My chosen name is Marceline. A name well known within both circles. Today, I relinquish my title as a Protector of the Light. I am aware that makes me no longer a part of the family and my soul will be ingested upon my next death, but I can’t do this anymore.
I have become an Executioner by choice. There’s no possession at play, nor has Lucifer struck a bargain with me. I just feel like there’s more at play here than we are being told by our Creator. I will not take the extremest route and hunt those who were once family, but if our paths do cross I will not hold back.
As you all know, Father Avery was the head of the family of Protectors in the West. He served for centuries before his mysterious death. What you don’t know is that he was my father. One of the many truths I was forced to keep secret as our existence wasn’t secret enough.
He taught me many things even though my mother was not too fond of him doing so. We were living in California at the time. Tahoe to be exact. Father wanted a place far away from wandering eyes so that his teachings could go uninterrupted.
We put our trust in a realtor back when we were allowed to interact with the cattle. He was a well kept man in a black suit, red tie and had a forgettable face. The man showed us a beautiful two story house off the highway with the forest as the backyard. There wasn’t another house for miles on both sides. Father gave me the freedom to explore while they were taken around the property by the gentleman.
I ran around the house just like any child would before ending with the garage. It was empty like the rest of the place. Except for a knocked over can with red paint flowing out like a river of blood out the back door. I should have known better considering our background, but curiosity had gotten the best of me.
The red paint trailed through the forest making my child mind eager to see where it led. I did not want to interrupt my parents tour of our new home, so I left without notifying them with the idea of just apologizing later if I didn’t get back within a reasonable time. I followed the red trail that streamed through the forest until I ran into those three little girls.
They stood hand in hand on a fallen tree. Each one identical to the other with their porcelain skin that blended in with their white dresses. The three smiled in unison, then each took turns speaking one word at a time to form a question. They asked me to follow them further into the forest as one on the end reached out their hand.
I’m not sure if I was in a trance or if I was just that ignorant, but I took their hand and followed them deeper into the forest. The red paint trail still flowed in the direction we were heading as everything began to seem more lively. Forest critters stood motionless on the sides of the trail while birds stood the same on branches overhead.
It was all so unnatural, but I couldn’t stop moving forward. It wasn’t long until we reached the cabin. It looked so pretty with flora that wasn’t native to the area. That small detail brought back my senses, but the three girls spoke again after feeling my hand pull away. They told me not to be scared, and that mother and father were expecting me for lunch.
I knew it wasn’t true, but I couldn’t get myself to break from their spell. We approached the front door and the three girls knocked in unison. It opened and it was my parents standing in the doorway. That’s when the little girl finally let go of my hand.
The three girls stepped forward, stood between my parents and me before turning around to face me. All five of them reached out with a hand in unison with smiles stretching further than they should. They all asked me to enter their home. Trying to ease the tension. That’s when I noticed that my father wasn’t wearing the necklace.
I stepped back and their arms stretched even closer as I spoke one of the first incantations my father had taught me. The veil of illusion began to lift revealing the true identity of those who stood before me. They weren’t my parents at all, nor were those little girls.
It was all a pink mass of meat made up of different organs and skins from everything you may find in a forest. Its thick tendrils formed the mold of the cabin itself. My parents were no more than two of its tendrils wearing their slack skin with their clothes barely hanging on. The three girls were similar except their porcelain looking skin was some sort of calcification of the meat.
I turned and ran back the way I came with tears falling down my face. It was all but the same. The plants and flowers surrounding the cabin were rotting entrails covered in maggots and files. All the motionless animals were just visceral remains of what they used to be. I ran as fast as could with the tendrils following close behind me.
My parents skin whipped around loosely on the end of the mass’s tendrils. I looked back to see my mother’s slack skin get caught on a tree. It ripped off the tendril leaving it hanging like a decoration. The tendril wearing my father’s skin bursted through a tree that stood in its way sending chunks of splinter covered skin past me.
I had made it back to the house, but it wasn’t the house I left. It was decrepit beyond repair. I ran into the garage shutting the door behind me. The wretched smell of rot and decay made me gag. Human skins like my parents covered the walls like trophies.
I pressed my back against the door while I screamed for my parents, but no one answered. One of the calcified tendrils bursted the door knocking me to the floor. I ran into the house with the calcified tendrils tearing through the walls of the garage behind me with each step. The house was in shambles with old furniture and animal carcasses smashed against the walls as if that monstrosity was leaving a path to walk.
I made my way upstairs crying out for my parents until I found the only door left standing in the house. I opened the door to the bathroom to see where my skinless parents had gone. The fact that the creature got the best of my father broke me. He was said to be the best at what he did.
His body was still standing in front of the door with his palms out towards the door. My mother was in the fetal position inside the bathtub. Both petrified as if they’ve been there as long as the house was. Yet, my father’s teeth were clenched when he would have been saying an incantation.
I could hear the tendrils ripping through the house trying to find me. I went to pry open his lipless mouth, but it just opened on its own to reveal the necklace. I stuck my hand in his mouth to grab it right before being impaled through my back from one of the tendrils. It lifted me into the air as everything went black. My first of many deaths.
That was the first time I had met the Creator in the Void. It presented itself as a white humanoid being without features. It spoke with no words explaining the significance of our legacy and the relic my father held dear within the necklace he wore. I pledged my soul like those before me to keep its cattle safe from evil, and with that it granted me life for the second time.
From there I was standing in front of the house once again. Once again, the house was standing untrue. I spoke the incantation I said before lifting the veil to show the decrepit house that it was. I made my way inside to see my parents for the last time. Their skeletons were all that remained showing some time had passed.
It was a shock to see an unfamiliar face in the mirror. I was given a new body of an adult I did not recognize. Rematerialized in the white uniform we’ve come to know and wearing the necklace that holds the relic my father swore to protect.
I looked around the house that I was in just minutes ago that had aged many years. The trophies were no longer just in the garage. The creature that had claimed my family had started decorating the inside of the house. It was busy.
I made my way to the garage and followed that trail once more. The carnage was no longer hidden behind the veil. Whatever remained of my parents’ skin was lost to the seasons. It didn’t take long for me to run into those three little girls. They did not look like the girls from before. I saw them for what they were, but they were not aware of that.
One of the tendrils reached out like a hand once again and asked me to follow them like before. I grabbed a hold of it letting it lead me back to the cabin. Three intertwining tendrils retreated back down the trail as I held on to the end. Just like before I was taken to the cabin made of flesh.
The tendrils knocked on the meaty door as I was greeted by two faces I did not recognize. They invited me in and I entered without hesitation. I immediately began to speak an incantation under my breath. It was an incantation my father had taught me in case I was in trouble that he said to never use unless it was absolutely necessary. Its tendrils slowly wrapped around me like many of the creature’s unsuspecting victims.
My body started to steam as my blood began to boil. The pain was immense, but my vengeance was imperative. The creature recoiled as boiling blood spurted out from every pore of my body setting anything it touched ablaze. There was nowhere for the creature to run and no way to get rid of the meal that had gone awry.
A symphony of cries and laughter filled the air. I knew what was to come. What I wasn’t ready for was the realtor to suddenly appear inside the creature’s burning domain. Same suit, same tie and another forgettable face. I watched him mouth that he was sorry as a tear rolled cheek and sizzled half way down. That was my second death, and from there my path was paved.
I’ve questioned that moment for many years. Was that Lucifer? If so, what relic does my father’s necklace hold that made Lucifer personally hunt us down? Were they just another tainted soul brought back into this world to continue the cycle? These questions are what brought me here today.
Who are we to decide the fate for those we are told to protect? Are protecting our Creator’s cattle just so their souls could be consumed, then regurgitated back into this plain of existence just to be consumed all over again? We are told the only other way for the cattle to pass from this world is to be tainted by another tainted soul. Only to be brought back as someone’s worst nightmare.
We are all given choices and I have chosen to become an Executioner of the Light. I will make it my duty to purge those who stand in the way of human choice, and figure out why our Creator is entrusting us to keep this relic safe in our plain of existence. The fact that they are considered cattle to us is atrocious seeing that they are no different than we are. They just don’t know their place in this world.