It is a sin to write this, but I don’t think that anyone will know. All I have left is to write. I can’t stop writing. I suppose that there is so much to write about— all the legends and tales of mystical things. I remember the stories so clearly, and they ring in my mind for quite awhile, until I write them down. I think that I love to write so that everything that I’ve learned can be contained and passed down for the future, so that I am not lost. So many wonderful things have been lost that way.
So where shall I begin? I suppose as far back as my memory will allow. Back to that long-awaited moment. The time of His return. Legend has it that The Apprentice would come back some day, and He did. With earth-shakes and lightning, deep, and rolling thunder, He came back to rule, just as the Pure Ones said He would. The Forbidden Book teaches of Him. Although none of us would dare to read it, we are sure that it speaks of why we are now alone. This place here is desolate now, after the Pure Ones have left it, and there is great evil in The Underground. All men have fought; the blood of their brothers drip from their lips as they spit out foul, repugnant words. Their wounded hearts are steel and barbed, walled with pride and guilt. They intimidate those that trust them, and treat their dedicated servants as slaves and animals. There is no conscience in these people, and those that think of the weak are laughed at and made poor in spirit. There is no justice anymore. No peace. All that exists is the undoing of what once was beauty. The people who are left with kind hearts and good nature are crushed beneath those with strong mind and evil will. But it wasn’t always so distraught and terrible, and there is yet hope for another to come.
At the beginning of time, before the terribleness began, there was a glimmer of hope at the end of the tunnel of history. A man named Ada, and his wife Vee, were created by The Master. They were told to guard all of The Master’s work, which was the earth. Together, they cared for the creatures and the growth. They lived on The Surface, where white, blinding light shone bright and clear. They were White, more clean than the Pure Ones, and in the eyes of The Master, they were clean.
They cared for the Earth for many years, until a Worm was born. The worm kidnapped Vee, because she was weak, and stole her away to his fiery caves. He demanded that she eat his sweet roots, even without their thorns. She knew that this was The Master’s enemy, and refused to eat the roots. But the worm cut up the roots into a fine powder, and made a drink with it. He poured it down Vee’s throat, forcing her to drink the thick juice. She became dizzy at once, having never had such a strong drink. Then Ada arrived to rescue her, but it was too late. She had drunk the root, and was cursed by the Worm.
When they came back to The Master’s garden, they were ashamed and guilty. The Master told them that He could not help them. So they were made to grow food out of the ground, and labor hard over their children. They could not speak to the Master anymore, as was their curse. Life would be difficult, and they would toil over the entire course of their lives.
Many generations were born after this, with hardships and evil tainting their White-ness. They became darker and darker, until The Master decided to send His Apprentice to come and work miracles upon the earth. The Apprentice came to heal the black-hearted, and He sacrificed His human form for them to be saved. He rescued them from the curse that was brought upon them, but the earth was so black that He could only save a few people. The people who believed that The Apprentice existed, they would be saved and would have no need to toil, for The Master would provide. Those who did not believe would be left behind.
More children and their children’s children were born, and it became difficult to believe that The Apprentice had ever come. Those who believed became few and far, but The Apprentice still came back to save those who kept faith in Him. These were the Pure Ones, because they kept faith and discipline towards the things of The Master.
When The Apprentice returned to rescue them, balls of fire shot out of the sky, burning the forests and farms to charcoal. Great cities were frozen by the icy blasts that whirled through His fingertips. Legends tell of year-long earth-shakes, that moved the crust of the earth. Entire mountains began to shift, and huge metropolises fell into wide cracks, into pits of lava and stone. Most of the unsaved died, but a few survived the return of The Apprentice. Those who were left were able to survive by hiding deep in the rocks and caverns of the mountains. These people, and only these, were protected from the glory, power, and might sent by The Master through The Apprentice.
The Apprentice then began to rule over the earth for many years, bringing hope to the hopeless, and healing to the sick. He restored what The Master had created, and brought His creations back to live in The High Places and live forever with The Master. But those who survived in the mountains were not saved, for they hid from The Apprentice for many years. They still live there now, after all that has occurred, with their black hearts, and wicked deeds.
This is the story which lies in the folds of The Forbidden Book, which no one dares to read anymore. To read it might bring the fury of The Master upon us again, for He knows if one speaks His name. They believe He might come to flood the Mines with water, or to block the air supply and suffocate our people. We dare not read The Forbidden Book, for it may bring Him here again. ‘We must stay here for eternity, and live on forever in The Underground’, the Government told the people after hearing the news of the Earthshakes. The Surface will bring Him here, and The Forbidden Book will bring him here, so these are the things we do not think about. We stay away from The Surface, and we leave The Forbidden Book in a case of rock, so that no man may ever read it. No one alive today has seen it, and the legends each say different things. One says the Book is made of gold, and others say it is old, ragged, and full of roaches. Still others believe the Book had a wooden cover, burned in an intricate design with fine tools. We all are curious to see what lies within the pages, but fear keeps us away.
These legends have lasted thousands of years. Young ones know these legends by heart, for they are the only rules that we live by anymore. Wickedness and hatred run rampant in our homes, unrestrained because it is our culture. Unabashed sin has become status quo, and those few that have kind thoughts are hidden away in their homes, for kind thoughts are no longer normal. Now, all of our hope resides in those few that are good. All of our hope is hidden and veiled in a thick case of darkness.
As a young child, I lived on The Surface. I remember all the light, the good things, the peace. They say The Surface has dangerous things, because all they remember is the wrath of The Apprentice, but it is no longer that. When I lived there, a small child of three, I saw many great things, beautiful things. People were nice and generous. Homes were open to visitors at all times. Everyone would smile to greet you, and give you warm embraces. At least, this is what I remember of The Surface.
When we became lost in The Wilderness, and came upon an entrance to The Underground, my father found his good friends living here. We settled in The Underground, and we have been here since, residing in the havoc and evil. The men here would drink Root-juice to the point of craziness. They’d gamble away their family’s money. They would sell their daughters to the highest bidder, and their wives were treated as whores and slaves. Some men had many wives, but others kept only one. Some men worked in The Mines, and were proud and haughty. Some worked in Accounting, and they were sly and deceitful. Other men worked in a Factory, and they had mean tempers and fierce whips. They would herd their workers like sheep or cattle, and would work them to their bones.
The Underground is a dark place, with only the light of candles and fire to light it. Legend tells of electricity, a kind of eternal light source, but no one cares enough to invent these things anymore. They like the dark here.
It is a hollow mountain, that has many entrances and exits. These passages are used only for air supply, and are guarded heavily. From the outside, it is very difficult to see one of these doorways because they’ve been craftily hidden from most angles. People are allowed to come in, but only if they have paid high tolls, and are strip-searched extensively. No one is allowed out.
I have lived in The Underground now for about fifty-two years. I barely remember my wife, Nadia, who I met here Underground when I was nineteen. I paid a very high price for her, and I loved her with everything I had. I worked as a scribe for many years, and wrote love stories for her. But because of the wickedness in The Underground, I lost her very quickly. When I was thirty-two years old, a man murdered her for the coins in her wallet, and the jewels around her neck. Those jewels that I gave to her. She left me here, with her children. The eldest a beautiful daughter, and two younger sons. My daughter is married now, taken by a Miner, with two children of her own. And I am left alone, in this old cave with the echoing thoughts of my Nadia. She haunts me day and night, the Root-Juice helps me to remember her. Now all I can do is write. I write everything I can remember; The Surface, The Underground, Legends I’ve been told, Nadia. The scribes for whom I used to work won’t accept my writings anymore. They tell me to burn them, and they warn me to stop writing. But I must continue, for whoever reads this, to set these memories into pen and paper, hopefully forever.
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