Ezekiel Tobit

Chapter VII Mary Adler

The Big One was a theory of a great catastrophe that would end the world and the existence of all human beings, the redemption of all the living and the dead but because of an unknown circumstance it was halted, the Big One was incomplete. A portion of the surviving part of humanity rejoiced about the news even though it had taken the lives of three fourths of the Earth's population. The premonition was a series of shaking of tectonic plates, volcanic eruptions, tornadoes, and other sorts of disasters.

The people after the occurrence of the Big One had suddenly  become too pious that they'd built the civilization of today; however, some of those who have devoted themselves into their established religion rigorously have been devoured by too much desire, too much devotion that they'd become blinded of what's morally righteous and not, their organization have been taken advantage by demons, leading them into believing a falsified belief they'd thought that could save them, instead they were used in order to give birth to another type of evil that is now heavily influencing the mass. The one they thought was keen faith was a distorted fear that has now ripen into an occult of evilness.

It's only a myth but it's undeniable. The world is certainly a new version of hell itself, and humans, no matter what their nature is, they still are another version of demons that will do anything in order to save their own skin, and each one of them has the potential to unlock the beast hiding inside. Moreover, religion is not the actual basis of salvation. Religion is only a guiding light but it's not the road to heaven of some sort. It's only in the doing of an individual that they can be saved, it's up to someone whether to live his life in goodness or the opposite.

Mary walks slowly towards me, the once fearful expression living in her face is now replaced with indescribable sight of holiness and a highlight of sophisticated beauty that is filled with buoyancy. She looks like an angel, or rather a goddess and her eyes have become a pool of innocence as I realized.

"You seem bothered Ezekiel," she uttered the words so softly as if her voice were a sound of a hundred angels singing harmoniously for an orchestra. But the fact that she knows my name is an odd and shocking phenomenon. "I am not," I replied as amicable as possible as it may sound, shrugging off the nonsense thought in the process. "No you are not," she urged, nearing me and reaching out her hand to touch my cheeks. Her hands were not as soft like Lucia's but they're much comforting. "What are you doing?" I asked her in an obvious liking. "You're in deep pain," she speaks. "You're," she pauses, her expression is contorting into that of a worried look.

What the? My feelings are suddenly twisting like they were revolting knots. The pit of my stomach does a series of back flips and flips. She looks into the deepest parts of my dark eyes as I stared  back into hers. Our stares are reciprocating and that's when the dark history of her past and mine twisted into an unreliable kaleidoscope. I'm starting to get dizzy as her dark history is dominating mine. I'm falling into the abyss of the sceneries that consist of parts that complete her life and her whole being.

The whole place was suddenly filled with the smell of burning incense. I see two young children kneeling in front of an altar in a shrine.

"Can we please not light incense and candles when we visit the temple again Big Sis? I don't like their smell." The boy around five years of age grumbled while kneeling beside his sister who is fully concentrated in her prayers.

"Big Sis, look!" The boy shouted in amazement. He was pointing his index finger at my direction.

Does he see me?

"Sis, he has wings. He's coming this way. He looks bad news."

Even here? Even in the recesses of her memories I'm called bad? A work of evil?