The Elements of Darkness: Element #1 Suffering

Worlds End

One Man's Decent

December 20 2012, the day the world would end.

When I awoke this morning in my dorm room nothing was different. It was the same
as always for me, the life I always thought I’d have in college. Long nights in my dorm
room, only contact with my old friends from high school was trough Facebook and
emails, spending most of my time studying and avoiding the people of Wyoming. After
spending half the day in my room reading the texts for my test tomorrow, which
everyone else in the class isn’t studying for laughing that the test will never be given, I’ll
laugh at them when they all fail. Maybe getting my medical tech degree will brighten my
outlook. Best not to get my hopes up though.

Time for a walk; too much sitting and I won’t be ready for track season.

The outside is the same as ever, same small old town, same people, same old style
shops that are usually found in rural Wyoming. As I walked passed all the people I had
no intention of meeting and all the shops holding nothing in the way of entertainment,
I couldn’t help but wonder if I would have been better off staying in my own little
hometown in Kansas. At least I wouldn’t have to meet anyone new, and I wouldn’t have
to look at all the happy couples that occupy Main Street at this hour. I even recognized
one couple on sitting on my favorite bench by the fountain from my physics class. Why
do so many people delude themselves with love at such a young age?

I look at my watch, 23:58. Everyone around me immediately turned to look at me as my
hysterical laughter erupts from the knowledge that the day is almost over. Nothing even
happened today except some looting in big cities and people huddling in their homes
saying goodbye over some crackpot idea that the world would end on a day of such little
significance.

Now that I am done laughing I can’t help but feel awkward about all the attention I
attracted during my musings. But wait, what happened to the couple sitting on the
bench. The boy is gone and the girl is just sitting there with a confused look on her face.
Odd, the guy isn’t anywhere and his bag is still leaning gently against the bench with its
front pocket hanging open to reveal a small dark velvet ring box. Really? I never thought
someone would disappear moments before proposing.

As my gaze turns back to the girl, I barely have the time to get a short glance at her face
with it’s twin rivulets of tears gently flowing down her face before she disappears. Just
gone. No flash, no sound, no reaction, just gone.

In fact everyone is gone. It’s just me walking down this empty street. Where did
everyone go? Did the world really end? But wait I am still here. Could it be that my

disbelief saved me. Was the meek really going to inherit the earth? Somewhere is there
another like me standing alone in their own perfectly quiet town?
I am distracted by my watches 17:15 alarm. That can’t be right it should only be a few
minutes after midnight.

A glimpse of my foot allows me to see the effects of the call to Armageddon. With a soft
clink 13 chains fly out of the perfectly smooth pavement a surgically clean hook at the
end of every one. I can do nothing but stare in horror as the first two hooks slam into my
ankles pinning my feet to the ground before slowly tearing their way into my skin
snapping the many tendons of my feet like so much string before imbedding their
backwards curving hooks into my calcaneus (the bone that comprises the human heel).
The next set of hooks approach from either side easily catching the middles of my
wrists, just as I was thinking of trying to remove the hooks from my feet, not so luckily
these go right between my radius and ulna strait into the nerves and veins clustered
there causing the second most painful event of my life and certainly the bloodiest.
These waste no time in pulling my arms away from my chest and stretching my arms as
far as they can go. I am no stranger to pain, if I was, I might have been able to hide
away inside my head, instead I am completely aware of all that is happening and
surprisingly fascinated by the current events. Then two of the hooks approach from
behind me slamming down into my shoulder braking my collarbone in an instant
scraping down my ball joint until their backward facing barbs are all the way in, causing
the set of muscles that control neck movement to spasm forcing my head to face
forward. My head fogs over so that I hear more than feel the hooks slide gently into my
elbows then steadily pulling downward causing the bones of my wrist to crack from the
strain.

A thought goes through my mind I am going to die here. Memories appear before my
eyes like silent videos. Graduation day at my high school, the first day I looked at myself
in the mirror and life was good. That was the year I finally started lifting weights and my
body changed from a scrawny 112 pound boy to a 140 pound man. Hours of playing
video-games with my brother went by in mere seconds. My first girlfriend sat in the
passenger seat of my car smoking a cherry flavored cigar while I tried to talk her out of
it, her handing it to me. Then me taking a pull shortly before the memory snaps into the
next scene. Me and my roommate staying up all night on our bunk beds stratigizing for
the next race. Wait, I had a roommate? I struggle to bring up more memories of him.
Nothing, like he never existed. My mind snaps back into focus as the chains begin to
pull harder. I can do nothing but wait for the end.

Blood flows swiftly from my knees which were impaled about the same time as my
elbows without me even noticing it; they are being slowly pulled toward the pavement.
Then my ankles break and my knees slam into the ground where hooks eleven and
twelve insert themselves right inside my pelvis, rupturing my kidneys and releasing their
burning toxins. In a flash the last chain whips around my head hooking the underside of
my jaw and with a dull crack the bones of my neck burst through my throat.

I’m can see my entire twisted bloody body being torn apart by the now crimson hooks,
I put a spectral hand in front of my face and discover a small bright silver chain firmly
attached to a ring on my wrist. In fact it seems that I have been removed from my body.

A loud clank and I am yanked toward the ground.

Another clank and my feet go through the cement without any resistance.

Whatever is pulling me down increases its speed.

My mind fills with dread as my head approaches the ground. I find the strength to raise
up my hand, barely grabbing my dismembered foot.

The silver chains pull viciously; I can feel my legs stretching.
“Just one more look at the world” I tell myself pulling with all my might to force my head
back above ground.

When my eyes finally reach the surface I am greeted by the sight of an armored angel
holding a large sword flying directly at me.

With a single flick of the wrist the winged man severs the chains and pulls me back
up to sit next to my lifeless body. The blood pools at my feet with none of it actually
touching me. I could think of nothing else to do but stare at the being in front of me.
He was truly a sight, his body was so muscular that it was a wonder he could even fly.
The only unarmored part of him was his massive feet which bore deep red burn-marks
which disappear into his grieves. His had a softly rounded head and his completely
yellow eyes looked directly into my own.

“Just a creator torn from his work to settle the dispute of two lesser beings,” the winged
man said flatly
“Dispute?”

“Yes both the entity you know as the devil and the one you call god lay claim to your
soul.”

“They have given you to me, an uneasy agreement for them to make, but being at each
others throats for so long has made them weak. Unfortunately for you I have reviewed
your life and found it lacking”

“Okay,” I said resigning myself to whatever punishment he chose

“Your situation intrigues me though so I will give you a choice: you can stay here and try
to live on in the broken body you see before you or you can take my offer and live in a
world I made just for you.”

“I chose to go with you.” Anything is better than nothing

“Excellent. Prepare yourself for a world you know and love to be turned into a place of
suffering because of the choice you’ve made.”

“Before we go I’d like to know your name.” shit this guy hates me. Is it worth the second
chance?

“You may call me Michael, the name your worthless kind gave me,” he said with a frown
“Why have I never heard of you if we gave you a name?”

“Enough questions youngling! You are my new entertainment for as long as I wish,” he
paused for a moment his frown turning into a wide smile, “This world bores me to no
end.”

Michael then grabbed me by the throat and we flew up off the Earth stopping to hover
by the moon

I looked back on Earth for the last time watching it disintegrate into nothing. Then
Michael pointed us toward the sun and we flew off again.
It only took a few seconds to pass the sun and before long we came to the event
horizon of a black hole.

“I hate traveling like this,” Michael voiced while struggling against the black hole as
he lined us up for a strait shot at the middle doubling his speed. My spectral body was
stretched to its limit before we finally came to a portal no bigger than the eye of a needle
which Michael flew us through with ease.

Blackness, then a blinding flash of light

“Celestia will have a fit when she figures out what I’ve done!” exclaimed Michael with
glee waking me from my slumber

“Celestia? Like from My Little Pony?” this can’t be happening, how can Equestria
become a place of suffering?

I stood up and looked around for the first time.

Trees on all sides, a small wooden bridge across a river, soft grass covering the ground,
colorful birds in the trees; the stereotypical picture of serenity

I walked over to an eddy in the river and looked down at my reflection. Much to my
surprise I had indeed become a pony, a lanky dark brown Pegasus with cream hooves
and a short unkempt green mane. I smiled Michael had apparently seen fit to make me
exactly the way I’ve always imagined me as a pony except for one thing, my eyes. I
leaned in closer; my eyes had been changed from their previous shade of brown-black
into the color of flowing blood.

I tilted my head back to try and determine more of Michael’s character from his facial
expressions, but he was gone.

“Time to try out my new body.” and stop talking to myself.

I began to do the one thing that always made me feel better, run. I ran as fast as my
four legs could a big smile came across my face as I realized how easy it was, no
trouble breathing, and no joint pain. If he was going to punish me why give me a perfect

body? Are my wings as perfect, they are certainly big. I guess there is only one way to
find out.

I spread my wings wide at a full canter and lifted up into the sky turning my head to look
back at the clearing I started at. I must have run a good 6 miles in just under half an
hour, shit that’s a five minute mile.

“Buck yeah!”
My brain was a cacophony of possibilities for what to do with the rest of my time here.
Try to meet the main cast? Go to a big city like Manehatton? Cause a little chaos?
I’ll need a cover identity, If only I could remember my name. The need for sleep took
priority as I flew over to a small cloud lazily drifting across the sky and lay myself down
to rest. My legs were pleasantly burning from my run and sleep quickly wrapped me in
its warm embrace.