It's official! We threw out the rotting pumpkins over the weekend. Don't they look to be in a sad state on the fireplace mantel?
***
Today's featured writing is a new short story about a thing that people called God.
The Thing They Called God
God finally came one day. He finally
made himself visible to the world. At
least that's how people perceived it. God had finally come as promised in all
the ancient books and scriptures. Again, at least that's who people believed it
was.
The thing they called God just
appeared one day in the sky. It was an astronomical sized face that really
wasn't much of a face. It was more of a mask that covered a face with eyes that
shone with not much to be seen in them. There was a recognizable nose and
mouth. But these things were only made evident in the mask that was worn over
the face of the thing they called God. Being that it was astronomical in size;
wherever you happened to be in the world, one would look up in the sky to see
the thing that they called God.
On that very day the entire
world's population, billions of them, stopped what they were doing to come out
of their houses, places of work, schools, places of worship—wherever they were—to
look up in awe, wonder and fear to contemplate at what they were seeing. Every
news source and media platform reported the event. All bandwidth of the Earth's
media was used to report the final arrival of the thing they called God.
Initially, people were fearful,
and were not sure what it meant. What was the thing they called God going to
do? People waved at it, prayed to it and knelt down in hopes to earn favor. But
the thing they called God wasn't the least bit responsive, didn't seem to care
what people were doing. It made no effort to communicate or acknowledge humans.
It just remained in the sky, staring at the people below with eyes that had no
color or life. It was expressionless.
This wonder and awe of this
worldwide phenomenon went on for a couple of days. Eventually people went back
to their usual activities and understood that the thing they called God simply
had come as promised. Perhaps this was the next stage in Earth's history. For
thousands of years there was a portion of humanity that always believed in God—believed
in all the things written in the ancient scriptures and texts. There was also a
portion of people who did not believe in God. But now it was there, up in the
sky. The existence of God was completely undebatable. It even had the ability
to defy science. We know that the Earth is round and surrounded by the vast
depth of space. Depending on where you are on Earth, where you look in the sky
you see a different view which depends on the positioning of the Earth and your
location. But now it was almost as if the entire world were flat and seeing the
same thing; just the face of the thing they called God. As for atheists, they
couldn't argue with what was physically present even though it defied all
science and logic. But it was there. So they naturally begin to believe in the
existence of God. Seeing, after all, is believing.
***
Within exactly one week from the
time that the thing they called God first arrived, changes began to take place
on the earth. These changes were horrible! It started with all world’s leaders;
presidents, prime ministers, governors, kings, dictators, mayors of cities,
police commissioners, even executives of corporations—anyone who served a
leadership role for their location. They suddenly died in a horrible way.
There were two possible means of
this horrible death. The first means began with a sharp headache which grew to
an unbearable magnitude. The person suffering this soon death felt like his or
her head were about to explode. Then, finally, when screaming from the
overwhelming pain; the head would physically explode. This explosion resulted
in blood and brains spraying all over the nearby surroundings.
The second means involved a
feeling of overwhelming heat. The person suffering this death complained that
he or she felt like they were about to burst into flames. It wasn't uncommon
for them to remove articles of clothing or look for nearby water to splash on
themselves. But soon, their bodies began to melt as-if they had burst into
flames. It was the most God-awful thing watching a sufferer of this death
screaming in horror as their face melted along with the rest of the body. The
end result was a heap of blood, guts and bones that lay on the ground.
The tragic, horrible deaths were
surely caused by the thing they called God. The survivors, of were terribly
shocked and grief stricken. But after a day or so of the tragedy, there were
people who began to speculate that perhaps it was only natural for God to
destroy its leaders. The world no longer needed leaders. The world had the
thing they called God to rule its people. Additionally, it was speculated that
the majority—if not all—of the world's leaders were corrupted and sinister;
some of them downright evil. Again, it was only natural for the thing they
called God to destroy these people.
And then countless people
throughout the world now had an important job to do. They had to clean up all
the blood, guts and remains of the world's leaders. It couldn't have been
expected of emergency services to do all of this alone. So people volunteered
to help with the horrible mess. It was beginning to smell pretty bad due to
decaying rotting flesh that could soon cause diseases and plague.
But they couldn’t get this done
fast enough for the on the very next day, the thing they called God caused a
new tragedy. This time he caused all the wealthy throughout the world to die in
a similar fashion to the world’s leaders; heads exploding or body suddenly
melting into the ground as if burning. There were quite a few of them, assuming
you are not aware of how many wealthy people there are. Even the loved ones of
those world's wealthiest people were considered equally wealthy. They were
destroyed as well.
But wealth is a relative thing.
Who exactly was qualified to be wealthy?
It seemed to be people who were
multi-millionaires or billionaires. The thing they called God wasn't so much
interested in that moment of people with high paying careers and earning six
figure salaries. Sure, those people are wealthier and better off than we are.
But in the second round of deaths brought on by the thing they called God, it
was the multi-millionaires and billionaires who had been destroyed. I'm sure
you can imagine just how much tragedy had occurred during the second wave of
deaths.
The world now had additional work
to do, clean up the gruesome remains of the wealthy people along with the world
leaders before disease and plague spread.
Oh, but it got even worse. On
the third day the thing they called God eliminated accomplished people; people
who had reached a certain degree of success in their lives—not necessarily
multi-millionaires or billionaires. These would have been professional
athletes, well known actors and actresses, popular musicians, popular artists—anyone
who spent their life chasing a dream to be a superstar. They were destroyed by
the thing they called God. It was the same tragedy; heads exploding or body
suddenly melting into the ground as if burning. And of course there were plenty
of loved ones who grieved and mourned over the deaths of the accomplished
people.
It was on the third round of
deaths that people began to show some resentment towards the thing they called
God. After all, just because someone chased a dream and had success didn't
necessarily make them a bad person. Many of those accomplished people had
donated to charities and helped those in need. They were loving people. Why did
the thing they called God have to destroy them?
But just to prove a point, the
thing they called God sent a warning to the world by destroying those people
who were angry; those people who looked up at the sky and shook their fist at
the thing they called God while questioning its reasoning. Immediately, they
experienced the wrath with the usual death; heads exploding or body suddenly
melting into the ground as if burning.
Earth’s survivors of the first
three waves of deaths learned their lesson not to question when the thing they called
God killed certain people. After all, this could very well have been the apocalypse
that had mentioned in many ancient texts. People who reached this conclusion
turned to their religions and began practicing the things they were taught to
value. Perhaps it was best not to consider one’s own selfish needs while questioning
the motives of the thing they called God
By the fourth day things were
quiet with the thing they called God—not that it ever said anything. But there
were no waves of killings which gave the surviving population of Earth a chance
to hurry and clean the blood and guts that were splattered everywhere. The dead
were stacking up all over streets, houses, stores, places of business, and places
of worship. Earth was a total disaster, and it was beginning to smell due to
the overwhelming amount of rotting flesh. The survivors of Earth worked day and
night to try to clean.
There were people who almost
spoke up to the thing they called God, begging him not to cause any more waves
of death. Earth needed a chance to be clean. People feared that their food and
water would soon be poisoned. But they knew better. They knew that this would
be considered questioning and going against the will of God. Many survivors were going on days without
sleep while cleaning up the dead. Most—if not all people—were practicing
humbleness and placing their selfish perceptions aside by not questioning the
reasoning of the thing they called God. It was best to demonstrate selfless
acts while understating the transformation of becoming unified with the mind of
God. People continued to move forward with cleaning the decaying mess that had
been created by the thing they called God.
This quiet stage had gone on for
about a week. By the end of this quiet stage, much of the Earth had been
cleaned up. Those still alive were now exhausted, but they did their best to
keep themselves together. They almost had a sense of accomplishment; feeling
that they succeeded in a certain test or trial that had been issued by the
thing they called God.
But the thing they called God
had other plans. Around this time there was a new wave of deaths. This time the
world's intelligent and educated people were eliminated; all scientists,
doctors, engineers and the likes. They were all put to death like in the
previous waves of deaths; heads exploding or body suddenly melting into the
ground as if burning. It was another horrible mess. The loved ones were
mortified and deeply saddened. Some people were feeling discouraged not to
mention outraged and unable to contain their contempt. There were a few who
spoke up to the thing they called God. Doctors, scientists, engineers and the
likes were all good people. They had helped the world many times over. What
could they have possibly done that was so wrong?
Of course the people who
complained experienced the usual death. As for the wise people who remained silent;
they understood why the thing the thing they called God eliminated doctors,
scientists and engineers. It’s because these people would have been able to
help by creating innovative ways to overcome this new ugly phase of Earth. The
thing they called God didn't want educated and intelligent people to help
humanity—maybe even overcome the will of the thing they called God. So they
were done away with.
A couple days passed, and alas,
there was another wave of deaths. What could the thing they called God want to
get rid of now? All the world leaders were gone, the wealthy, highly
accomplished people, and the educated people. Who could God have possibly wanted
to eliminate?
It was the world's beautiful and
talented people. They weren't necessary successful and accomplished. Yet they
had exceptional talents or blessings. Many were artists, musicians, writers,
poets; some of them were simply charismatic people who had a way of almost
healing others by simply their presence. Other people were simply beautiful who
made others feel good when looked at. The world's lovers were taken away as
well. It seemed that this wave hit anyone who represented the beautiful facets
of humanity; some of those things being qualities that religions cited to be
models for people to strive for. People with divine gifts were killed by the
thing they called god; heads exploding or body suddenly melting into the ground
as if burning. And needless to say they had so many loved ones who would sorely
miss them. All the world could do was pull themselves together and resume
cleaning the bloody, decaying mess from the Earth.
After killing the people with
exceptional talents and blessings, the thing they called God seemed to be done
with its waves of deaths. It seemed satisfied; up there in the sky and looking
down at the Earth; never moving or exhibiting facial expressions. It just
watched in silence and never offered one bit of encouragement to humanity as it
cleaned the bloody mess that was caused by the very thing they called God.
But killings weren’t done away
with completely. It was around this time when the killings were small scale. In
these times, without warning, the thing they called God would created a
horrible death for just a few people. It did this in the usual manner; heads
exploding or body suddenly melting into the ground as if burning. And there was
no correlation; no understandable reason why that particular person or small group
of people had been killed. The act was completely random. And this is when
panic began to reignite among the Earth's survivors. Soon people feared that they
would be next.
It wasn’t uncommon for someone
to be so struck by the anticipation of being the next to die. He or she felt as
though they could interpret the writing on the wall; almost know for certain
that they would be next. Someone in this condition might have gone out to the
street to kneel before the thing they called God to pray and beg for life to be
spared. He or she promised to be obedient servant and learn to live in harmony.
But the thing they called God
wasn't there to negotiate with humanity. As the human knelt in the street to
pray, he or she would experience the horrible death; head exploding or body
suddenly melting into the ground as if burning which left a heaping mess of
blood and guts on the street. It served as an example that the thing they
called God was not to be reasoned or negotiated with. This is what survivors
understood.
There were others who were
equally fearful of being next to die but had a different solution. Since these
were such ugly times for the Earth, a person in a worrisome state actually
killed a family member, friend, or merely someone nearby as a sacrifice to
appease the thing they called God. Maybe if he or she killed for the thing they
called God, it would spare the killer’s life. One might think this would have
been a bad idea because it would have resulted in punishment. But surprisingly,
it seemed to have worked. It granted the wished-for effect which spared the
killer's life.
So was this considered negotiating?
Not at all! It was soon realized
that these killing acts only prolonged the killers' duration of life by a few
days or a week. The thing they called God followed through with its intent to
kill the original person whose life had simply been prolonged by offering
sacrifices. For these people it came down to one question: what would you do to
prolong your life for a few more days on Earth? Would you kill your fellow man?
***
Needless to say, life had become
very different on the Earth. People had a new purpose and direction. Once upon
a time people woke up in the morning, ate breakfast and went to work or school.
But the simple acts of eating breakfast and going to work to earn money could
have been considered selfish deeds. And these selfish deeds could have resulted
in death by the thing they called God. At least this is what people speculated.
Again, they were looking for any way to appease the thing they called God to
avoid the horrible deaths. And so during this new time on Earth, people would
wake up in the morning to assemble out in the streets to begin cleaning the
decaying mess of those who had been killed. And they were doing it not to clean
their own environment; make it healthy and beautiful for themselves. Rather they
were cleaning the blood and guts to make the world beautiful for the thing they
called God. People wanted to make sure that the thing they called god had no
reminder of what it had done. People wanted to ensure that the world below the
thing they called God remained beautiful. This is a step that many of the Earth
survivors took towards being devoted servants to the thing they called God. They
did not start their day by eating breakfast, grooming themselves or putting on
clean clothes. The immediately went out into the street to find ways to appease
the thing they called God.
Of course they did have to do
selfish acts to survive. Eating was part of it. But it was done late in the
evening, hidden in the houses so that the thing they called God would not have
to see. Surely it knew that people were eating, but hopefully it was aware they
were hiding in an attempt to be respectful, shrouding their weakness and needs
for food. Nothing was ever cooked during these times. Cooking food has a nice
smell which makes people happy. People knew that the thing they called God did
not like happiness. Definitely they wouldn't have cooked or eaten meat. Again,
meat smells wonderful when cooked and eating meat strengthens the body. Eating
meat was considered terribly selfish. It was best to just open a can of peaches
or find some crackers in the cupboard. If one was lucky, he or she might have
received a visit from a neighbor, offering canned food or boxes of crackers or
chips. But they didn't do it out of concern for one's neighbor. They did it to
demonstrate selflessness, to show the thing they called God that he or she was
rejecting their selfish needs and desires. Perhaps this would have spared or
prolonged life on Earth.
There was a brief moment during this
time when devoted servants would go out into the street in the early morning to
bow down while looking up in the sky in worship to the thing they called God. They
gave glory, praise and thanks for another day to be alive. But you see this
practice actually elevated the spirits of the devoted servants which was
forbidden. So the thing they called God immediately destroyed the person who
was praying in the morning. There was no need to pray. Praying was a selfish
thing to do, and demonstrated hope of seeking favor with the thing they called
God. The only way to give true praise and glory to the thing they called God
was to live in constant fear while rejecting one’s own selfish desires and
needs. For that matter, praying was soon abolished by the remainder of Earths
people. There was no point.
***
One day, there was a new wave of
massive deaths that took place on Earth. The thing they called God did this to
women. It was noticed that when men would work and clean up the bloody mess of
those who had been killed that their spirits were lifted when women were
nearby. All it took was simple conversation, receiving a smile or a momentary
locking of eyes. Maybe it was simply standing in the distance and noticing how beautiful
a woman is. Whatever pleasure it was that men had towards women, it was
unacceptable to the thing they called god. There was to be no pleasure, happiness
or lifting of spirits. For that matter, the thing they called God did away with
the Earth's women.
It was done in a horrible
manner, not like before; heads exploding or body suddenly melting into the
ground as if burning. This time women were given horrible cramps in their lower
abdomens to the point of keeling over on the street. From there they would give
birth to a dozen or more poisonous vipers that tore their way out through the
woman's vagina. She would lay there screaming in terror while witnessing what
was happening. And it was a bloody mess because the vipers were ripping their
way out. Then the vipers would repeatedly bite the woman with their poison
before feasting on her flesh.
Men would pass the women by on
the streets and ignore them while they were being devoured for hours by the serpents.
And they wouldn't dare complain of the horror. They kept their mouths shut and
stayed away to avoid punishment.
Then there was another wave of
deaths. This time it was the friends. There were now only men remaining on the
earth who began to form friendships to help cope with the horrible events
taking place. The thing they called God noticed that these friendships were uplifting
and positive. This was unacceptable to the thing they called God. There were to
be no good feelings shared between friends, even if it were kind words shared
between people. So the thing they called God caused the friends to die; heads
exploding or body suddenly melting into the ground as if burning.
All that survived was a
population of Earth's people who remained in fear while distancing themselves
from one another. They worked as slaves to clean up the bloody mess and remain
of those who had been killed. Earth’s survivors were servants to the thing they
called God; never seeking benefit—even the benefit of trying to stay alive.
There were a handful of people
on Earth's population who had watched the horrible times since it all started.
They actually thought to themselves, "This isn't God. God doesn't do these
horrible things. This is some evil entity that has somehow found its way into
our world to cause horrible things to happen to the human race.” But they
wouldn't dare voice this for they knew it would result in a horrible death.
Then again, maybe that was the
paradox. Maybe it was better to be one of the first people who had been killed
by the thing they called God than to waste one's life trying to appease the
thing they called God by transforming into empty, lifeless servants.
The End!
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