~ EL HEAD ~
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Ryan's Psalm
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Chapter 3 ·
Chapter 4 ·
Chapter 5 ·
Chapter 6 ·
Chapter 7 ·
Chapter 8 ·
Chapter 9 ·
Chapter 10 ·
Chapter 11 ·
Chapter 12 ·
Chapter 13 ·
Chapter 14 ·
Chapter 15 ·
Chapter 16 ·
Chapter 17 ·
Chapter 18 ·
Chapter 19 ·
Chapter 21 ·
Chapter 22 ·
Chapter 23 ·
Chapter24 ·
Chapter25 ·
Chapter 26 ·
Chapter 27 ·
Chapter 28 ·
Chapter 29
CHAPTER 20 :A TONIC GOOD FROM THE BLOOD
The Cup held the Blood and I gazed upon it at the Last Feast and after the Crucifixion. The Blood glowed with sunshine, life, glory
of God and salvation.
It was golden and sapphire and silver and sparkled like gemstones. In certain times and certain lights the Cup will so shine.
When a person of great virtue has the Cup it will fill with God's grace and glory.
Gospel according to Joseph of Arimathea.
November 26-1870-early December 1870
Ryan and Bolane crossed the juniper forests on the plains around Mount San Francisco riding on the back of Binky the Gila Monster. They saw a settlement in the distance after a couple of days travel.
Ryan and Bolane lowly sauntered into Fort Carleton on back of the Gila Monster to the stupified stares of the military, their families and the small amount of towns people.
Ryan had a plan after his forty day sojourn. He and Bolane quickly assembled a show using Bolane's trick shooting and serpent calling abilities and highlighted the show with a performance by the Gila Monster.
After a few shows they had enough capital to buy a wagon and a gross of glass bottles which were special ordered from Prescott, Arizona.
With these bottles Donegal Ryan whipped up his first batch of Dr. Ryan's Cure-All Tonic, comprised of whiskey, tobacco, snake venom, iodine, laudanum and two bloodthorns.
Most people who drank the Tonic reported no ill effects but no beneficial ones either. About ten percent however became quite ill, their illness usually accompanied by visions and convulsive spasms. When they awoke a few hours later their lives were forever changed for they had become addicted to Ryan, emotionally and physically.
Among Ryan's first twenty converts were a town merchant who provided foodstuffs and sundry supplies as well as two wagons. There was also a supply corporal who stole a few weapons.
Ryan prudently avoided military forts thereafter not wanting to tempt the Lord with his imprudence and impudence. He would visit the smaller towns and acquire legions of followers before attempting the task at hand, which was to bring down Zion and then Rome replacing them with the reign of Christ on Earth. Zion was Salt Lake City with Rome being the United States. Christ would manifest only after a thousand after the Elect ruled the earth, during which time Ryan would be Regent for Christ.
Ryan preached to his followers on the road, instructing them in the ever-changing catechism of the Church of the Eternal Apocalypse. At first they only listened to him because of their need for the Tonic. There was in fact one elderly woman of about sixty years who rebelled against Ryan's blasphemies and refused to drink her Tonic. She held out for two days before the addiction twisted her soul completely inside out.
She groveled before Ryan, crawling through the dry, dusty soil on her belly, forever ruining her flowered broadcloth dress and bonnet. Grasping his foot she promised to perform the most perverted of acts to get a sip of the tonic.
Ryan refused her and as a demonstration made his congregation watch as she sank further and further, becoming an unwashed, disheveled wild haired hag who screamed as convulsions shook her and groveled in the dust after the contortions had finished.
After four days the intelligence in her eyes faded, replaced by a mindless animal rage of need. After she attacked Ryan he had her tied up. Another day passed and morning found her drooling, humming and looking off into space but seeing nothing. Her blank stare corresponded to the blank expanses of her eyes and the mind behind them.
Ryan then forced her jaws open and poured a vial of the tonic down her throat. In a few hours her physical health had been restored but much of her personality and vitality had died, she had lost the ability to think for herself.
After several treatments of the tonic, Donegal Ryan's followers listened to his Newest Testament avidly because they had absorbed so much of Donegal Ryan into their systems that they had begun to believe as he did. As time went by they found their addiction to the tonic waning and only needed a weekly dose to stave off the withdrawal sickness. Yet the damage had been done, they had become addicted to Ryan and would follow him unto the death.
Many did just that.
Ryan had his followers making hundreds of bottles of Dr. Ryan's Sure Fire Cure-All Tonic using the same formula as before but with the addition of peyote buttons added to the mixture.
They had camped about four miles outside of Bagdad, Arizona resting up from the rough over land trip and filling the last few bottles with Dr. Ryan's Sure Fire Cure-All Tonic.
Donegal Ryan doffed his hat and shook his head free of any loose blood thorns. His followers scrambled in the dirt to pick the bloodthorns before they became contaminated by the soil.
"Children of God, let me tell you of the forces moving about the land today. Many Signs have come to pass, Many seals have been broken. Know this John of Patmos did not have his information straight so the Signs and Seals may not happen in the order Revelations says they will.
"Some have already happened. The Scroll was opened with the death and resurrection of Christ. The first four broken seals released the first four horsemen of the Apocalypse. The fifth seal was the time of the Martyrs of the church and the sixth seal was an earthquake accompanied by the moon turning red with meteorites. This was the American Civil War. After the war people such as myself and Brother Bolane began turning up with various strange marks on their flesh, this my brethern are the seals of God of whom 1,444,000 will be marked or perhaps merely 1,444 since those marks represent a thousand souls.
"The first trumpet is described as a hail of fire and blood which will destroy a third of the vegetation of this world. This my friends is nothing less than deforestation, chopping down entire forests. For why? To make paper, at the behest of the damned Printers, nature is murdered for stupid little signs, stupid little pamphlets and evil, accursed books. God has said it is a good thing to kill printers, remember this and rejoice.
"Another thing John of Patmos got wrong was the number of the Horsemen. There are actually nine, one for every direction. When told this, John had only thought of the four main directions forgetting about southwest, southeast, northeast and northwest.
"That's only eight." Bolane interjected, taking a large puff from a commandeered cigar. He winced as Ryan's sudden glare made sharp spikes slide into his eyes.
"You forget about the center from where all things derive.", Ryan answered softly. Turning back to the audience Ryan said, "These nine horsemen are Death, Conquest, War, Famine, Greed, Industry, Vice, Secular Education and Anarchy. They ride upon the world in various guises but when you have become saved by the words of the Newest Testament you can discern them, no matter what form they take, be it a little old lady shopping for dry goods or a farmer plowing his field.
"I'll not describe War, Famine, Conquest and Death for they are described in the present book of Revelations.
Greed wears armor of gold and rides upon a silver horse while wielding a sword made of green paper which does not kill but corrupts.
Industry is clothed in shiny, gossamer fabrics which glisten and gleam like silk but are in fact made of unnatural fibers. He rides a pale gray horse named Toxin. Toxin exhales brimstone fumes and continuously defecates acids. Industry's weapon is a huge lance which pours forth a vile black sludge which will kill living tissue on contact.
Vice is dressed in male and female clothes, carries a giant whiskey bottle which never becomes emptied no matter how much is drunk from it. This he also uses as a club. His face is obscured by a cloud of tobacco smoke yet glimpses of said face reveal pustulent sores reminiscent of syphilis. His mount is a bull always sexually aroused.
For armor, Secular Education wears black slate upon which are written various white chalk statement which change continuously, attempting to read them will drive you mad. He also has a tatterdemalion cloak made of papyrus, book pages, newspapers and ungodly paintings. His mount is of mottled white and black, looking like constantly changing newsprint.
Anarchy rides a yellow horse and wears a swirling cloak of many colors. He is a disembodied head with a rotting corpse for a body. Thus he represent Anarchy, without a king, or a head of state and the corruption which such a state manifests. In his wake is dissension, chaos and social decay.
I say to you, do not fear these creatures if you see them, do not avoid them but aid them. While it is true they are fallen Angels, they are also doing the Lord's work. Punishing the wicked and scourging the good to ever more heights of salvation.
Ryan spoke in a loud half trance which entranced his followers, they paused in their efforts and listened with avid fascination.
Finishing his impromptu sermon Ryan became aware that his twenty workers were staring at him.
"Hey Get to work, we have to have all of this work done by tomorrow"
Ryan walked past the crowd and off secluded canyon to pray.
Ryan had of late heard voices calling his name, yet it was not a voice he had heard before, it was certainly not his the Lord or his angels or any of the writers of the books of the Newest Testament. It was a familiar voice and yet one he could not readily identify.
Ryan sat down on a small rock and concentrated on the voice determined to discover if it were of the Lord or Satan. If it were the former he would see if he had wisdom or instruction to impart, if he were of the latter he would cast him back into the depths of Hell.
After a half hour or so of concentration, a shape began to form in Ryan's mind's eye. It was at first a blob, almost circular in shape, which slowly formed into a face with features of foggy blobs, like smears on glass. In the pale pink murk shone two eyes, clear, distinct, vibrant and entirely sapphire.
Ryan's eyes and the apparition's eyes met and locked upon one another.
As if a foggy window had been wiped clear the face coalesced into absolute clarity. A disembodied head floated in a gray, colorless limbo, its facial skin hung off in rotted tatters revealing dried and torn musculature of pink, black and green hues. Here and there were scattered peeks of yellowed bone.
The neck ended in a jagged stump and about six to eight inches of vertebra, vocal chord and trachea hung dangling in the aether.
Atop the head was a Union Cavalry slouch hat, stained with dust and stiff with large patches of dried blood.
The eyes were alive and stared at Ryan. He knew that this was no vision but a mental summons and a sending. The evil blasphemer Poul Ichabod had survived his crucifixion and decapitation. Ryan knew that he was in fact no mere ex-soldier but was the embodiment of the Anarchy, the Ninth Horseman who had turned his back on God's work and thrown his allegiance to the Anti-Christ. Ryan would have to shut Ichabod and his Master away for a thousand years in a burning lake so Christ could rule the earth with Ryan as his Regent.
First however he would have to marshal his strength and gather up his Army of the Apocalypse. Ryan blanked out his mind and lost the image of Ichabod. He had seen the crater in the background of his vision and so knew Ichabod's location.
Ryan ran other to where Bolane sat pouring over the texts of the Newest Testament, which one of Ryan's followers had been instructed to take down as Scripture. This was written on the back pages of a daybook.
"Brother Bolane, have you maintained your connections with the creatures of the Pit as I instructed?"
Bolane lifted the collar of his white leather outfit, displaying the scintillating scales embedded in his flesh. "Do you believe I would dare disobey you.."
Ryan allowed himself a hooting laugh and a sadistic smile. He gripped Bolane hard on the scaly shoulder and squeezed. Spikes of pain radiated out from Bolane's shoulder in such intensity as to bring him to his knees. "Send a Beast from the Pit outwards and direct it to kill the nearest living things."
Bolane blinked, affecting a dazed expression "I thoughtyou wanted to save the creatures for later?
"Don't send the locusts, there are other creatures in there, right?" Ryan stated, in a manner which left no doubt that he was certain of the truth of his words.
"Yes, but how did..."
"I know all that you know, now do it!"
Continuing to kneel, Bolane clasped his hands together hard in a supplicating prayer and concentrated. He sent his mind skimming across the minds of animals of the desert like someone crossing a wide stream by hopping a path of randomly placed rocks. After a series of skips costing Bolane finally reached the area of the pit. The effort had already cost him a great deal of physical and mental energy and his body sagged in Ryan's hands. He noted the presence of three animal minds aware and awake. Ignoring them he dove as deep as he could into the pit, climbing downwards by using hibernating minds like rungs.
Bolane happened upon a hibernating mind filled with thoughts of brutal merciless force and a bloodthirstiness beyond predatory instinct. Wanton destruction and annihilation of life were the key elements of this animal. With some reluctance Bolane awakened it and sent it to the surface.
Ryan had Bolane implant a suggestion in the locusts to lay eggs upon eggs, multiplying into the millions. He then wanted Bolane to control the wakened animal from a distance but the effort proved too much and Bolane swooned forward, falling flat on his face.
Disgusted Ryan kicked the prostrate form in the ribs and walked away. He would not be able to witness the destruction of his enemy and was thoroughly disappointed. He decided to quench his bloodlust on his followers.
"Children, finish your tonics and then gather up some cactus strands, leaving the needles still in place. It is time to learn of the new sacrament of our church called flagellance
Home ·
Ryan's Psalm
Chapter 1 ·
Chapter 2 ·
Chapter 3·
Chapter 4·
Chapter 5·
Chapter 6·
Chapter 7·
Chapter 8·
Chapter 9·
Chapter 10 ·
Chapter 11 ·
Chapter 12 ·
Chapter 13·
Chapter 14·
Chapter 15·
Chapter 16·
Chapter 17·
Chapter 18·
Chapter 19·
Chapter 21 ·
Chapter 22 ·
Chapter 23·
Chapter24·
Chapter25·
Chapter 26·
Chapter 27·
Chapter 28·
Chapter 29
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