"And it shall come to pass, that as the LORD rejoiced over you to do you good, and to multiply you; so the LORD will rejoice over you to destroy you, and to bring you to nought; and ye shall be plucked from off the land whither thou goest to possess it." (Deuteronomy 28:63)
Shortly following the events of The Other Side we find Senester in a limo, the twins safely nestled snug beside him as he returns to Dark Horse Towers only miles away. Inside he watches a replay of the closing moments paying close attention to the faces of the horrified audience, the children crying, the mothers and fathers shielding the eyes of their young, those throwing debris in anger, and those leaving the arena in sheer panic, disgust and fear. He watches the intensity of the pain ravaging Butch’s body, and the depth in which he reached into his soul and ripped it away from its flesh and bone.
(Senester): It is a common belief by mortal man that before you die, before the threshold of incidents of irreparable tragedy… that your life flashes before your eyes. Let it be known that this is also true in the eyes of God for those lives of special interest that my presence touches, and for that…I’d like to thank you Butch Parker. I would like to thank you for the one moment I felt your arms welcoming your master, your head upon my shoulder and for seeing in that brief instance what would have been our lives. God and his great Gladiator fathers to two cherubs, the vision of a family bound by the highest honor, the most supreme glory, and the unadulterated devotion to the two new lives only days old in this world. I saw a lifetime in that moment Mr. Parker, I lived it, and I thank you.
Senester looks down at the twins, brushing the delicate tendrils of their silky patches of hair with his hand.
(Senester): I looked into the eyes and faces of the masses in attendance, hearing their bellows, cries and curses from across great distances of the very earth itself and find myself intrigued by their futility. How I wished for my champion, my warrior, my Gladiator of God, but your decision on destruction compelled me to act with a foretold wrath. Did I not say so? Did I not explain destined for greatness or doomed for disaster? My words were no prophecy in waiting, they are law. They are absolute…yet the plebeians cowered and cooed ignorantly. What were you expecting Butch Parker? What had you envisioned as the result of your decision? Did you think you held some measure of power over me? That I wanted you by my side so desperately that I would be dismayed by your choice…that I would simply walk away? Did you assume perhaps that I’d engage you in yet another useless confrontation of ring skill with the asinine notion of the outcome being the period to our discussion? Or perhaps…did you accept your fate, your punishment willingly?
Nearly a year ago you stood beside me, and you remember the feeling. You remember the unfiltered power at your finger tips. I commanded the waves of the ocean to break against your very back, and the earth to crack beneath your feet swallowing all that stood in your way. What I give Butch Parker can be taken away. You received what you deserved. You received what you asked for, what you chose to have and I gladly gave it to you. Who are you to refuse me? Who are you to spurn my benevolence? Michael Dredge I killed, Talon Wilkinson I’ve set aside in purgatory, but you…you Butch Parker are an example. You’re an example to everyone else that I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end of all and everything. I am the almighty, the one and only power. I am everything and everywhere. You are an example to your peers who dare think themselves greater than I command them to be, to the justice system that assumes their laws to be above mine, and to society that believes in mortal men such as yourself instead of bowing to my unlimited divinity.
Happiness is but a faint smell in your aura now. I have taken along with your pride, your dignity, your hopes, your dreams, your satisfaction, any contentment you’ve ever had with life and all expectations for even the tiniest of lights to shine, spark or glow upon you. I leave you cast into the void of my vengeance. Devoid of these things that once made you whole. I leave you with hatred, broken and incomplete. I leave you regret, cancerous and greedy for any remnants left behind of the man you once were. Despair and desperation are your allies now, but they cannot lift the weight of my hand upon you pressing down upon your humbled remains.
The twins shift and make gurgling baby sounds as they sleep, Senester looks down at them and smiles.
(Senester): I’ve baptized our son and daughter in your blood to purge them so the sins of the father may not fall upon them, but the glory of God, of their true father shall embody their very being. I will soon name them, and I will give them the world. It is unfortunate that you cannot share this lifetime with me, with us. How can you be so cruel, so cold, so uncaring to the innocent, to your own flesh and blood? How could you refuse them for your own selfishness? As they grow I shall regale them with stories of their father Butch Parker. Stories of a man of great accomplishments. Of a legend who in his career stared adversity in the eyes a million times and slit its throat to triumph. Of an icon of epic proportions whose physical prowess was equaled or ever match by few. Of a warrior whose scars are the very verses to his long legacy. Of a gladiator who in the end thought his power to be his own. Lastly, of a creature, dwelling in the darkness…a hideous being whose mangled body has become contorted with humility, wizened by the decision to turn from God, and left to fester with the memories of what was, what should have been, and what shall never be. I own your immortal soul Butch Parker. I shall use it a condiment to flavor my palate so that I and our children may savor the taste of your misery until the end of time.
Senester laughs as the limo drives along, the towers emerging in the distance, and the children with crosses of dried blood on their foreheads slumber dreaming of Butch Parker with smiles on their dimpled cheeks as only babies adorn with such adoration as the scene fades to black.
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