#cmfw

And here among the stone and grass stood living statues. Mourners in form only, clad in black and clotted together with the interred and decaying, observing the rites and rituals of death, but where one would expect to see them bawling raging against the cruel and avaricious shears of Death, writhing in some obscene gesture begging like heat crazed alley cats and offering their souls and bodies for some cosmic justice or reprieve from such pain of the spirit there was nothing; blank faces stony as the corpse they lowered into the frozen earth. They rejected him not with anger but with simple dereliction of duty in that they were the only ones that could be expected to care and they did not. Where they should have lamented the passing of one of gods children they defied custom, defiled his memory by only bearing witness.

She peeked through a crack in the old wooden slats - cracked and warped by time and slowly become derelict - the dark of the forest surrounded her so the dim flickering lamplight cast only a sliver of orange into her eyes. There they floated in the black night, two perfect ivory orbs, unblinking, fixing their gaze upon that celebration of flesh the two young lovers thought they had hidden so well from the world.

He would have walked straight atop it if it weren’t for the mangy dog he had leashed on that long length of cord. It went straight for it like a magnet and started nosing and rustling through the loose stones kicking dust and rock in the air as it dug. He walked up confused and wary but lost all of that upon finding what the dog was so eager to unearth. Her face stared out at the stars like a heartbroken suitor, wishing that the cosmos would deliver some better fate or that she could escape from her heartbreak. Neither were coming to her now as she lay, pallid and frozen in her shallow grave.

When people think of blood they think of that pure and vibrant red that screams of life and vigor, not the blood that is left behind or stained into dirt, seeping through clothes and dried to a crust. That blood is a whole other creature. It is a brown and pathetic thing, mumbling of death and rot and those wonderful dreams of youth forgotten and thrown to the wayside by those who have seen the dark half of the soul of the world. That is the blood that waters the fields of this nation.

He talked of the day his garrison was captured by government soldiers. It wasn’t with the somber and reflective tone so many who have lived through tragedy often take, it was almost as if he were telling a tall tale, something nobody could believe, but he had been there and he had seen all the cruelty and nihilistic depths of the human condition. They kept the men locked in the arms lockers for days on end, taking each out for questioning in periodic shifts. They would sit them under a small faucet and drip the water onto their heads as they asked the questions. Once the skin was puckered and soft from the stream they would cut slowly into that thin skullcap and peel it away from the head. At first it just felt like pressure, but once the skin dried the pain was unbearable. Everyone in his platoon talked, they sang, and when they were freed it was as if a legion of bald-headed clowns poured from the garrison, screaming mad and cackling at the ridiculous appearances of their brothers.

She could imagine some abbot stalking the halls at night, his bare calloused feet slowly wearing grooves into the stone floors over the countless years, and then after him another and another penitent soul would stand guard over this ancient monument to their lord. They wandered through the building yet as did she, but the only difference being that now she felt not like some pure devotee who has given themselves to endless vigil until death, she felt like like Janus, two-faced and deceitful. She knew, even as her body wore down the stone as many had before, that it would be better when the evidence of her touch was smoothed from these walls.

They waited under the branches of a burnt out willow and watched the gravel road that ran behind them nothing marring it save the hoof prints of their horses, but even so they knew it was a busy enough road and someone was sure to come along in near enough time. They ate the sandwiches they’d made and leaned against that dead husk as the sun made its slow pace across the sky. John kept his eyes on the horizon, squinting against the western sun, until a speck appeared in the distance. He leapt to his feet and kicked his dozing compatriot awake. “Here she comes, hell if you can’t tell who she is even from here.” They stood and watched in anticipation as they imagined the woman bearing down upon them and wondered at what she would make of them in their tatters.