DEMON’S FATE…

A fair afternoon graced that day. The sun aided by the clouds kept playing hide and seek with those beneath the clouds but still gave the day a glorious splendor. Children were playing in the gardens, they danced as the sun slipped away. As always, there was quiet. Then the ground began to shake and vibrate. The extent to which the ground shook was noticeable to both the layman and the scientist. The layman passed it as an earthquake, the scientist knew it was less than an earthquake. Nobody knew what it was.

The children retreated to their houses as shouts and screams could be heard emanating from infinity. These shouts did not pass out to be of fanatics of a football team. It carried more emotion, more reason for a cause. It was a very intentional one. It was the same shout that was heard just before the walls of Jericho collapsed. These shouts of war brought about tension that forced dust particles in the air to resist Brownian motion and to hold still.

Military tanks arrived. The local police swung into action. No sooner had they joined the action than they were blown into fractions. That was war! The whole settlement was commanded out of their houses and brought to a central place. The militants then presented themselves to the public. Among the militants was a group that stood over the public heavily armed and another group carrying two very thick poles with sharp edges. With them, they had senior government officials of that region bound in chains. They had been properly fed with violence.

‘Jeroen -that’s what they call me. These soldiers you see owe to me their loyalty. Not a single one of you, mere mortals, have crossed lines with any god- me included- to deserve the hell I am about to raise. Such a proclamation I make so that your weak souls fall shy of raising prayers to the invisibles. Your gods sing for the hopeless, but you are the ones they left behind. Beneath hopeless. Anyway, I will need you to deliver a message to your government on my behalf; its simple- keep away from our country! If their ego tempts them to come for vengeance, well you are the ones who will suffer. Get it? No? Okay. That’s because you live close to the borders and you are the easiest to access and we hate your country!’ The arrogant General spoke to the already terrified civilians.

To his troops, he speaks, ‘the message has been verbally delivered. But actions speak louder than words.’ This was followed by a moment of terrifying silence. The militants cocked their guns and seemed ready to start shooting.

‘I must admit, it really feels nice to stand on foreign grounds and still give orders’ The arrogant General spoke to the masses yet again.

He paced for the longest forty three seconds. ‘Yet each man kills that which he loves. Some do it with a bitter look, some with a flattering word. The coward does it with a kiss, but the brave man with the sword! Boys finish these government puppets!’

In their numbers, government officials had been captured; amongst them were the border patrol officers and guards. They were brought forth as the throng watched. The soldiers who in their possession was thick sharp sticks got to work and dug holes in the ground. The rest of the soldiers were keen to watch that nothing goes wrong in accordance to them. After the holes had been dug, all the government officials were made to sit on the thick sharp poles. All these was done as the throng watched and the victims were fully naked. Men and women alike.

You could see the sharp thick pole being driven right into their anuses tearing them apart. Blood would not drip but gush out as the victims screamed out in something more than pain. Their screams showed that the suffering they were undergoing was that which man was never to know. After they had sat on them and were now being torn by them, the poles supported by holes just dug were raised to an upright position. One is only left to imagine what was happening internally as the victims slid further down the pole. The tearing and rupturing of intestines, stomach, lungs. How were they breathing? Were they breathing? The victims kept sliding further down by their own weight. After a while, one could see the sharp end of the pole emerge from the sternum and its tip being at the chin to prevent further sliding.

Jeroen and his men then left. The civilians were properly terrorized. Were demons still invisible? If there was fear of hell from any of the civilians, then watching the impalement happen was an experience that broke into hell, tore it down and built a more terrifying city behind it. If this was the doing of men how much worse would it be if Satan himself with his demons showed up?

On receiving the news of this attack, the national. government declares a state emergency It declares war! The Commander in Chief without much thought gives the order to the military to invade the neighboring country in search of Jeroen and his men. This move had more motivation from vengeance and a show of power than nationalism. Civilians who lived along border towns were evacuated. There was heavy military presence everywhere. It felt like the end was near.

Catching Jeroen by surprise, they overrun him and his men. They were just a militia group. Upon overrunning them, the army does not leave the foreign land they are in. They stayed and pitched camp. Owing to idleness and boredom, the soldiers seek a source of entertainment. What would entertain a man who is born to kill must be more than a river flowing with blood; human blood.

For their sadistic pleasure, mistreatment of locals became a pastime activity. Under the disguise of extracting information from potential suspects, the soldiers kidnapped citizens so innocent bringing them to camp for inquisition. The inquisition was decorated with the brutality of the brazen bull and the mercilessness of the bottomless pit.

Upon the unfair arrests, victims would be bound. Bound to the tiger bench, with one’s back supported in an upright position with knees strapped down rather tightly. They would then get inquisitive with concern to the militias. In the instance of a victim responding negatively, a brick was placed under their ankles. Each negative answer called for an extra brick to be placed under their ankle. As each brick was placed, the straps on the knee got tighter and tighter. The tension on the knees would slowly increase. It would increase until the knees would break backwards. Yes, break backwards. As the captives knee would snap and break, the captive would burst out in screams of pain. The screams came out musically. Trumpets would be put on the mouth of the victims. Perfect disguise. Entertainment!

These tortures sank to the last nerve of one junior officer in the name of Benoit. He resolved to record the torturing. He had to leak it. He needed to expose the evil!  An opportunity presented itself. The duty of monitoring and being vigilant at the watch tower was passed to him. On radio, he was connected to all channels allowing him to capture all the communication. From his position, he saw the patrolling group just outside the camp that was communicating  to the Major General. He then started recording.
‘Over, we have a potential violent situation sir, request to fire! Over’
‘What’s your position officer?’ the major general asked
‘We are four officers sir, they are in their tens, all heavily armed sir’ they replied
‘Permission granted’ the major general replied.

On locating the officers, kids were playing all around. Following the greenlight to fire, these soldiers take out the kids. They took out the kids! Perfect Entertainment! Benoit, being motivated by frustration and anger, uploads the video on. It went viral. Consequently, the military presence on foreign land was seen as a potential threat to national security. They were called home. With a bad public image and dirt over their shoulders, the matter was forwarded to the court Martial.  The court martial ordered a probe be set up to investigate the matter.

Passed to be guilty, Benoit was accused of mutiny. His sentence was death. To warm his day of death and share in his last breathe, his younger brother, Orton, came through. Silence was their mode of communication. Within them, oceans and floods of seas collided. Knowing a man’s breath will be taken from him with the fading of the hour glass makes one contemplate the brevity of man. One hour remains. Both Benoit and Orton could not stop the flow of the hour glass.

‘Hey Orton,  watch as they kill me. After which, turn your wounds into wisdom.’ Waiting for no response from Orton, Benoit walks towards his executioners.

‘TRAITOR! What are your last words to us, oh man of wisdom? The Major General barked at him sarcastically. Orton chooses to ignore the Major General’s presence and looks at Orton.

‘Again to you Orton, upon a brother’s demise, take it that with confidence as a conduit, fate has devolved on you the task of double living, that you hereafter, have to fulfil the promise of a brother’s life, in own to the world.’

Wasting no time, Benoit was stripped totally naked. No undergarments to cover even the most private of parts. Dog food was then placed on his penis and testicles. And the dogs were then released to go and feed. Together with their food, they chewed away his manhood. He wasn’t going to need it in the next world anyway. Pain described Benoit’s cries. He bled profusely. Following that,  he was walked to a rectangular frame. He was hung upside down with his feet apart. Then two officers came with giant size saw each standing on the opposite side. Benoit was then cut till his abdomen and allowed to death, all this as Orton watched.

Orton became the embodiment of the saying- there are wounds that never show on the body that run deeper and more harmful than anything that bleeds. The hurt he felt cut so deep that tears would be mocking him if they dared fall. Even if they crushed around him. Sleep departed from him to allow him time to come to terms with the happenings of that day. In that moment, he walked the razor’s edge that cut into the madness. He was ready to turn his wounds to wisdom.

His goal was to hit back at the government. He needed so much resources though. He was not a mogul or anyone with influence enough to go against the government, but he had to. He had nothing, but hey, necessity is the mother of invention The anger inside of him fueled his thinking. He inhaled oxygen but exhaled hate, fed on proteins but only the hunger for vengeance grew. All this violence was feeding his mind. He had to do something. Benoit would have done something.

Lying on his bed facing the empty roofs, an idea came to him. He walked up to his computer, went on YouTube and played the song empty walls by Serj Tankian. He even sang along. As he sang along, an idea was being planted in his mind. In the midst of all this pain and a deep yearning for revenge, he sought out to volunteer to teach in one of the local schools.

In his classes, he ‘opens up’ the minds of the students to the evils and atrocities being committed by the government. Instead of teaching them how to resist the system, he planted anger in this students and in turn a hunger to go against the government. A hunger to fight back. A hunger for what he termed as justice. These students saw the need to revolt! It was a need.

In a bid to keep it unnoticeable, Orton forms a club in school where he becomes the patron. All those students who subscribed to his sentiments made up the club members. Most of their meetings were spent on coming up with ways in which the government can be hit and be hit properly.

They needed weaponry. As such, they resorted to rob hardware stores for machetes, nails and any other thing that, in their estimation, would be useful. They also way-laid patrolling police officers, ambush them to steal guns, ammunition and their uniform. This attacks were also extended to the homes of the police officers. After three months of constant raiding, they had a lot of weaponry. But they needed more people to be soldiers with them. They needed more soldiers at the cheapest cost. At the cheapest cost.

They again held a club meeting to discus the matter. One night, there was no full moon nor owls anywhere, just a normal night; they raided homes of the locals. They raided this homes disguised as police officers. They killed most fathers. They left mothers and daughters as widows and orphans. They however, took the sons captive. Orton and his men would cut out the hands of men and allow them to bleed to death. In the night, they were inflicting injuries on the hearts of the locals. Stab the body and it heals but injure the heart and the wounds last a lifetime.

They took the sons away to their camps that had a mock look of a police stations. The next day, Orton mounted among the locals about how they should stand up against the police and the government. He mounted this campaign on the emotions, pain and hunger for revenge. The locals were ready to go up in arms. Orton told them he had a plan and they should wait on him. He then went to the camp and staged an attack and freed all those boys and young men they had taken captive. He had just turned himself to a local hero.

Because the young men felt like they owed their lives to him, they subscribed to his plan. The women were also ready to offer all the support they could offer. In all these, no one could report to the police because they all believed all the deaths had the hands of the authority in them. Their allegiance rested on one man, one name- Orton. In deed, they were dancing with the devil on his dancefloor behind his gates.

Orton then started training the young boys to fight. He taught them how to get comfortable with killing. He exchanged their human nature for a beastly code. He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man. Orton would bring captured men to the camp. He would then blindfold the kids. He would then cut the tongues of the captives and tape their mouth. He would place the victims in front of the blindfolded kids. He would give the kids the guns and order them to shoot severally till the victim was dead.

After the victim’s death, he would allow the kids to see what they have done. Most of them would breakdown in tears but the whole camp would cheer and applaud their actions.

‘Kids, you have now become men! They will now respect you. Do not feel bad about killing. Life, life is but a dream for the dead. You truly live after you die. That is why we all must die! In killing, you allow someone to become immortal. They bleed because their blood is a thanksgiving to you! Bravo!’ Orton spoke and the whole camp cheered.

All these took time. Almost two years after the death of Benoit and Orton hadn’t healed yet. In deed, time does not heal wounds. The wound still remain. In time, the mind protecting its sanity covers them with scar tissue and the pain lessens- not in this case though. By this time, some locals had gained sanity and were opposing Orton. The locals even informed the authorities and explained how it all started. It was also discovered that it was Orton who schemed everything. But it was time to fight!

The first public attack by Orton found the local government officials on the receiving end. Those caught were frog marched from their offices and brought out to the public. False accusations were made. Orton had false witnesses who ended up convincing the gathered crowd who then performed a mob justice to the junior officers. The senior officers, both male and female had a different fate.

Orton and his men had crafted seats with pyramid shaped ends. These edges were blunt and had been exposed to dead animals and sewerage systems to pick all sorts of bacteria and infections. This is the day they brought these instruments out. Again, they were stripped naked for public embarrassment. The senior local government officials were then made to seat over the pyramid shaped cradle. For the men, the anus was what was exposed to the cradle while for the women the pudenda was exposed. Weights were then attached to their feet. In this, the pyramid shaped ends stretched their orifices. Echoes of their screams, motivated by pain, got lost in the atmosphere. I can even hear Jesus weep with them.

Following this public attack, Orton reveals his identity to everyone but specifically to the government of the land and declares war. At this point, all the men and boys fighting side by side with Orton know that it’s either they kill or they get killed. As Matt Shadows once sang, ‘so many soldiers on the other side, I take their life so that they can’t take mine.’ To those who were starting to have second thoughts about what they were doing Orton speaks to say, ‘We cannot banish dangers but we can’t banish fear. We must not demean life by standing in awe of death.’ A suicide mission is the perfect name for this.

They could not attack openly anymore. They devised a new form of  attack. The part of Orton’s troop that was afraid to be captured sort to die before their time. They went to different petrol stations, went close enough to cars being fueled pretending to want some clarifications. They would then light a matchstick or a lighter and the whole place would go up in fire. Innocent Civilians fell victims to these attacks as Orton took responsibility for the attacks.

Among Orton’s boys was a young child soldier named Reso. He had become valiant. He was decisive and hence properly influential, his age not withstanding. He even planned and carried out one attack. Reso led the militia on a raid. The goal of this raid was for every man to come back with as many heads as possible. Reso came back with thirty heads in a bag all drained in blood. He was the man, he owned the moment.

Bowing to pressure, the government sends one commander to take care of Orton. He was one of the most decorated officers in the military service. Immediately he got on ground, he declare dead that Orton was wanted and a bounty of US$ 5000 was placed on his head. Yes, whoever will lead to the arrest of Orton would be paid in foreign currency.

The bounty placed on his headband got him worried. He felt as though any of the men by his side would give him away for the prize. His next step would have to involve the elimination of his new threat. And a man he saw when his brother was being executed, Commander Solafa. Orton had the taste of death on his tongue, he just didn’t know who would die. Orton sent out his scouts to locate Solafa’s residence. This didn’t prove to be too hard a task. Com. Solafa’s back up was yet to arrive. Orton received this news the same way a staunch believers receive the gospel. Orton knew he would go down in History once he has An encounter with Commander Solafa.

Orton charged Reso with the responsibility of leading the operation to take out Commander Solafa. It was, however, on Orton’s head to slaughter the Commander. Violence kept feeding his mind. This attack was set for the night. Orton and his men hid their faces again, harboring in the shadows.

As they advance towards Solafa’s residence, a few locals spot them and in turn spread the word. Catching Solafa by surprise, they force their way into his house. Two guards at the gate and three servants in the house. To launch the attack, Reso moves in with a machete and slaughters the five. He then turned his attention to Solafa. Being the commander He was, a few of Orton’s men had fallen victims of his bullets. He could defend himself no more after his magazine ran dry. Solafa’s magazine had run dry; Reso’s machete was still alive.

Orton then burst out in laughter as he victoriously declared, ‘I have already won.’ Solafa drops his gun, puts his hands in the air  and stares into empty space. Silence. In his silence, Commander Solafa wept for the men who had just fallen to Reso’s sharp edges. After staring into empty space, he turns his military eyes to Reso. He begins to talk,

‘Reso, my son, I thought you had died!’ This statement further escalated the tension in the room.

‘Solafa, Commander Solafa, as they call you. Reso, my soldier, the strongest amongst the men and boys, my weapon of mass destruction is your son?’ Orton spoke to Solafa as he fed Reso’s ego.

Upon hearing these words, Reso felt the need to prove that he, in deed, was the beast and the best. In a single strike, he makes an attempt to cut Solafa’s head off his body. But Solafa is a soldier, a Commander for that matter. As Reso made the attempt for his neck, Solafa swiftly moved away and disarmed Reso then threw the machete showing no intention to harm Reso. On seeing the soldier in Solafa, Orton gets worried but downplays it.

‘Solafa, Mr. Justice himself, what did you do when your people killed my brother in an unjust way?’ Orton inquired. Silence followed. ‘Commander, you have no answer to that?’ Shouting, he further inquired.

At that moment, Reso moved to strike a second time. As Solafa was avoiding Reso’s machete, Orton takes advantage of the destruction and strikes the commander consequently, he falls to the ground. His foot was bleeding, you could see the pain behind his brown calm eyes.

‘An unjust commander and an absent father isn’t who you are. And your time has come. Your unjust days are over. You know, if men were immortal, they would be perfectly sure of seeing the day when everything they trusted betray their trust and in short of coming eventually to a hopeless misery- which is where you stand right now. The man would break down at last as every good fortune, as every dynasty as every civilization does. In place of all that we have death. Commander, how blessed are you to see your own turn on you to kill you?’ Orton spoke with a confidence to show that he had already won. Which was true anyway.

‘You talk too much. Your brother told you to turn your wounds to wisdom. I struggle to see the application of wisdom in anything you do. A disgrace you are to every one who posses a brain.’ Commander Solafa sarcastically replied.

Orton then turned to Reso and screamed out, ‘Kill the absent father!’

Reso, wasting no time, took another swing. Solafa’s tried to block. In the process, he got three of his fingers chopped off. In pain, Solafa turns to Reso,

‘Son, who taught you how take down bigger men? I see how you stand when you want to attack, I see how you hold your machete; Is it this man who taught you?

Com. Solafa paused. These words cut through the heart of Reso because they were spoken with authority. The authority of a teacher. A teacher who knows the student too well. It shook Reso to the core and though juvenile, he saw the reason behind these words.

‘Son, I taught you to look deep in the eyes of the one you fight, isn’t that what you are doing? Look deep inside and see there’s no fear- because I taught you how to overcome fear.’ Solafa paused again.

‘Drawing righteous blood …’ Solafa started to speak again

‘For a sinful cause turns the soul of a man to that of a demon who returns to strike on the wings of darkness. But the result is from the ashes of hate comes the demon’s fate. After all is said and done, the demon must be killed!’ Reso finished the statement for his father.

Reso immediately looked down and without a second thought, he stubbed him right in the abdomen then as he fell to the floor in disbelief he chopped his head off. Blood was all over the floor. Orton could not believe this. Orton had no time to celebrate the victory he had won. He had no time to breathe his last and pronounce his last words as he lay lifeless on the floor. Reso struck like the sidewinder.

Just then, a throng of locals flung through the door. As a group attended to Commander Solafa who had just passed out due to the pain and bleeding. The rest of the throng rained down on Reso and the remainder of Orton’s men. Commander Solafa was rushed to a hospital and the punishment of Reso began. The intention was to kill him slowly, painfully and to make an example that another Reso wannabe in the next Century would feel it.

They started by cutting out his tongue.  They allowed him to bleed into the ground. After all, wasn’t blood flowing into the ground a sign of thanksgiving? Normally, the human blood cries out to God for vengeance but when’s Reso’s cried out, only demons responded because God was not there. As he bled and cried, using two hot iron rods, his eyes were gauged out of their sockets. In all this pain, he still had no idea of how the flames of hell would welcome him home because heavens gate were already closed on him.

No one is ever too far from karma. Reso was then stripped naked after which he was castrated with the aid of a burdizzo. The pain he felt had no sound. But I could see Jesus stand at the right hand of the father ready to deliver Reso but he had no tongue to speak nor a heart to confess. All his limbs were broken by being struck severally with a sledge hummer.

A tank full of water was then brought. Reso was place do inside and the tank was sealed. It was sealed in a way that from the neck downwards was inside the tank Andy only the head wasn’t outside. His face was smeared with honey and he was fed. The honey, at daybreak, attracted birds and insect she that started eating him alive. He answered all calls of nature inside that tank filled with water. It wasn’t long before worms, microorganisms and bacteria started feeding on him while he was still breathing.

Commander Solafa was discharged a week later. He was led to Reso’s death scene. As he looked, his heart wept for his son. Pain filled him deep inside.

He then turned to the crowd and spoke,

‘Drawing righteous blood for a sinful cause turns the soul of a a man to that of a demon who always returns to strike in the wings of darkness. But the result is, from the ashes of hate comes the demon’s fate. After all is done, the demon must be killed’

 

 

Disclaimer:
I do not own any rights to the photo used above. The photo featured the work of Antonio Mora. To catch more of his work click here