The young believe they will live forever. Should live forever. I was no different in that regard—only I had unearthed the means to make it so. Unspeakable means.
In my moment of “triumph,” I was discovered by those closest to me. My flesh profaned by blood and bile and sin, they dragged me from the circle.
I screamed like a newborn, and in a way I was, when they pronounced my sentence: My name, erased. My works, expunged. My body...to be buried forever alive.
As the pitiless earth pressed down on me, I shouted until my voice fell silent. Such devastating silence. Yet once it settled, I came faintly to hear the world above.
Cries of pain. Wails of despair. Ebbing and flowing and ebbing, century after century...until I heard the scream.
The earth trembled with a malice I had never known, and once it had passed, I heard the cries of man, louder than ever before.
I wept. For days into weeks. Begging for death to silence their pain and to at last put an end to mine.
And then, he answered.