The Affliction of a Damned Body

Five months to Exodus

In the cold of the late December in the southern region of France, nearly five months before my exodus, I had discovered, through a series of found letters, that my beloved had been planing to leave me. She had been seeing another man, of whom I have no hate for. I instead childishly turned my stained ego toward my beloved. I was distraught that I had to find out on my own accord. The fear of loosing trust is one I can safely assume that is commonplace in all of us.

 As I had done my first scan over the damned pages, my body had turned cold. A now familiar cold which seldom relieved itself from my body. 

I had approached her for this transgression and that very night she had left with her belongings, as she had chosen the other man. That night was the first of many sleepless nightmares. The damned cold had spiked into my nerves. Wanting to distract myself from the thoughts of my beloved, I had tunneled on attempting to find the source of this damned cold. The snow outside had racked itself high on the roof of the small apartment I had owned, and I first looked there. No holes to be found. I then suspected the fireplace, perhaps the fire was not hot enough? 

No. None of the searching and patching was helping. For weeks and weeks I had searched and searched but to no outcome. It was still so damned cold. 

I had to leave, I had to get out of the cold. One night in the blistering frost of the snow, I had packed and headed to the first boat to the African desert. I had hoped that this would relieve me of my self proclaimed epidemic of the skin. There where many on the ship along with me, however I had talked to none. The next month of travel was grueling, for the cold had wept deeper into my skin. 

The sea was awkward, and so was the wind. As the sea was dark and nearly oil like, and the air had stayed stagnant throughout the entire voyage. Yet the ship moved even without the air in its sails and the seemingly thick water. When I had brought this paradox up to the captain and his navigator, I was met with ridicule, and half laughter, as they had claimed that there where plenty of wind, and near clear perfect water. 

They had questioned whether or not I was sound of mind when I had closed the door, I could hear there whispers of me.

The rest of the voyage was the same as the first part. The cold, the wind, the oil thick water. All of it strange but I had assumed to be normal due to my ridicule by the captain. 

Once we had arrived on the coastal village, I had stepped off the ship and experienced a ray of sunshine so powerful that I had felt a tinge of warm. This had shocked me, although it was completely welcome.

I made haste to the uncharted deserts between the seas. I had bought a camel and was on my venture. Now, the warmth was at its best. Draped in a cloth drab, and a hood. The warm was euphoric, since its absence was a detriment to my health. 

I had traveled east toward Egypt, my slow crawl toward the ancient city was strangely stressful, even with the newfound warmth in the land. I felt an unease in the sky during the day. As if a being was watching through the blue of the sky, and with each step it had gotten closer. The nights where worse. Not only was the warmth gone, but the cold had rooted itself deeper than ever before. But the worst part of all where the stars. The stars obtained a white sterile burn in the sky, compared to their usual soft twinkle. It was only accented by the absolute dark of the space that parted them from one another.

After a week of travel, under the twilight of the near night, I had spotted a concentration of structures on the horizon opposite to the setting sun. I was perplexed, as I was sure that it would have been at least three more weeks before I had made it to Egypt. However, I had approached the city with haste, and had made it just before the complete obstruction of the sun by the horizon.

However on my approach I had noticed the lack of lights from the city. Then I had noticed the strange architecture in the structures. And on my final leg of the travel, now under the burning stars, I had realized what I had found. An ancient city, so massive yet somehow uncharted. My excitement first turned to confusion, then realization, and then fear, as I had noticed the menace of the front gates to the city. This combined with the looming stars had repealed me from the city for the night. I had gotten ready to sleep, but the curiosity and dread emanating from the stars and the gates had kept me awake for much longer than usual. 

The cold that night was seeping into every fiber of my being  and I was in a newfound body of pain that I had never experienced. Nevertheless I had continued my near futile attempt at achieving rest. After hours and hours an abrupt feeling had entered my mind, as every tangent that thought could follow was realized at once, rather than the usual calm drift into sleep, I had been forced suddenly into the hard, strange, dark edges of dream. 

After an intense unknown amount of time spent with the horrifying imagery of dreams. There was again an abrupt shift in tone and setting. The morning had come, and there was calm again. I had my head turned away from the city, and had chose to keep it like that for a few moments, considering the fact that I knew the second I would face the city the fear would strike me again. 

Yet in my time of tranquility I had noticed that there where tufts of grass in the sand. With increasing density in my direction. I had then looked up and to the city where the grass had been pointing to, however there was no city. An Infinite field of meadow grass and dandelions had greeted my turning head. With the dark blue sky and black stars hanging within it, and the sun peering over the edge of my sight.

Then my attention was turned to a figure which had been standing in front of me, but only now had I come to acknowledge it. It was lightly draped with a yellow garb and hood, with a symbol painted along its chest. I felt no disdain nor fear toward the figure until it had extended its arm and opened its hand in a gesture for me to clasp it. I only stared at it for a few moments until another abrupt change in scenery had happened. 

I had finally awoken, staring at the city with the newly risen sun on the horizon above it. I had then aroused myself, and with the newfound warmth of the sun, continued my approach of the city.