When the angels fell dead to the earth, men came to them, fearfully at first, to discover no retribution for the touching of such exalted beings. Their skins were peeled into holy raiments or vellum for the illuminated scrolls of mad doctrines. The silvery blood, mopped from the ground, sold as angel dust by snake oil salesmen; women silvered their eyelashes. Golden ichor that spilled out upon impact were bottled and left to ferment. When the civil war came-the mad monks found the riff-raff a bit too much to bear-the temple containing these vials of ichor lay in siege and was eventually sacked, the cellars caved in. A few of the vials shattered and lent a golden glow for many weeks. Cockroaches and rats feasted upon these and were given intelligence. The bones of the angels were fashioned into weapons of war that burned the flesh like knife through soft butter. The wings were harnessed by icari, the soldiers who dared flight. These stormed an empty Olympus and declared themselves gods. Soothsayers stole the gold-flecked eyeballs hung around the necks of minor kings and spoke of confused futures. The devils came from under on skidmarks of hellfire to delight in the spectacle. Their fear of the supernatural conquered with the flaying of shining angels, men pulled these devils from under bridges, rat warrens, and cesspools. Horns glistening with black blood were turned into war trumpets. The skulls became helmets that sent soldiers into violent frenzies. The jagged teeth, with fingerbones serrated femur swords, or were ground into mystical powders of madness. Thus were the kingdoms of high and low laid to waste by the greed of their wards.
Tag Archives: devils
Strange Love
He imprisoned fairies in sterile Mason jars with air holes and fed them pearls of morning dew. In the evenings he read in their ethereal light. He began the hobby because he wanted to save money on candles. It rapidly became a lifestyle.
She collected miniature devils and took them to the taxidermist, bringing home little red figures preserved in a variety of verbs. She sang to them in the twilight and dreamed of Sheol’s warm red fires. They cluttered her bedroom, overflowing into the rest of her living space.
One day they met on the street under a sky the color of scorched metal. Squinting, he carried his jar like a lantern and it lit his way between the guttering gas lamps. She walked like a drunk, absorbed in a dialogue with the little red devils that filled her many pockets. They collided and made great rocking shadows. He bent to pick a figurine, and she bent to pick his glasses. Their heads knocked together and they saw stars that quickly turned into orbiting hearts.
Together they made good company, provided one left the other to their idiosyncrasies, and moved in together. After a year passed, they were murdered in the only recorded cooperation between the devils and fairies, leaving the authorities scratching their scalps in confusion.
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