He was awake again, the man with the terrible wounds. Blinking through red slits he "looked" up at me. In a tattered rasp he said,.."Agony, and I have become intimate friends." His voice was like wind over jagged glass. "We share the same body, the same nightmares."
The man,..the Angel? ..coughed molten gold from his ruined lips.
"Pain raiths, Demons, did this to me." "Those wretched children of Hades that rejoice in their dominion over your world."
"For idle amusement they plucked out my eyes, and tore off my wings." "For spites sake they infected my soul with doubt, and so severed my umbilical to Paradise,..Elysium."
After these words the wounded man mercifully drifted again into sleep. The only sound that cruel scrape of thin breath over sharp glass. At midnight there was a strange distant thunder,.. he stirred again, and awoke.
He opened empty sockets smiled sadly, and said,..."Silly Rabbit." "You have not escaped the fire." "You watched your calenders, held your breath for "Y2K",..then went back to sleep.
"But G-ds time is 'G-ds' time." "She will light Her candles, and burn Her worlds when She pleases."
The man/Angel gently touched my arm, and said..."These are the Days foretold to you!" "Your Tribulation 'has' come." With a weary resignation he said.."Go to the window, and look at the sky."
I did. I looked. It was gone. There was no sky. No day, no night, no moon, nor clouds, nor stars. Just void.
Void.
A great silent Nothing.
"As it was in the beginning." Whispered the Angel." "Is now, and shall be forever."
I gazed into Heavens empty Chalice. Here at last was an answer to Faith. A "Sign", and most Terrible Wonder.
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(...from my unpublished anthology of stories, and rants)
