Father?

I hear you knocking upon my door

You stink of metal, how queer

Your voice does not reach me, only rasps and gasps

I worry.

You had become quite morose after Mother’s passing

It’s quite unusual for you to leave your chambers

Let alone on a night this haunting

I see a crimson light flood my room.

I hurry back into bed, fearful of the night.

Did this anger you?

I hear knocking become desperate pounding

But you stay silent

Not uttering a word

That is when I hear it.

Thuds in the wall, vermin scattering, no doubt

No wait, that can’t be it

The noise is far too loud

Am I just paranoid?

You told me yourself, Father,

To prepare for when our god forsakes us

People called you mad

But is this what you meant

Almost as a response, I hear a twisted laugh outside my room

A fox or something more sinister?

I don’t feel well.

In the span of a cough, my body begins to reject itself

Blood pools at my sides.

Steeping into my bedsheets

As rivulets run down from my head to my feet

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You have stopped pounding on my door?

Why?

Did I misbehave?

Should I have opened the door?

But you told me not to!

When will it end?

Questions flood my mind

The church never spoke of such an event

I get interrupted by a familiar voice outside my door.

Brother, is that you?

Have you come to check on me

Or is it simply a facade

Seconds pass and your voice leaves me again

The stench of metal.

Why have both of you abandoned me

I leave my bed once more.

Stepping forward, I try to glimpse out of the window

Only to be met with bodies of suffering men and women hanging off the tips of cathedrals

Underneath a sky congealed in crimson

What is happening?

I beg you Father, come and save me

My body is growing weaker by the second

I crave your loving embrace

Your knocks resume

Please forgive me.

I do not have the strength to resist

No longer do I care what you have said, I wish to be freed from this nightmare

I open the door.

Blood pours out of my mouth as I do

Where are you?

Father, where is my brother?

Both my questions get answered once I see you standing over a pile of gore

You’re not my father.

Who are you?

Your body is no longer human

Nothing left but muscle and bone

With the stench of metal clinging to your very being

I hear it.

The laugh from my window

I hear it!

It was not a laugh after all

But just a plea from a fading soul

Please do not come closer.

Your jaws are far too large

Your eyes are far too wide

Your spine is far too needle-like

Please, I beg you!

A hidden choir sings a song both mellifluous and overwhelmingly loud

A song of lament.

Please, stay away, allow me one mor—

The church bell dings in the distance.