[WP] The beings stared in horror. They were immortal. Invincible. But one of their own was no longer moving. The glow was gone from its eyes. But more horrifying was the black cloaked, ethereal figure that had entered their midst. "Ah, hello," it said, "I assume you all are new to this death thing?"
*****
February 12, 1985.
The Atacama desert, Chile.
"The secrets of this world are secrets for a reason."
The cloaked ethereal figure that had entered our midst had echoed the words the locals told us when we first set out on the expedition. But there was no way we were going to listen to them, not after we'd come this far, after all we'd been through.
El Punto de Encuentro.
The Meeting Point.
It was a common speculation in our club that there were specific places on this earth where the physical and ethereal connected. Where life met Death. Where we could access the infinite and man could transcend to a god-like status.
It was my greatest dream to access one of those places, and my friends Damian and Pedro shared the same sentiment. The others in our club were willing to treat all this as bare speculation, just being here because the club was somewhat prestigious and it would be a nice addition to their résumés.
But we three didn't think this way.
"Jack, are you sure you want to go there for spring break?" My mother asked
I told her it was Miami. The beach, the sun, the girls - what every normal red-blooded guy would want if given the chance.
"Yes."
I didnt tell her my true motives. Two years of research, of finding manuscripts and translating, and of asking a lot of historians before we pieced the puzzle together. The location of one of those places.
El Punto de Encuentro.
The Atacama desert once held the record for being the dryest place in the world. It was a very remote area - one of the most extreme places in the world. It was perfect to hide something like this, discouraging most adventurers.
But not us.
We'd read through every random document, between the lines, past the double entendres and anagrams, and finally we had not only the name of the place, but the specific geographical coordinates and the words that would serve as our access code.
Having saved enough money - and gotten the rest through some not so legal means - we boarded a flight to Chile before renting a van and driving all the way to the closest settlement before we were in the desert proper.
The locals looked at us like they had seen people like us many times, and when we went to see the Chief of that village, we understood why.
"It has been decades, maybe even a century since anyone embarked on this journey. You're not the only ones who have started off on this perilous journey, and even though none of us have been I've long enough to seee any of the previous travellers, their stories have been passed down."
I knew it couldn't be only us to have discovered this secret since the dawn of time. Men would find out and endeavour to go to these places themselves and access these powers. Not telling anyone so that they would have the power to themselves.
I was not stupid or greedy, and that's why I surrounded myself with the 'crowd' I could muster that thought the same way I did and had the same passion.
"We'll be fine, Chief," Pedro said, being fluent in Spanish. "And we'll get what we came for."
"I am sure you will..." The man muttered gravely. "That is certain. But you will get what you bargained for without knowing, and when you do, you'll never remain the same."
His words struck a chord in me.
"No man has ever returned from that journey. Although you move in a pack, I do not see how much of a difference it would make. The secrets of this world are secrets for a reason."
I fumed internally. He felt he was wide, but he was just an old geezer too cowardly and stupid to embark on this journey. He didn't know what he could possess, what he could attain, and his words were just that of a has-been. When I was back, I would show him what true wisdom was.
"We thank you for your advice," Pedro said, a fake smile plastered on his face. "We'll be going tomorrow."
It was a ten mile walk from the village if we used a perilous, rocky shortcut, but we were prepared for that. Three days after we set out, we had covered three quarters of the distance, and we sat for a rest.
Our supplies were intact - just adequate, all thanks to Damian's calculations. We lived on supplements mostly, and there were some stimulants when we needed a boost. Water was no issue, being the one thing we stocked wey well. It would take us ten days to go back and forth, so we packed about 16 litres of water in bottles amongst our loaded backpacks.
By the sixth day, we'd reached after a delay. I had sustained a little sprain on my ankle while spelunking, but it was all healed now.
We reached it. The mouth of the cave. It was the moment of truth, the moment where we all got what we came for. I tentatively entered the place, not missing how Pedro made a sign of the cross before entering.
The cave was small, hallow, empty. We all knew what to do. Taking out our knives, we cut deep into our wrists, allowing the blood the drop before using it to form three distinct shapes on the ground.
The sun, the moon and a star.
The ritual was done when one was brought closest to death, just at that junction. It was done by standing in the midst of the cleestaik bodied drawn up by the ultimate sacrifice - one's mortal life.
It wouldn't matter when we had become immortal after it was done. Going through others shapes, we made sure each shape had a mix of all three blood samples, as it was three of us performing the ritual, and then we stood at the middle, chanting what we had been memorizing for months.
'Sangre ofrecida voluntariamente
Cuerpos celestes venerados
Guíanos hacia la Iluminación Divina
¡Y haznos uno contigo!'
Which translated to
Blood willingly offered
Celestial bodies revered
Usher us into Divine Enlightenment
And make us one with you!
We had barely finished the chant when the entire place began to rumble. I was light-headed, and I didn't know whether it was the acute blood loss or the effect of our spell, but soon, the rumbling stopped.
I felt a warm feeling in my chest, in my core. I could feel my muscles garden, my eyes were opened, and I could see... Everything.
The rock structure, through the rocks, as far as my house back in New Mexico...
And then I focused my eyes on Damian, and I was horrified. I was sure I and Pedro's eyes were flowing, but Damian's weren't. They were empty sucjets, and his body was pale, dry and immovable.
And then the figure stepped into our midst, tapping the giant scythe on Damian's body, or corpse as it now was. It disintegrated.
"What have you done to him?"
It laughed.
"There is no him. He was dead, and his soul was destroyed the instant the power impartation occured. He was a useless vessel, both in body and in mind. He couldn't handle all that. You both on the other hand, can."
I noticed all the dark dust on the floor of the cave. Possibly other unworthy vessels who had died? And it was then that my eyes zeroed in on two figures on the ground.
Pedro screamed.
"Are those..."
"I assume you all are new to this death thing?"
He laughed at his stupid joke before continuing. "Did you think that your husks would be able to contain all that energy and power? That your brain would contain that knowledge? Foolishness."
I was shocked still.
"The secrets of this word are secrets for a reason. The true sacrifice was your mortal lives, so that you could become divine beings. That's why you slit your wrists. You were dead from the excessive blood loss from the moment you slit those wrists. Now, you're the divine, immortal, god-like beings you wanted to be."
"What next?!" Pedro screamed.
I then noticed my body fading.
"The f*ck is going on?"
"Your souls, which have now become divine beings, are going to become part of the forces that maintain balance of this world's systems: gravity, weather, all that."
"That isn't what I came for! That isn't..."
I had already faded away, hearing his last words.
"You should have listened to that Chief. You got exactly what you bargained for, not what you think you 'asked' for."
*****
I went all out here, refusing to make this a two-part story 😂
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Comments? Very much welcome!
Thank you ❤️💯
