Red Giant Part 4

RED GIANT
Part 4: Thief in the Night

535 AD – An Island in the Sundra Strait
The Island had been quite for over 100 years. It’s lush jungles teeming with life in every form had long forgotten the God on whose breast they tread on. The natives no longer gave worship with sacrifices and with prayers. Too long have they been allowed to wallow in their inequity and irreverence. They needed to be reminded – the world needed to be reminded.

As the sun spooked through canopy, Nisnash was carefully collecting the red berries needed for tonight’s festivities. Only the freshest and brightest berries would do. Nisnash took pride in his work. He spotted an especially bright grove past the waterfall and began to wade across the stream. He was halfway across when the ground moved. He stopped and listened – there was a rumbling that faded away from him. He stood motionless until the rumble faded completely. Above him all the birds left their nests and blotted the sky. He turned towards the great mountain in the distance – there was smoke. Again the ground lurched and Nisnash was thrown off his balance. He splashed down in the stream, losing his basket of berries to the rushing water. He stared up at the mountain – more smoke. His thoughts turned to his family. His children playing in the village. His wife preparing the meal. Before he could get up to run to them, the mountain spat out Hell from its mouth. Nisnash ceased to exist.

China – The Capitol city of Jiankang
The palace floors were cold on Emperor Wu’s feet. With the news that Mars had been seen in the Dipper constellation - one of the twenty-eight mansions of the Chinese constellations, thus heralding ill fortune – he decide to walk bear foot in hope of diverting the bad omen. The morning chill was still embedded in the stones so he made his way to the balcony and warmed himself in the sunlight. It was then that he noticed the cloud beginning to form in the southern sky. It’s shadow crawled across the sun and across his bare feet. Emperor Wu watched till it covered the whole of the heavens and sun was but a red plate suspended in the haze.

The Roman Empire - The city of Constantinople
Justinian the Great awoke to darkness. Leaving his bed, he walked to the window and gazed outside. A heavy smoke dominated the world and below him Rome was in shadows. He looked up again towards the sun and watched as scarlet surface rippled with ashen waves, carried by a warm wind. To the left of the sun, hs attention was diverted - it was the moon, still visible in the grayness. Crescent and carrying within it's arms two bright stars. He wondered aloud, "What wickedness is this?"

Philistia – The city of Gath
Goliath removed the lid to his sarcophagus and tasted the bitter air of his cave. Along the side of the stone casket a withered woman lay naked, crumpled. Her hair grey and tangled, her skin dark and scared. Around her mouth crusted blood. Goliath walked past her and towards the cold draft coming from the darkness ahead of him. He sensed something – something was off. He could see the opening ahead of him, and the gloom that peered inside. The giant emerged and looked up. For the first time in over 450 years, he saw the sun. It’s rays held back by some dark cloud sent from the bowels of hades, they could not hurt him now. Now, he could feed unrestricted. Now, the time was right for his revenge against the one man that had bettered him in battle – Constantine. Although he know the emperor was long since dead, he would travel to his land and defile it. Curse it.

From the book: De Bello Persico, by Procopius of Caesarea
"No one knew from whence the great plague came to Rome, but at it’s height, over 5,000 people a day died within its walls. In it’s early stages this plague ravaged the land under a dark red sun – it seemed that even the heavens were infected by this ungodly pestilence. In the streets the dead took roost. There was no where left to place them, or bury their infected flesh. From their skin blood ran freely. Boils or holes would open up to the air and let loose the red death that rested inside the corrupted bodys. The Byzantine Emperor Justinian, already taxed by his funding of the war against the Vandals and the Ostrogoth Kingdom, was poorly prepared to deal with the plague. Even he himself contracted the plague but managed to survive – forever regulated to run his kingdom from his quarantined home until his death in 565. It is now clear that the long term effect of this scourge led to the direct fall of the Christian empires of this age and beyond."

565 AD – The City of Gath
The skies have cleared and so once again Goliath rests. The tomb is now home to 3 lost souls. In the corner an aged Justinian hunches, his yellow eyes darting over his new home. His neck lies exposed, a bite mark made years ago by his master, who left him to live out his days in ruin. In life he was called “the great” - now he will be called, “The Black Death.”

“And now was acknowledged the presence of the Red Death. He had come like a thief in the night. And one by one dropped the revellers in the blood-bedewed halls of their revel, and died each in the despairing posture of his fall. And the life of the ebony clock went out with that of the last of the gay. And the flames of the tripods expired. And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all.”

From the Masque of Red Death – Edgar Allan Poe