STORY...Katy Twist of November 5th

STORY...{Katy Twist of November 5th}: In a grim new world where all religions are considered mental Illness, a young woman adopts another identity in order to bring faith and justice in a world devoid of it.

(Katy Twist of November 5th)

“…You’re enslaved by emptiness!”

She heard those words from her mother as clear as the booming lightening that was looming overhead. Her mother, sitting near the mouth a small river. Her long blonde hair waving in the wind. It was a diagnosis she had made.

Katy, being her daughter, had just told her mom she believed that she was like the rest of the world – like the rest of the world had been for over fifty years…faithless. But mother had more to say.

“Listen, honey; we are not like them. Let me show you something,” She replied. “The world chose to turn its back on faith, because they couldn’t understand it. They couldn’t control it. They couldn’t harvest it for profit. Believe me when I say this, faith makes us stronger, and that is why we survived the Great Wasting.”

Her mother reached over and twisted some thorny vines in her hand, and then she placed the edgy crown of vines on her head.

“There is no such thing as nothing, so never believe in that. Nothingness is for those that live for nothing. We are different. We came from something wonderful…”

Katy shook her head and brought herself out of her deep thought. Her mother was now dead, gone for over a year, but was her faith gone? Katy had hid that faith inside of her, but when her group began to notice her soul-searching ways, they banished her…she was an outcast, because she would not succumb to a world devoid of spirituality.

She kept walking and saw a long row of stripped apples trees. It was the same exact spot that her mother told her of faith and what it means. As she got closer to the grove of trees, she saw a familiar keepsake. It was the very same crown of thorns her mother placed on her head long ago.

Katy instinctively picked it up and put it on her head. Later, she scribbled a small graffiti tag on the brick side of the tattered tunnel way. It read: “Katy Twist of November 5th”.

She had walked over the desolate city for nearly a month now, still running from her former group. She looked at her watch and wound it up again. Katy then accessed the small calendar map, and the calendar showed that it was her
birthday…November 5th.

It was a bit cool, but that was fine. Ever since the vast ECO-disaster some nine years ago, the one that robbed the world of billions of lives, the temperature had gone up. In her city it would normally be covered in slight snow at this time, but it was instead in a balmy warm state.

It was dangerous to travel alone. The roads were often roamed by packs of wild dogs and even worst, scavenging raiders who raped and killed on instinct. But Katy had no choice in leaving her group behind.

You see, to her family and friends back at their camp, Katy was very, very sick. Sick from something that had been eradicated from the world for over fifty years. It wasn’t a virus, or an injury, instead it was from a most disturbing condition of the brain…it was called faith. 

But Katy felt faithless now. Over the many hardships of living in a post-apocalyptic world, she had lost faith and she could practically hear her mother’s disappointment in her.

As she began looking for shelter from the incoming rains, she passed by dozens of dilapidated and ruined buildings, all homes abandoned by the hordes of the dead, loving people that once settled down and made homes. Now everyone was a nomad, searching for practical things they could survive on, for the world now was a morbid place indeed, stripped of electricity and any power that made the world of old look so wonderful.

Suddenly, Katy noticed a band of raiders coming in from the other side of the bridge she was on. She tried to make a sneaky get away, but one spotted her.

“Look, there’s one – get the skinny whore!” the lead raider screamed.

Katy ran as fast as she could, but quickly realized she had run into an ambush. She saw that the other side she was running to had collapsed, while the first side of the high bridge had about twenty raiders heading her way. In that one solemn moment, she realized she was dead!

But wait, she had quickly remembered her mother telling her as a child to be careful over certain parts of the bridge, as it was weak and frail. Katy quickly ran towards that side and noticed the floor creaking beneath her.

“Good!” She mumbled.” It’s still very weak!”

The group of vagrant raiders ran straight to her, but in doing so, they had to cross the hidden weak section the bridge. In a wild fit of panic, all 19 raiders began falling to their death as the weak asphalt of the bridge crumpled under them.

Soon, Katy was face to face with the last raider, who had somehow managed to hold on to the edge of the hole in the bridge.

“You! How did you do that?” He asked, as he tried to climb up.” “You came back, just like those old fools said you would!”

Katy did not know what he was referring to until she noticed a wagon full of slave kids behind the caved-in hole of the bridge. They were pointing to her old crown of thorns.

It had become very clear to her that the children, along with the last desperate raider, thought she was the second-coming of Jesus Christ!

They did not know Katy had known in advance where the weak spot on the bridge was. To them, all they saw was Katy pointing to them and then the bridge came crumbing down, to them, it was a true miracle...a frightening and deadly one.

Yet in a way it really was. As she moved around the sinkhole and to the caged wagon the children were jailed in, the last raider scoffed.

“You – you puny woman, come here and help me! I’m going to fall, my fingers are injured!”

Katy just passed him up as his grip crumbled and he fall far below. She now moved to the slave cart and began releasing the nine children inside.

“The legend is true, you came back to us!” one overzealous boy said, as he gave the surprised Katy a huge hug.

“Listen, I’m not who you think I am!” She explained.

But no matter how Katy tried, the children kept thinking that she was their newfound savior. It now occurred to Katy that maybe there was a miracle at play her. After all, she just rescued a group of kids and wasted a band of thug raiders.

As the children flocked to her, Katy could feel her faith rushing back to her.

More so, still burden by the rejection of her family, it appeared the good Lord gave her a new one.

Katy smiled. For she knew this was the beginning of a new life.

ONE YEAR LATER ON THAT SAME STRETCH OF ROAD

A lone woman was running with her infant child. She was passing by fallen rusty bridges and acrid tunnel ways and noticed a number of graffiti tags that all had the same saying, and all in different hand-writings.

The graffiti read: “Katy Twist of November 5th “: Behind her a group of six rugged thugs gave her chase. They caught the woman and threw her and the child on the floor. Like an animal, one of the bigger raiders brutally slapped the child from her arms, and then pulled down his pants. He started ripping off the woman’s clothes.

However, he felt a trickle of blood on his chest. When he looked down, he saw a crude arrow sticking from it.

“What the…what’s happening?” He said before he fell on his face and died. His rapist-murderer friends began to panic and were suddenly shocked.

Around them were nine children, holding makeshift bow and arrows. They were the children Katy had rescued a year ago. Seeing them well armed, they turned-face and ran away.

Once this was done, the panicked woman picked up her child and took notice of a strange girl all the young men had huddled around.

“Why did you help me? Who are you?” She asked.

“I am someone who can free you…” Katy answered.

She just put on her crown of thorns and addressed the lady. The woman seen the crown of thorns on Katy’s head and dropped her jaw in awe. This odd woman was the much-heralded messiah of the wastelands she had heard so many exciting rumors about. Could she really be the second-coming of the Christ?! She pondered.

“…I know who you are now! But why couldn’t I believe in you before?"  She asked Katy.

“You need to be set free…” Katy answered.

 “Free me from what?” the woman asked.

Katy responded in an honest and caring way. And when the woman heard her words, her heart opened and her spirit was refreshed. …And like so many others would in her near future, the woman understood and began to follow her. And she could now understand the answer she was given…

“…You’re enslaved by emptiness!”

END

Story by Dark Riddle/Jesus Morales: Photo by Katy Twist. Story inspired by the image “Enslaved by Emptiness” by Katytwist.  My big thanks to the talented Katy Twist!

You can see her great original photo here, as well as her cool gallery...

katytwist.deviantart.com/art/E…