The darkness swirled around me, consuming me, devouring me. It’s very essence was all I could sense. I breathed it in, aroused. I smelled the intoxicating aroma that the blackness beckoned with to me.
I let it drift and rule over my body, each calculating desire and thought sacrificed to the insidious melancholy. Here I was, in a pit of darkness, an unforgiving state of despair. Here I was. Here.

It was not where I was supposed to be. It was not even where I wanted to be. But it was still here, and it was something I could not ignore. The blackness, utter and complete, pressing in on all sides like the weight of a thousand primal suns stacked in rows all upon my body. It hurt to breathe, to allow the petrifying air to take comfort within my lungs, to nest within the very heart of my own body. It was as if I was allowing a decrepit and ancient evil take rise in the penetration of my core, allowing it to enter my flesh and course through every cell of my being. I was allowing it to control me, to intoxicate me, and there was nothing I could do about it.

I do not know how I arrived here. In fact, at the moment, I could remember nothing but the pressing darkness. My name, my existence, my entire life before this moment…was nothing in comparison to the dilemma that stood against me now.

The insipid blackness grew somehow stronger, somehow, even more enticing and forbidden if at all humanly possible. But, of course, this evil went beyond the lines of humanity itself. The guidelines and standards that we as fellow beings of this limitable flesh had no meaning for the creature that was about to enter. The creature whose atmosphere I had now recognized, whose home I had just begun to realize I had entered.

As if on cue, the being itself rose from some unseen depth, some unseen entranceway from a place I
hoped I never had to enter. Immediately, I could claim witness to the figure’s horrid countenance, a heartless black that seemed to glow in its triteness, casting a morbid shadow on all the rest of the room. It was the devil himself, in all his invalid glory; the traitor that bargained his way from heaven in order to start his own new society, his own new way of lifeless evil. Satan. Lucifer. A being of many names. And now he was here, here in this room, here in the very same place in which I breathed and sweated. Here to take my soul.

With the creature’s utter blackness, a sort of shadow was cast upon the rest of the room, and I could sense that there were five other people in the place with me. They all, as well, were curled into the same subservient position that I was – knees resting comfortably on the floor with their backend fitting in between their feet, and hands outstretched to balance themselves on the glacial floor. I wondered how I had come to know to rest in this position, or how I had even gotten to this position. For now, it was my only memory – kneeling here in this nameless existence without a face, ready to give worship to a creature I had not known existed until now.

Suddenly, I did not want to be here. Before, it had not been so horrific. It had just been a catacomb of silent wait, a curiosity that needed to be fulfilled by the tantalizing black. But now, I had discovered the true and unrelenting purpose of this exercise – to fall before the hands of the creator of all malevolence.

I started to arise, to begin to lift my curled frame into a posture of resistance, to defy and escape this putrid event before it was too late. But at that exact moment, the creature suddenly took to the air, emanating himself above us all. His fierce power blew upon me as he began to radiate among us, swiftly encircling above his new followers. I could not help but be forced back into my docile kneel, could not help but fall even further to the ground, now laying the entire front of my body to the floor in an extended bow. Everyone around me had done the same, completely and willingly permitting themselves to the hideous beast of the night so that he might claim their souls. But in truth, something about the bow inveigled me. It felt almost… pleasing to bow here in the darkness. To give in completely. To dedicate myself to a purpose, to allow myself to be a part of something greater than I could ever be alone. There was no turning back now.

The darkness began to drift, fulfilling me, cascading within me. Suddenly, things did not seem so dreary. Black was just another color, another phase of life. And evil – what was it exactly? Nothing but the disadvantageous segment of existence. There had to be a shortcoming, a snag in the perfect web of God’s creation in order for things to run effectively. Or else, there would be no purpose. Why would a person get up in the morning if they knew things would be perfect, that no problem or predicament would slow them in their path to enlightenment? Sin was the very essence of life. I was beginning to see it all clearly, more clearly than I had ever seen anything before in my short life.

My master slowed now, pausing briefly in the certain of the circle His followers has created. Although I could not spy any sort of mien through the hazard tears in the darkness, I could sense He was pleased. And that was all that mattered now.

He began to come around again, this time with haste. It seemed he was stopping forth at every person before continuing onward, uttering some kind of archaic tongue as he paused in front of each worshipper. I raised my head slightly, expectant for His arrival, to sense his presence even nearer than He had been before. And suddenly, He was there, his fetid flesh upon me, his pernicious countenance more than I could bear.

I began to panic, to become reasserted with the consequences of to what I was yielding. I was actually offering up my soul to the devil himself, becoming a disciple in the ways against the one true Lord! This could not be, I had to escape, had to be released from the pressing darkness, ever so pressing…

His hands were suddenly upon me, chilling pinpricks against the flesh of my forehead, and I felt a wave of pleasure condescend through me. I lifted my eyes to gaze into the inexplicable blackness, and saw the face which bore the name of Satan. Its power was voracious, and I felt myself once again succumb to the congenial tides of blackness. His fingers on my head were the fingers of a lover, the fingers of bliss and gratification, and I moaned out loud in a swooning ecstasy. His tongue muttered once again the lines of influential but unknown language, no doubt calling and claiming my soul to be his own.

I realized then that He was baptizing me - baptizing me into a faith of deliverance. He was now my trust, my one and true unfaithful leader in these woeful times of happiness and joy. Curse the world for their stability and delight. I would bring it all crumbling down, destroy the cities and murder the people, all in the name of my Lord. The touch of His fingers slowed, and only a single finger remained in the center of my forehead. Its seemingly iced touch quickly became heated, and I felt the skin of his extremity burn and flame with intensity. The spot on my forehead became engrossed in the flame, burning insatiably under his touch. But I did not flinch, did not quaver, for I knew I was being bound to Him, and nothing else mattered.

Suddenly, it was complete, and he flew away, on to the next sacrifice, the next victim. I lay on the ground, complete, waiting now contentment and ease. It was here I belonged, lounging in the tides of eternal blackness, aloof with the promises of destruction and death. The ceremony was now complete. Everyone in the space was now a baptized follower of the God of Evil.

The Devil took once again his throne in the center of our rampant circle. And still we stayed, subservient and proud to be a part of the new order. Then, quite suddenly, He was gone again, sucked back into the swirling vortex of the floor beneath us, leaving us purely alone in the now less putrid darkness.

A trembling rang beneath my feet, and I felt a change about to occur. The ground beneath me wilted and withered away, turbulence becoming its master. Suddenly, too, the blackness began to melt before my eyes just as an icicle roasted with the torch of fire might wither and die away. Drops of liquid tar began to rain upon us all, and we rose to our feet, rejoicing in this vindication ceremony. As the blackness began to fall, in its place a new element began to take hold – light. It seemed that we were now passing from our complete world of blackness and servitude into the real world, a world where our newly adopted Father could give us power and strength to pillage and burn. It was our time now. Our time to forage the fires of Hell in our hands and spread it lividly across the entire span of Earth. Our time was now.