the haunted kingdom by Charles E.J. Moulton (snow like ashes txt) 📕

does get frightfully boring up here ..." She had imitated his refined accent. Her words had been spat out so fast that she tried to keep up with them. Her eyes were lowered and now it was as if she had lost her purity. She was someone that had been lured into a crime and was being sent to the gallows. She looked down and walked next to Lucifer a loser as they walked up the hill. Her bosom ripe and her back crouched. She was a prisoner of his vanity.
Lucifer looked up the hill with the look of a criminal who had raped his first victim. He smiled and nodded and said only one thing. "I'd be delighted to help you, Sweetie!“ In his mind his feet were dancing the big old boogaloo, as if it had been invented yet, his thoughts flickering like a silent flame waiting to pour hot lava over swaying fingers and deceiving digits. "One down ... One-Hundred-and-Ninety-Nine to go ..." Silently the two walked up to Yambalah to do ill. “Give me a tour of your kingdom!” He said and Rebecca nodded happily. In her eyes he could see that she was all his.

JOSEPH, RIGHTEOUSNESS
Joseph had been standing by his wife’s laundry basket for an hour now thinking about from where he recognized this beast. All she did was spend her day with the new master.
God had given them a task: taking care of the village. Now, God was not even in the picture.
What was this new master’s name? Lucifer? Yes, that was it. Everyone was drinking or eating or making
love. No one was working. The village was falling to pieces.
As Joseph stood there overlooking the valley where Lucifer had first seduced his wife for the first time he realized that he alone was the only one left with any integrity. He alone was thinking about the future. A depressing thought indeed to such a man. He knew that Rebecca would give him trouble in the future.


DEBAUCHERY
Within a year the peaceful community had spiralled into a carnal circus of crime and debauchery. Michael and Gabriel had been back numerous times to put an end to the degradation, but each time they found Lucifer gone. Rebecca was now the head of a large brothel, Lucifer took money for bridge fare whenever citizens crossed the river to let the cows out to graze. The money went into Rebecca's own pocket, but the couples were having orgies every night in their house and kept robbing the village of its resources.
Lucifer had escaped his own cage so that he might encage others. People drank illicit liquors out of their spouses’ mouths and navels and danced naked on tables intended for dining. The law-obeying citizens of the Land grew into fat and lazy pleasure-seekers whose every need was granted by Lucifer. His intention, however, was simply to ruin God's first human civilization. It was a twenty four-hour hangover.
"LUCIFER!" The voice came from above and it was God who spoke. “TALK TO ME, SON!"
The clear sky darkened and the crowd froze. People covered themselves with their shawls and looked to the sky with troubled expression. It was an etching, a religious icon of a future cathedral whose characters radiated biblical terror. A wind swept across the plains. Roofs were lifted off houses. Horses fell over and broke their bones, trees broke in half and lightning struck down on Rebecca's brothel and set it on fire.
"COME AND FACE ME! OR ARE YOU JUST TOO AFRAID?"
The vibrant cries of the crowd had bounced between the walls of the inner city and now were replaced with nothing but petrified silence. Lucifer was gone, back in the underworld. The hollowness of the naked street and the emptiness of this land was a testament to debauchery. Left alone in Yambalah was Joseph, the only light in the darkness. He had witnessed decadence at work and knew that Rebecca was with Lucifer, along with everyone else in the town. Joseph packed whatever weapons and foods he had left and journeyed into unknown territory to find other beings like him. It so happened that this man was to live a long life, content and well-fed. When he transcended into the other world he knew that he would return back to meet Rebecca again under completely different circumstances.

THE SAVIOUR


The word was yes. God's plan to save mankind from its own sins was to become reality.
The Heavenly Lord said Yes and only Yes to Humanity. He did love Humankind so much that he gave them his only son and made him human in order to save him from Lucifer's hard grip. A young girl by the name of Mary bore a child whose name was to be Jesus. Donkeys, oxen and sheep by their side, Joseph and his young wife Mary cuddled the child. Three kings, Caspar, Melchior and Balthazar, came from far away lands to see the Babe. A Star showed them the way. It was the Archangel Gabriel who, in his Nature as God's Gatekeeper and the Revealer of All Sins, helped save Mankind from itself by shining in the Heavens. All who came to watch during the next few weeks were deeply moved by this simple child whose face shone like the soothing sun and whose spirit was like the calm breeze of a midsummer wind.
This child was the child of all children. He was the Father of all Fathers and the Mother of all Mothers.
He was the Revealer of all Revealers and the Friend of all Friends. He was the Saviour of all Saviours. He was a piece of God's Own Heart and a Ray Out Of The Spirit of The Wind That Gabriel Sent Off when He Who Flew By In The Night Showed His Face to humanity. He was God's son. Jesus taught in the synagogues. He gathered twelve men around him that listened to his words and followed his teachings. Some were fishermen, some were of different trades. All were men who needed guidance and whose hearts longed for righteousness. He showed them how he healed cripples. He gave blind men sight and deaf men ears. He gave lame men legs and lepers their clean skin. He restored friendship and gave lost people their faith. He prayed every day to the heavenly father to bring joy and caring back to a world where too much suffering and too much greed controlled individual destinies. Jesus saw Simon Peter and knew he would be the finest Gatekeeper ever to accompany Gabriel by the Doors to Paradise. He saw Thomas and knew that this architect would find his own way one day, in spite of his doubt. His saw Matthew and knew that even though he loved money he was strong enough to give it all up. He saw John and knew his faith was to hand over his own mother to the one with a golden heart.
Then he saw Judas.
The holy number of Twelve Disciples was to mirror the Twelve Archangels of Heaven. Judas was the intellectual and saw this life only. If Jesus were king then life would be easier for them all and Lucifer's counterpart on Earth felt himself in position to promote his master to speak up. Jesus’ eyes spoke to Judas when he told him to use his heart and not his mind. In truth a victim, Judas only realized this too late. Lucifer was petrified of Jesus, even more than of Michael. Jesus did not need to look Lucifer in the eye to scare him. There was one reason for this: the resurrection.
When he stood before the masses who screamed "Crucify him!" ... he thought he'd had his way.
”Kill the blasphemer!” He was wrong. God had won already. “Mother, behold your son!”
A storm wind chased the clouds and the wind seemed full of ice. The only Pharisee with a heart of gold was standing a hundred meters away crying. A Roman soldier looked solemnly at the Savoir saying:
"This was the son of God!" The women were at the foot of the cross weeping. Only the moon shone down upon the cross, alone and cold, when Jesus cried: "Eloi! Eloi! Lemak sabatani!" to the silent sky. There was a weeping wind blowing through the trees chilling everyone on the hill down to their bone's marrow. There were clouds in the sky and a rumble in the distance. The darkest colours of the heavens painted a sorrow on their clouded faces. The women took him down when his head had finally sunk down on his chest. He was buried in a sacred place. Then they silently walked away. When they returned on Sunday morning, everything had changed. "Why are you seeking the living among the dead?"
Mary Magdalene turned around. "I ... beg your pardon?"
"I said why are you seeking ... the living among the dead?" Raphael and Gabriel smiled at the woman and she smiled back, somewhat bewildered. She and the others had come to the grave to embalm him as was the custom. She had no idea what the young man meant. As she walked from the empty grave she understood. Jesus was not there. The angels had told her this.

§

The wind blew strong that day, or so they said. The clouds were dark and thunder and lightning seemed to paint the melodramatic skies with colours of blue, green and dark red. Just with utmost strength Lucifer could keep from flying away and crashing into a mountainside or a wall, if there had been one at all.
The fact was that there was only hillside as far as he could see. There was green grass everywhere and it was blowing in the wind all in the same direction. Hills and valleys and everywhere this dark colour that seemed to sweep doom over the landscape. Lucifer stood alone looking at the only thing that gave any light in the skies on this dark and stormy night. The full moon. His face was turned upward and his back crouched forward. The hairs on his head and back were dancing the jig and his eyes were fixed on its sweeping aura, landing everywhere in sight. Suddenly there was a sharp cry. The wail echoed in his ear, a sound that reminded him of the echo in the dungeon he had seen for a millennium, when he saw millions of people running in this dark night toward him. He found himself locked into position, his feet feeling like stone. The crowd just kept coming nearer and nearer. Growing in number. Millions of feet running over him. Big feet, small feet, light feet, heavy feet. The owners of the feet were happy. No, they were overjoyed. He recognized all of the faces. They were all of the sinners he had misled since the beginning of time. Adam was there. Every one of them was running toward ... where? His head turned to the right. A rampant screaming crowd of millions waving their arms and shouting:

"Saviour! Saviour!"

Now he heard the voice of Michael next to his right ear, screaming. The red devil crouched over and a white winged archangel shouting into his ear. Now he was standing in a big square somewhere in the future. He was surrounded by buildings so tall and monumental that it surprised him. It was a cathedral. He saw Jesus now around a campfire