Short Story: Victims of Pestilence: 1918

Short Story: Victims of Pestilence: 1918

England, 1918

To all who read,

My long life full of strife has made me a witness to humanity’s tragedies. You see, dear receiver, I am something that transcends your war and your diseases. Yet, this cursed era hurts me just as much as it hurts you.  Know that this is a terrifying time. Such a time where love is locked up and touch is hidden away from all who need it. How can we forget the bittersweet tastes of the past that have overshadowed this lonely era?

Pestilence has taken over.

If Pestilence has not intruded into your body, it has touched your lives. Such a monster has spread over lands, seas and past the heavens. Out of reach from a saviour but close enough to harm humanity. Mortal life is hung above all our heads. No noble men or peasant is safe. Mortality seems to be self-aware of itself in times such as these. Pestilence is not just a biological warfare made to win the first war of nations. It is terrorist and something that cannot be explained or manipulated. Pestilence has spread using our mindset of hate. Ready to intrude into every aspect of life, and not even God can intervene and save us. Pestilence laughs as we fight over land and petty squabbles. It sends its child, Influenza, to create a fire within a fire. Victims of Influenza are fused with wretched war-torn bodies. Pestilence can see we are descending into a chaos that is created through our flaws. We were ripe for the picking. Already separated. Pestilence is a coloniser – divide and conquer, right? Just like the war, we are witnessing now. Pestilence lit the spark, but we fanned the flame. Ready to attack and engulf children and adults alike in a wave of passion. Passion suffocates us and holds our head into the furnace, unwilling to let go, as pestilence watches upon our pain with a smile that rivals the scorching heat of hell.

Tell me, has your side of the earth escaped the mercy of this sickness? Or are your people suffering from a cruel twist of fate? Pestilence notes earth is on fire with raging seas that ravage humanity. Everyone lost in their own mental plague. This year we have all been beaten. Beaten bloody to the ground with an omnipotent strength delivering blows and hits to teach a lesson. A lesson for the future. What a futile lesson this has become. War after war. Famine after poverty. Mankind is just as ignorant as the first day Pestilence was released from its cage. Every century, pestilence comes with a plague. To rid the earth of men.

It’s uncaring about its prey and bias in its condemnation of mankind.

Dear, sweet reader – I urge you to listen. This year has taken so much from us. From a weary war to the Great Famine of Lebanon. Do not let it take anymore. Our bodies have weakened like that of a legless rabbit accompanied by our minds descending into madness. A madness, not even Oedipus could understand. Oedipus committed a crime, and Pestilence made his people suffer. We need to put a pause on war. Learn from Oedipus and heroes or villains of books and myths.

Run. Run. Run.

Lock yourself inside. Keep your hand away from loved ones or strangers. Cover your breath and lock away your cruel words—no more hatred. Pestilence has been warning us of the cost of using our greed instead of our heart. We could have been more united on the battlefield.  Instead – we, you, them – push for our soldiers to run into a battle, riddled with Influenza. Cough and phlegm spread like the gas from a bomb; knocking out all who inhale it. Firing deadly shots of disease to the vulnerable. Help those who cannot hide away from Pestilence and their child.

I have watched this narrative unfold time and time again.

Different plagues. Different weapons. Same result.

Why, dear reader, are we so ignorant? Pestilence’s large frame came swopping in as its body hid away the sun and moon. Creating something more daunting than an eclipse. But make no mistake – this convergence of the sun, moon and beast is not a beautiful sight to behold. Pestilence watched us from above as it travelled from city to city. From country to country. From continent to continent. Nowhere is safe from it. Some deny its existence. Some more terrified of their own homes, so they leave them. Others know better. This beast attacks without prejudice. Pestilence will discover you. It will attack. Many have survived attacks from Pestilence, but others, have been fatally wounded. Fated to die without a love close by. It has murdered enough to know our only safety is within the claustrophobic confines within our home.

Yet, despite this. Despite the fear, the dangers, and the possibility of certain death, we have warriors. So many prepared to stand at the front lines of this war against such as fearsome foe. It is not the rich or powerful who are ready, or even willing, to lay down their lives. The powerful would instead run around, allowing others to keep them safe. Yet, these so-called prominent figures do nothing to protect themselves.

Influenza’s almost extinction-level event will be just less than a memory one day.

The beast continues to swipe and dive into each crevice of the planet. I have watched it attack our transportation. Ruining the mental health and safety of those men and women who must push past each body. Each body possibly being possessed by Pestilence. A risk each walker takes every single god-damn second. Pestilence has made sure that even a single breath is deadly. Can you see it smirking from above? The creature stretches its limbs and curls its body as it watches its creations multiply and mutate. Pestilence has done its job. Pestilence is barely fighting back against every dagger. Daggers laced in vaccines and already stabbed into the body of the vulnerable and needy.

It beats its wings, creating echoes of pain within its victims. Its preys are afflicted with its poison. Warning side-effects include throbbing of the heart, wobbling’s of their breaths, the loss of sensations. Pestilence’s power can be measured on a death chart. Even a death sentence does not produce this many deaths. There are many more plagues to come. I can sense this morbid fate for the Earth will never be banished.

Yours Faithfully,

Timeless Queen

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