Sins 03 - Sins of Treachery

as he did so. It smelled metallic and he tasted blood in his mouth, but within seconds he felt his senses sharpening and he could hear a terrible howling pouring from the abyss below, accompanied by the beating of demonic wings.
    “We’d better hurry,” Gest said, as if he couldn’t hear the frenzied clamor or see the cloudy haze. “Clearly this cave isn’t stable. We need to get as many jewels out as we can in case it comes down before we can retrieve more.”
    As he forced another chunk of gemstone into his pack, it glinted in the torchlight and Gest’s face seemed to shift. Simon rubbed his eyes again to check what he saw. His brother’s handsome profile was turning into that of a hideous lizard and behind him, a curved scorpion’s tail emerged from his ripped snowsuit. Simon fell back against the wall, watching as his brother’s face morphed from the Gest he knew into a sinister visage of reptilian scales, forked tongue flickering in the air. He understood that this was his brother’s genuine nature, revealed by the truth of the book, and he knew that this unholy demon must be slaughtered.
    Simon felt his strength amplified from within and he pushed his brother to the floor. He raised his pick axe and as Gest screamed in terror, he brought it down in a terrific blow. Simon felt a kind of euphoria possess him and he became the avenger, the destroyer. He hacked relentlessly at his brother’s body as words from the book of skin ran through his mind and images from the precious tome appeared in visions before him. Simon’s breath was ragged as he cleaved the head from the mutilated torso, the ice slippery with gore as what remained of Gest’s body began to harden with ice crystals. Another tremor shook the cave and Simon knew that he had little time before it collapsed, concealing both riches and the murder within.
    The two outer jackets still lay side by side away from the bloody mess, and Simon stood for a moment, thinking of the divergent lives that he and Gest had experienced. In that moment he saw a possible future, where earthly pleasure and power could be his as well as fulfilling the Great Work, and he smiled with delicious excitement. He removed his bloody top, exposing his chest to the chill air for a moment. His tattoo of Pluto’s astrological symbol shone black in the darkness. He tugged a fresh merino sweater from his pack, pulling it on and putting Gest’s jacket on over the top. He zipped it tight, straightening his back, affecting his brother’s proud posture, then he picked up the two heavy packs. It was time to tell the crew that his brother Simon had perished within the caves as they had collapsed, despite his own desperate attempts at rescue.

@ 2013 Joanna Penn
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Arkane
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