Phoenix Rises

EntreriRose

Nothingness. Sheer, nauseating darkness blankets the world in an oppressive,

never-ending night. No sound is able to penetrate the black, cannot make audible the

anguished cries of the poor souls lost in the sea of pitch. All sense, all feel, all desire

cease to exist.

What I assume to be my hand brushes against my face in a vain effort to push

back my desiccated, matted hair. It had been beautiful once, its silken soft length dancing

on the wind. Now it is merely another dead thing, a shriveled husk of what once had

been in this dense, paralyzed world. Tossing it from my eyes, whose inner light had long

since flown, did little to aid me in my blind plight. I tried futilely to view the earth beneath

my feet, to strain my sight on an image that could not be seen. The stench of decay fills

the stagnant air, causes hot bile to rise in my constricted throat.

Madness creep in closer, stalking the exhausted, lifeless mind. Were there any

emotion remaining in my marble heart I would weep from the dizzying torture of it all.

But all water becomes waste and my eyes are left as barren plains of dust.

Lo! What light is this which so suddenly illuminates this globe of black; a scorching

fire to purge the dark from the world? From my soul? What scourge has the heavens

now loosed upon this dying land, to plunge it further into the abysses? Some figure, cruel

and radiant, with regal bearing and cloak of flames. An agent of that final death for

which I have so long yearned!

I could cry out, would that the muscle of my voice had strength, to win the

attention of this terrible celestial being. No need. I am the focus of his crimson sights; his

fiery strides close the inky gap between. Drawing near, the mists cleared from my

distorted vision. Not a fiend nor a ghastly creature whose talons lash out to tear my

flesh, but a fair seraph of the highest choir whose very presence was music.

Pure obsidian strands spilled from his crown, cascading gently about a smooth

alabaster face encrusted with two flashing dusky jewels. Might sat in his arms, wisdom on

his brow and salvation in his gaze. Feather soft lips extended toward my own, a powerful

magnet of flame.

His kiss was benediction; it seized my heart and impassioned its dormant desire.

The electric caress imbued me with the inferno of life, crashed over my broken spirit like

a tide to efface my sinful oblivion. Ardent blaze engulfed my being, lifted my shattered

body from the vanished ground. Upwards, into the blinding light of my angelic savior. All

torment, all pain, incinerated to faint, smokey wisps of a dream.

Bliss . . . new life in the arms of that entrancing keeper, a freedom never to be

described. Enlightenment never to be spoken.