The Scarab's Corner

This was the greatest moment of their life. Standing before them was their lover of six years. Today was the day they would finally encapsulate their love in sacred matrimony. After exchanging vows, they closed their eyes and prepared a kiss. The moment was intense, and their heart was beating like crazy. Suddenly, there was a ringing in their ears – the sound of white noise. They felt a sudden chill run through them as they began to open their eyes.

It was all washed out. Everything was washed out, blurry and frozen in time. Their lover was still there but they saw them completely smeared in place, like a badly painted portrait. They could not make out any of the facial features of their lover either. When they tried to reach out and touch them, there was an unusual sense of avoidance. It was as if their hand was an opposing magnet that repelled the blurry image of their lover away from them. They began to panic and tried to embrace their lover, only to see their washed-out form drift away and dissolve. They screamed out loud as confusion and fear filled their mind. As their eyes began to swell with tears, they turned their attention towards the congregation, hoping to find some comfort and resolution to this bizarre and inexplicable event.

There was no one there. The entire building was empty. Everyone, their friends and family, gone. The chairs, the tables, the benches, everything was missing. The stained-glass windows high above were now colorless and featureless. Only the slightest amount of light escaped through these windows and the entire room – once lively and bursting with color and the chatter of happy people – was a dim, washed out gray. They ran towards the doors to escape this living nightmare, but every door they found was bound and barricaded by cold-iron bars that resisted every attempt to move them. As their panic reached its peak, they tried to kick, punch and force their way through each door, bruising themselves as they wailed in fear and pain. There was nothing they could do. They were alone and trapped in this surreal hell. With all hope lost, they laid upon the floor and wept. The only thought that lingered in their mind was “why?” They could not comprehend why this was happening to them nor why it was happening at such a precious moment in their life. Then, finding nothing else they could do, they became desperate.

They sulked over their fate and began to bargain, plead, and pray to every deity they could name in their head. They asked forgiveness for any wrong they could remember doing to anyone throughout their life. They begged for mercy, shouting out as loud as they could that they would become a better person to everyone if they could just have another chance outside of this surreal hell. Days went by with them constantly pleading for an escape out of this ever-darkening place. They came to notice that the sun never sets, yet the light that came through the stained-glass windows was beginning to recede. The room that was once known as a sacred site for people to commune their purest love was slowly becoming their tomb. When the pleading did not work, they resorted to curse at and deny these so-called deities. There was nothing out there, no one was listening. If there was some higher power out there, it heard their pleas and responded with only an uncaring and cold silence. The days began to feel like weeks as they found themselves slowly wasting away. Their muscles weakening and their stomach howling in agony for any sustenance, any morsel of food. Just as they were about to lay down and finally give in to hopelessness, they heard a voice.

It was muffled, but they could hear voices just beyond the barricaded doors. A newfound strength filled them as they scrambled to their feet and ran over towards the ironclad door. They immediately pressed their ear to the door:

“…Ischemia”

It sounded like a woman’s name. They began to pound their hands upon the door. They tried whatever they could to get the attention of the person just beyond the door. Their efforts were returned with more muffled speaking and nothing else. “Fuck you! I know you can hear me! Open the fucking door!” They screamed out at the person on the other end. They concluded that someone must have drugged then kidnapped them before throwing them into this unreal hell of a place. Their thoughts began to scramble with the images of various faces. They were trying to figure out who would be capable of doing this, and why. They weep silently as they begin to realize that whoever was beyond the door was most likely ignoring their pleas. They slumped against the door as they began to feel the stress of the moment begin to take its toll on their weakened body. At the very least, the muffled voices would accompany them in their final moments as they withered away… in their hospital bed.