The Apostle
@Making_Fiction
158 Words
My Holy Bible clasped firmly in hand. I will only release it when they prise it from the battered husk that carries me, for my bodily vessel will soon be soaked in the colour of martyrdom. I will be just another boat perished on these foreign coastlands; another messenger of God sacrificed at the hands of infidels.
As my trembling ship carried me across the treacherous swirling abyss, I know it was a one-way journey.
On this foreign shore, the cracked earth is more barren than the Dead Sea. The aliens mock my attire and await my first words.
I serve two gods. The god, the creator, the coder; my purpose to deliver my faith to the alien race. And, the god of triangles, squares, X and Y buttons, who has my life at his fingertips.
My missionary is almost complete. The armchair deity has chosen. I hold the bible aloft. My enemies poised.
I talk, “In the beginning…”
via Flash! Friday–Vol 2 – 38 | Flash! Friday.
As usual, we had a the photo prompt and the charm item to incorporate. 140-160 words and one day to write a story.
My story has multiple layers. Hopefully the reader believes I’ve taken a different view of the prompt and focused on one of the original apostles, sailing across the seas to new hostile lands and the aliens are the native people of those lands. Then I wanted to twist the story to make the reader reconsider that this was actually a religious missionary to an alien world (the ship and the void were space related not marine). Then finally, the character is actually inside a computer game, at the mercy of the two gods – one a the machine code that makes him, two the person with the game controller (hints to XBOX and PlayStation buttons).
Did it work? Not sure. It worked for me. Might be too ambitious and leave too much to the imagination for a 160 word story. We’ll see – results due Monday.
Update: As expected, it didn’t get any recognition (apart from all the wonderful comments from the awesome FFF community). I think there were far too many layers and hidden meanings. I’m starting to learn that it doesn’t make this a poor story, or me a poor writer (although both may be true), it just didn’t suit this format or competition. I’m still fairly happy with it.
Metropolitan Dreams 