sat around the fire with Erin and Bruno.

Bruno: There are many more of us, but we are the ones who have been with you the
           longest and will remain constant. You will absorb everything we are about to
           teach you with every part of your being. It will be exhausting, and you will know
           it to be the fundamental truth to all that ever existed and will exist. This is the
           beginning of your true existence.

Erin: My true existence.

Bruno: You are the one who will put the spiritual drop in this universe that will resonate throughout all

           universes. It will begin here where it all began very long ago. The total sum of your existence

           is comprised of all the fragments of those from before. You are the end result of all that

           is pure.

Erin: Pure?!

Bruno: Purity is often hidden, ignored, and sometimes lost. You are not who you
           were ten seconds ago, nor will you be the same one second from now. It makes
           no difference what you have done, but what matters are the choices you make now. We will

           teach you how to shed the past.

Erin: What if I choose to walk out of here instead of  staying for whatever this is.

Bruno pointed to the seemingly endless shadows in the dark: You may choose to go,
          but they won't allow you to go very far. Test them. Go to the edge and stick your arm out of the

          water.

Erin stood looking at the others as they silently watched, and walked to toward the edge. The shadows swarmed, screeching the closer she got to the water. They tried to break through the barrier with their black oozing, infectious forms, but swirled away in searing pain. She watched this process as she held her arm close to the protective wall. The shadows contorted with fury. Her hand felt the cool rushing water with no pain. The shadows desperate to reach her, she plunged her arm toward them. The scorching on her skin radiated down her arm, and began to engulf her. She stumbled backward onto the sand her jaw clinched, and barely able to breathe through the pain.

Bruno: Place your arm in the sand.

Erin rolled over and buried her arm in her golden sand. She felt the pain immediately leave her body. She held her arm up to see the burn marks, but all she saw was the occasional flicker of the familiar blue light beneath her perfect skin. She looked at those who sat around the fire, and knew that everything she ever thought she was meant absolutely nothing. Slowly she rose, and took her place by the fire among those who would reveal her true identity.