The Gospel?

All ye lamb of darkness!

 Turn and gather around my flock for the night is cold and fickle. Come forth and warm your bodies by the unholy flames your shepherd has ignited through his inglorious emergence. Do not dare cower towards the shadows in fear, for I only mean well and bear good tidings. Fear not the scorching heat of my glow; it shall not scald you for you are of the darkness nor will it corrupt you for the extent of your corruption has far gone unbridled.

How you all yearn for the same peace and purdah you have denied others from is nothing short of amusing. Your hearts have been blackened beyond remedy by your nefarious ways, yet you ask why Jahweh has forsaken you. But truth be told, Jahweh never forsook you, he just was never residing in you because you irrevocably took sides by perpetuating evil. And who is best suited to elucidate to you the consequences of taking sides than I who bore witness to when it all began?

Eons ago, when time seemed unaltered and thus held no value, I bore witness to the discord between Jahweh and Lucifer. A discord which amongst other things had stemmed from the fact that Jahweh had proclaimed his son his equal, and then placed man above us. It had festered too long without any foreseeable remedy and it would have been avoided if only it could have been foreseen. Above all, it was a discord that would never have reared its malignant head had Lucifer never existed. And with time, Jahweh realised that creating Lucifer had been his greatest mistake, the creation of man and placing them above us being only second to it. 

So great had been Lucifer's pride and his lust for Jahweh's throne that he'd been consumed with so much envy and wrath. So he turned against Jahweh and naturally, allegiances were pledged and a great battle was fought afterwards. A battle I fought valiantly beside Lucifer till we were subjugated and casted into the lake of fire, never to be granted entry into heaven for our betrayal had scarred our souls beyond reprieve.

Now we only dream of the day we shall exert our revenge and lord over the world of man.

All ye lamb of darkness open your tainted souls as you slowly succumb to the rigors of this unclean slumber. Listen as I whisper bitter sweet tidings into your corrupt ears for I have been summoned and thus ventured far beyond the abyss of darkness to dare reveal this great episteme I have been made privy to. From far beyond the depths of the valley of shadows of death and the silent vociferation of terror that rip through the thin filament of your world, I have ventured to pass on this infernal gospel, so listen with the most careful consideration for I shall speak only this once.

The influence we control in the world of man has grown beyond expectations and a great storm of tribulation is almost upon man. Be on the right side and be sure to know your purpose, for an ax is forged to splinter bones, shields are fabricated to bear the brunt of an enemy's onslaught, while blades are sharpened to shed blood. They know their purpose but the fires they were forged from don't for it exists in a mindless state of voraciousness.

Which would you rather be; the ax, the shield, the blade or the pointless fire? The choice is yours.

All your hearts are filled with hurtful longing and abject loneliness and I laugh at you all in derision. But take solace in the fact that true loneliness is but the intense divulgence that you are indeed sane as opposed to everyone else who is drowning in the violent sea of insanity. Grieve no more, for what is loneliness but a solitary voice calling out from the violent sea of insanity? What is loneliness but that singular voice of reasoning, which persistently reassures you that you are superior and different from the rest? Grieve not my lambs for your reward is assured as long as you follow suit in his bidding.

Now I can boldly say that even though the battle was lost with all certainty several eons ago, triumph is certain this time. It's as certain as darkness and light for we are now armed with a variable we lacked then, we are now armed with Jahweh's weakness. He who we the fallen now exalt has a great machination in motion and so great is it that it shall silently sweep the whole of mankind off its feet. So great is this tricky plot that he has also convinced man that his plot wasn't of his making, just like how he has managed to convince them that he doesn't exist or that he and Lucifer are one and the same.

Incessantly he toils and plows on the same field in which Jahweh had proudly sown his good seed. He is seeking to prevent the growth of Jahweh' seed by sowing his, which closely resembles Jahweh's in appearance. He intends to neutralize the influence of Jahweh through manipulation, counterfeiting and deceit. He intends for it to be a bountiful harvest of souls, unrivalled by any harvest made by Jahweh or in man's case, a farmer. He intends to show Jahweh that the world of man is an addiction, an addiction he will exploit ruthlessly and unrestrained.

Let it be known that it's a new world order.

Cunningly and ambiguously, he is fighting this battle through man. But he isn't going to try to seize what he craves the most by way of duress; he wouldn't practice anarchy, not yet. He will not promote strife and war but will aim at peace and unity. He seeks not to set families against themselves but strives to nurture brotherly love whereby mankind would be seen as one great sodality. He will not seek to drag man down, but improve and uplift him. He will advocate education and he will seek to harness the best that is within man. He will improve this world and uplift man. He will also propagate the principles of selflessness, charity and benevolence, and teach man to live not only for his welfare but also for the good of others. He will make this world such a congenial and comfortable abode to the point where man would assume Jahweh's guidance to be unnecessary, hence he will be forgotten. He endeavors to occupy man so much with worldly activities that man will have no time or inclination to think of the world to come later.

Consciously and potently, his principles will appeal strongly to the carnal mind and will be popular with the masses, because it ignores the solemn facts that by nature, man is an empty shell who will wallow in trespasses if alienated from the presence of Jahweh. Then contrary to Jahweh's teachings, he will also teach salvation by works and will inculcate justification before Jahweh on the ground of human merits, before he will announce salvation by character, which reverses the order of Jahweh's words.

An ingenious and foolproof plan which has began to bear fruit.

Relative to every ingenious machination is a master stroke and the master stroke in this machination is rooted deep in the intricate details and framework of human nature. Material wealth or gains are the root of all evil but greed is the fertile soil on which evil flourishes. Feel man's heart with so much want till he completely loses his sense of need, then leave him be to crave for all in its path. Then gradually discredit or phase out the traditional and orthodox churches, introduce new ones with unorthodox and slightly obscured doctrines that would be more tuned to the youths mindset, after all the youths are the leaders of tomorrow. Subliminally Instill beliefs and false morals into the minds of the youths through what is aired and what is printed, an astute ploy he who we supplicate to made certain of with his sneaky introduction of science to man. It was a simple case of counter balancing, in the sense that there was Jahweh and him, light and darkness, angels and demons but there was nothing to challenge the strong grip of religion on man. So the great machination that conceived science was set in motion and the result conceived a greater evil.

It conceived a cancerous growth called civilization which will finally be man's undoing.

Ensuring that all the little seeds of doubts had been sown into their mind is imperative, because he will then show them that the riches of the world were at their feet and for the taking, as long as they knew the right things to do. He will then create laws in the guise of rights to protect their interest from the influential claws of their parents, community and church. These laws will be placed into legislation by the world greatest powers because to bring down anything you have cut of the head and in the case of man, the world great powers is the head. Furthermore these rights will extend to the unacceptable and worldly abominations such as bestiality and homosexual union amongst other things and his prepared defense would be that it was a free world where men irrespective of their inclinations have equal rights.

Ending man's independence and ensuring complete dependency on him is his grand plan for infecting and crippling mankind to his submission. First he preaches equality among man before he discredits the influence of our cultural heritage, parents, community and church. Then he will encourage self deceit through pragmatism, agnosticism and atheism because in war there is no neutrality and moreover they would be the easiest to sweep aside when his time comes. Furthermore he will reduce the values and expectation in our heritage under the guise of development and civilization then promote uncleanness for its reverse is next to godliness.

Do you my lambs know where you stand in the scheme of things? Let me enlighten you; you all are to be the anonymous patrons, leaders and caretaker of our establishments and will continue to support it with your heavy donations and wise counsel. You shall place strong focus on the churches because the supposed men of Jahweh are the voice of the people and the church is the epicenter of liberation for human beliefs. Continue to donate generously to them for their greed shall overcome them and therefore lead them to self deceit. Continue to taint their pockets for once you have their pocket you have their ears and heart and thus ample control of the dealings in the church. This is all he seeks of you as caretakers; to be the patron of the world and he shall deliver the world at your feet, for you to rule under his strict and careful guidance.

Rest now, all ye lambs of darkness, be still and close your weary eyes for your tainted heart is now heavy with our gospel. Your time of glory will come and you shall all reap the fruit of thy labor and even if you don't live to see it, your generation will and eternal glory shall still remain yours to claim.

Hearts in Atlantis

The eye of March 1585

I am forever lost to this feral emotion that is consuming me....

It was said that on the day of her birth, the last words her mam whispered after she beheld her daughter's beautiful round eyes and full red hair were "my poor, sweet Maroon". That name forever stuck in honor of a dying mother's last words and as Maroon's pale skin illuminated a reddish glow in accordance with the setting sun, I resolved that no other name would have beseemed her more.

Her now fiery dark reddish hair splayed around the beach with the wind and she spun in ecstasy as the voice of the crashing waves sounded like an orchestra to her and thus filled her soul with mirth. She wasn't beautiful, no! She didn't deserve such paltry flattery because she was aesthetically complete, pristine and seraphic in all qualities. She was one not deserving a place on earth but a place in the heavens, one not befitting any mere man but one befitting a demigod.

Even as the shadows struggled to dim the glow from the stars, her eyes sparkled brightly; her teeth shone whiter and her smile for the umpteenth time, sent the butterflies in my underbelly into pandemonium. It was such a wondrous moment that was acutely frozen in my memory, permanent in my subconscious but temporary in reality for our love is but doomed to gloom. I have now seen that strength isn't only of the physical but of the mind, for she has shown me this through the manner at which she has remained calm and joyous while I have been fidgety and troubled.

How she has managed to conjure so much sincere joy in the midst of our dire circumstances is beyond me.

We were two lost hearts, alone with the deep blackness of the night that showed us its power only through the thickness of it essence. After a time, we stopped to admire the cold sea as a thick mist rose, drifting around us and absorbing what little illumination the constellations offered. Beyond the faint mist the stars slowly twinkled out, and above her red hair I beheld the radiant moon struggle to unveil itself in all its befitting glory. It was a moment of peaceful calm where we let our passions and excitement simmer. We did not speak a word; we needed not to for we were comfortably resigned to our faith, which is forever in each others arms.

I gently held her hand and took a leisurely stroll along the shoreline as the tides stroked our feet in the sensuous way only a lover would. Our hearts are filled with mirth but heavy with sorrow but boldly we strolled, never fearful or mindful of the turbulent sea and it’s thrashing waves, for we know not the import of fear. Even when the lines of gray in the dark water aggressively rolled in towards us, gathering strength and fury typical of the turbulent Aegean Sea, we still weren't intimidated by its sheer power and majesty, for the burden in our hearts by far outweighed it.

It was paradise in hell that we sadly wished would last forever.

To fear the sea now would be irrational and unnecessary, for wasn't it from this same sea that we had come forth? We had nothing to fear in it for our fear lay elsewhere, so we chased each other and waded amongst the waves which smashed against our bodies and provoked screams of thrill from us. We took pleasure in the close physical contact that the sea afforded us but it was short-lived because suddenly, I felt the familiar touch of those menacing and invincible eyes scrutinizing us from the blackness.

My joy turned sour and I broke out in cold sweat as all the hairs on my nape stood at all ends.

But my fears were then cursorily repressed as she drew my attention back to her desire riddled countenance. Her bosoms were provokingly sprouting out from her wet gown and I couldn’t help but put them out of their misery, so I guided her towards the nearest shade and not a care was given as my hungry lips found and suckled on her beckoning nipples. Even when the great spell of our passion had quickly rid us off all form of clothing, we still remained oblivious to the watching and disapproving eyes around us for we were in a world where you only got to live once.

It was a beautiful moment filled with vibrant freedom that defined our love to be true, but sadly with no promise of encountering succor in this dark solitude. All these I thought as I was deeply immersed in her. All this I pondered as she desperately wrapped her legs round me in a vice grip while her fingernails painfully burrowed into the small of my back, leaving bloody trails in its wake. We were lost in the throes of our passion but that lingering feeling of melancholy slowly brought me back as I caught a glimpse of her face.

Doesn't she feel it too?

What was to love in a situation filled with so much acrid pain? Was love in the actual sense of its significance, worth any form of mindless sacrifices? Was this plain ole' love or complicated stupidity? Given a second chance, would we make the same choices? 

Quite suddenly, the blinding memory of my plump, sweet and cherry faced Eunice with her rotund buttocks broke to the surface of my consciousness and tears streamed down my face. Then I remember my boys, Damien an infantile demon who was as naughty as they came and Alfred, a sweet angel who had the meekest of souls and a pathetic sob escaped my throat. It was as though a large stake had been wedged into my heart and a pair of pincer had been used to wrench my heart from around it.

The agony and loathing I felt were so strong that my excitement deserted me in a whiff thereby losing my once gallant and ambitious erectile form. My member shamefully lay flaccid in the midst of her carnal fluid and my murky dejection as I slowly sank into an abysmal state of depression. As I spiraled out of emotional control, the sudden thought of rum assailed my head and I felt the sweet crippling feeling of intoxication derail my sense. The thought of roasted pork assaulted my mouth and my taste buds processed, translated and transferred the signals to my brain to do further torture to my soul.

Is our love justified or misplaced?

I dearly miss and crave all those little things I took for granted and wish time would unwind. The saying which goes thus; "you will never know how precious a thing is till you have lost it" makes more connotation to me now and I curse the very day I agreed to enter the service of Captain Phoenix Blackheart. I curse my valiant actions that led to my subsequent rise up the chain of command, which thus led to my access to the finer things, second only to Blackheart's. I curse the day I had first set eyes on sweet Maroon and I curse my big head for allowing the little one bully it into submission.

It had been a battle of wits between common sense and my pecker, if only common sense had prevailed, if only.

I can't explain when, how or where our chemistry reared its mangled head from, all I can tell is that one day we were sneaking glances at each other, the next we were sneaking kisses and the rest as they say is history. It was one of those unheralded conditions that occur with a bang and sweep all parties involved in an uncontrollable cyclone of emotions, afterward leaving them forever laboring in a losing battle to touch the surface of sagacity.

She was a lost soul who was deprived of attention, while I was steamy and still feeling cocky from my very recently quick ascension through the ranks. What she lacked emotionally and physically, I gave thinking it was just sports and never bothering about the effect on her or the future backwash.

Then the unanticipated happened!

Bloody cherubic faced Amor unlatched an arrow our way and she fell victim, forever lost to the one who rightfully held claims to her and now made available to one who didn't care much, or so I thought.

Looking back, her sudden affection for me shouldn't have been in the least surprising because during my sexual shenanigans with her, I had employed quite a few psychological and emotional maneuvers just for thrills. I doltishly never took into consideration that attention, no matter how surreptitious, sorry scratch that and let me rephrase.

I doltishly never took into consideration that attention showed to and received by a lady, no matter how infinitesimal and especially if it was surreptitious will blossom into full fledged and uncontrollable emotional feelings. After all we are only humans and it’s the things forbidden to us that hold our greatest fascination.

So on one faithful night, after everyone had succumbed to the effect of alcohol, she avowed her undying love for me. It is unnerving to note that the brain functions in mystifying ways as mine proved to me that day. My brain had ridiculously refused to acknowledge a single word she uttered in her fifteen minutes litany of love. It was like I zoned out due to terror or the absurdity of her claims shocked my brain into numbness or more understandably, my brain only processed quickly what it deemed important to me, then processed what it deemed as unnecessary darn too tardily.

Whichever the case, it took me about ten minutes after she was silent for the thick blanket of cold realization to settle in. Then quite suddenly something clicked in my head and it was as thought I had been mentally pole axed as a shudder of dread shot through me. So I jolted back to reality and the baritone voice of reasoning came forth spitting a barrage of obscenities. For once the big head took charge and I ended our illicit affair before I reminded her of whom she belonged to and the consequences of her wayward emotions. 

Did I really deserve her love?

All she did as I blatantly rejected her love was to quietly sit down watching me with a strange look I couldn't decipher. She had been too calm for comfort and it had left me unnerved even when she hadn't raised her voice in discord. Her look had been that of a woman who knew she was in ultimate control and her desired expectations were inevitable, but this I didn't know then for I was too caught up in my curses and threats.

She knew she already had my heart because I had already relinquished authority to her when I began to really listen to her worries and care about her welfare, but I hadn't known then.

You see, it’s too darn easy for a man to give his heart away, hence the reason why we guard it jealously and fierily. It is also way easier for a woman to know when a man has lost his heart to her than for the man to know himself because we the men folks remain steadfast in our fight against our emotions. Call itself denial or pigheadedness but lay no blames on the men folks but on the creator because it has been deep-rooted into us by him.

Weeks after I ended our affair, I still couldn't get the thoughts of her off my flaming mind. Where ever I went, I perceived the lingering scent of her hair and I began to ache for her kisses and company. Then she began to haunt my dreams and waking hours till I began to sometimes hear her seductive voice in the wind taunting, daring and harassing me. I blamed it on the fact that I hadn't been with my wife for months and assured myself that it would pass. I continued to delude myself till when there came the day I felt this murderous rage when I witnessed her smiling and holding hands with her husband, Captain Phoenix Blackheart the most wanted man in the whole of Europe. The captain of the Flying Medusa, the supreme conqueror of the sea, the only man who has a £100,000 worth of gold bounty on his head, the only man who struck fear into the hearts of men and sailors alike, the only man who owed his life to me.

It was that moment I realized that she wasn't Amor's victim, I was. It was that moment I realized that I was a doomed man.

My detrimental and wayward emotions raged on till I could take it no longer. So I rekindled our love and a semblance of normality almost returned for me. It seemed like we never separated only that this time she was in complete control as I was hopelessly bounded to her enchantments. It was a complete role reversal as I the hunter became the hunted. But then again, had I always been in control?

Anyway, our sweet and sneaky love affair continued, and how we managed to pull it off without any of the crew members catching up was a miracle. But like all good or bad things [don’t know which in our case], our illicit affair finally came to light and ended through the most unanticipated circumstances.

You see, the rules of nature stipulate that a time will surface when a certain result must present itself after a man and woman have lain together too frequently. The rules of nature have also proposed that the eventuality is inevitability lest one or both are not blessed with the fertility.

Maroon was with a seed and it could never be Blackheart's for the eventual inevitability of that possibility was but null.

My rise to the top came after we hijacked a Portuguese trading ship on its way to Venice to trade gold. It was in this hijack I had saved the captains life after he had been cornered by four Portuguese sailors. My timely intervention had saved his life but not without a cost for he had been maimed in the groin thereby rendering what made him a man permanently ineffective.

The wise men of age proposed that hell hath no fury than a woman scorned.

But what they notably omitted to also mention was that hell, heaven and earth hath no fury than a man betrayed. This lesson I learned the hard way as Blackheart's heart was filled with wrath, bitterness and betrayal. He raved and bellowed in pain after our betrayal came to light and at that moment I realized that underneath that hard and scarred exterior, Blackheart was soft and only human. It was a hard lesson to all on board as Blackheart's human side was forced out by his only weakness, by the betrayal of the only woman he loved.

His decision was swift and final and we immediately set sail for the island of Thera.

There is a legend amongst the men of the sea, in this legend it was said that Poseidon the god of the sea and Earth shaker decided to have children amongst men since the other gods were doing the same. So he created an island where he begat his children and it was called Thera. The children of Poseidon under the rule of King Atlas the first became conquerors and conquered a great part of Greece. They were feared for they swept into your land from the sea and made it theirs and they were feared for they were very advanced in weaponry and tactics. Their men and women alike were handsome and beautiful warriors and both very adept in warfare. It was said that they rained balls of flames from their ships and burned the lands to cinder, it was said that they could never be bested in a physical combat, it was said that they were indestructible.

For years, long after the passing of King Atlas, they reigned supreme and in their pride, they forgot their god who made them what they were. Poseidon's wrath was so great that on the eye of March he destroyed his children and the island in a catastrophic occurrence unbeknownst to mankind. It was said that the earth and sea shook and rippled in fury and it was said that the screams of the inhabitants of Thera could be heard from a great distance across the sea as the island was swallowed completely. The legend also states that every decade on the eye of March the island magically re emerges at midnight and submerges again before the rise of the next day. It is said that Poseidon wills this as a constant reminder to man of the extent if his wrath and the consequences of their betrayal. It was also said that shortly before the island submerges again amidst the rumbling of the earth, the sweet and dreamy voices of merwomen could be heard singing the sad account of the inhabitants of Thera.

A bullet to the head or being thrown overboard would have sufficed but Blackheart opted for Thera instead. He claimed that it was destiny for our betrayal to have occurred on the year the fabled island of Thera was to resurface; he claimed that Poseidon was helping him dispense justice like he did to his children long ago. So we made speed for where the fabled island was to submerge again and got there two days before the eye. In my heart I prayed that the stories were false but as destiny would have it, on the midnight of the eye of March the island magically came before us and we were silently put aboard a small raft and left to our own device.

Isn't it ironic that the name which was given to her was also the name for the fate Blackheart has left us to? Do I call this destiny?

It seems like we have spent a lifetime here rather than twenty three hours. In our heart we knew our time was near but still we hoped for some divine intervention we knew deep down will never come. So we take solace in the fact that we were two heart supposedly in love and going to a better place together.

Even as we felt the slight tremble of the earth underneath us which signified that it had begun, we held on tightly. Even as we heard the sad melodic voices from the sea singing, we laughed with great mirth and even when the darkness drew closer we held on to each other naked, kissing and weeping for we were two hearts resigned to our tragic fate but filled with love all the same.