[BAD] Angle Side Side EPIC by Joe6pack

In the far distance below the rising sun,

A castle of godlike splendor lined the blue sky.

The steeple surpassed any of man’s marvels,

Its vertex ascending into heaven, twenty nine flights.

Colossal bricks of various shaded colors composed

The lost walls that denied signs of life.

Carved at the base of the stone were

Arches of immense magnitude as if

To service the titans.

Surrounding the castle were rolling prairies

That housed many creatures. Grassy plains

That stretched outward in all directions

Extending to a darkened forest. Evil

Was the essence of the forest. Among the undead

Walked veiled creations that God

Deemed unfit for the garden. Contained

By the boundaries of the forest, these beasts have roamed

Aimlessly as despairing guardians of a unique creation.

Beyond the bounds of the forest laid a man

Of candor and unmatched valor.

Lost in a dream of fairytales, spoke

An elegant voice of familiarity.

She came to visit his consciousness,

Several times before she called his name.

She spoke of herself, residing

High above in a castle in the sky,

Guarded by God’s unholy torments.

Created by the almighty as an undertaking

To all mortal men with an end

Of satisfying their natural impulse

For immortality. Her beauty surpassed

That of the goddesses throughout the

Sands of time, thus capturing the

Exclusive attention of the man’s imagination.

Twenty nine flights of floors, to be

Traversed in order to reach her.

Hardships to be endured and conquered.

Fires to be contained and extinguished. This quest she revealed,

To the man’s intellect, it fondly appealed.

A journey of magnificence, fear, and love.

An adventure woven by divine hands.

For fairytales existed in this tree fairy filled world.

But as the dream neared its end, she again

Repeated the same graceful chords:

“Your youth to be saved through me,

My sacrifice grants eternity,

As beauty holds and age doth flee,

Never, shall love, let us be.”

For twenty nine ascensions surrender

Twenty nine seconds to be taken for granted.

Upon waking up from his rest,

The man recorded

Vivid details of his newest absence from reality.

Some days the dream would appear unchanged,

Yet once in a blue moon,

She would reveal more to him.

Another piece to this mental puzzle

To be returned to its place. And yet

Another path in the maze is unlocked,

Leading to whereabouts unknown.

Etched into the man’s rustic book

Was the name Elias.

Elias collected his thoughts of the dream

That tampered with fiction and reality.

His hand began to guide

A written summary of experiences to follow.

Entry one – twenty two

Prior to the creation of man,

Rose an immense castle.

It could be seen above the ascending mountains

Of the land. Green plains

Encircled the castle, acting to

Reprise him who resisted to falter.

Surrounding the plains was a forest,

Created as a haven

For God’s tainted beings.

These stained creatures contained

Elements of evil and fear

Complimented by feeble imaginations.

Despite damnation, they continued to dwell

As their master commanded,

Unwilling to venture beyond this

Morbid forest of wine.

Even though God

Constructed sufficient difficulties

Upon approaching the castle,

Its own walls contained

A floor of a lessened hell.

A savage beast patiently waited for an intruder of any kind.

Its only goal was preservation

Of what existed on the twenty ninth floor.

It would decimate all

Who dared to enter its sanctuary.

For it feared its Creator, but feared failure

To an even greater extent.

Upon finishing the confines of the castle interior,

God left the twenty ninth floor

Unscathed by the evil that surrounded it.

The room was as white as her grays,

With a window facing towards the heavens.

As a blue moon cast its light through the glass,

God began to hum a soft melody.

Rain fell from the clear night sky,

And crashed into the surface of the glass.

The glass shattered into countless pieces,

And fell to the ground as the rain itself.

The tempered droplets splashed

And fractured in many ways.

The effect was a wave colliding

With an immovable body.

As the haze ceased to exist,

Laid an elegant wrist,

Upon the floor,

That led to a hidden figure beneath the mist.

This lady was given

At the beginning of time,

The name of Layla.

Born in her prime

Of ageless beauty,

She had no memory of a past,

But was infused

With knowledge by her Author.

Right then, she was aware.

Layla wished every night

As the moon rose above the open ceiling,

And prayed that he would come,

And release her heart from this eternal labor.

“Your youth to be saved through me,

My sacrifice grants eternity,

As beauty holds and age doth flee,

Never, shall love, let us be.”

-10 Aprilia---{

As he set the journal down,

Elias wondered aloud.

“Never shall love let us be.”

What did she mean by those words?

Eight months gone,

Since he learned of her name.

And not a single month

Had she neglected to visit.

All she had spoken

Had been clearly understood.

All except for those lingering words

That danced upon her rosy lips.

From under the forlorn willow tree,

Elias observed the sun descending

Below the mountain line.

The day’s spark exhausted,

Diminishing in relative space

And appearing in another place.

The crescent light soon

Illuminated the landscape.

Shadows of blackness were cast,

Sounds were amplified by nocturnals,

And the stars yielded splendor and beauty.

The world was shielded by night.

Elias gazed far out in the distance.

There sat the castle,

Windowless and without light,

Casting a darker silhouette

Than his own.

“Soon Layla, will we meet.

Like Simon & Camilla,

Our own two feet,

Echoing footsteps entwine.

Yet mostly clumsy,

Never walking a straight line.

Eventually leaving this prison

Of twenty nine.”

Elias then whispered

A silent prayer for protection.

This adventure was now underway.

Elias stood at the foot of the forest.

The escaping air seemed to howl

Past his rustling hair

As a futile intimidation.

Yet, Elias walked forward

Into the depths of the forest.

Without a hint of fear,

He followed a snaking path

That seemed to lead

To nowhere. Trees and brush

Lined the trail. Snakes made

Satirical sounds from

The branches of the trees.

Blood lustful monkeys screeched

Hellish pitches as if afraid

Of his presence. The trees themselves

Seemed to twist and bend

At the demonic sounds.

Elias continued to press on,

Ending the torments

Despite their chilling effect.

Another passed hour

Ever closer to the superior tower.

The dusty path

Eventually led to a lake.

The surface was illuminated

By the clear night starlight.

Offering a spectacular sight

Of constellations appearing to dance

Upon the rippling water.

Elias walked to the mirror’s edge

And saw his reflection.

His appearance on the water

Appeared unaltered and plain.

As Elias remained on the shore,

The tide ceased to kiss his feet.

Unbeknownst to Elias, the water

Turned pitch black and denied

The dancing starbrights a show.

The lake came to a calm

And silence replaced the

Wakes crashing sound.

Once the peaceful melody of

The lake faded,

Elias became aware

Of the changes in his surroundings

And unsheathed his machete.

Slowly revealing herself

From the water, she proclaimed

Herself as Despera,

A fallen creature of God.

Elias readied himself,

His knife holding at a forty-five,

Knees slightly bent

And weight shifted onto his toes.

He never underestimated his enemy.

As more could be seen of her,

Elias witnessed only despair.

Despera walked sideways,

Perpendicular to the shore,

Graceful yet monotone in her stature.

Her jet black eyes

cut through the distance

As they remained

Locked onto those of Elias.

Her face was captivating,

Yet any signs of hope were lost.

But then, she smiled,

And closed the black doors.

Tears and salty boogers

Ran down her forsaken face.

“Have you ever felt,

All hope and love melt,

Away, never to return,

An emptiness one should learn.

Like a fire without a burn.”

As her voice trailed

Into the passing wind,

She continued advancing

And opened her tenacious eyes.

Abandonment seized Elias’s heart

And created an empty void of the soul,

As if God and his graces were

Permanently severed.

Doubts streamed through

Elias’s mind. His pupils dilated

As the approaching manifestation

Snaked her way toward him,

Invoking fear and anger.

Where had his valued strength dispersed?

Elias took a breath and

Rested his eyes.

He relinquished the burdens

Scattered within his head,

And focused on her spell.

Only God has the power

To make what was sharp, dull.

And through him,

May one conquer

His dark night of the soul.

But before Despera could reach

The blood soaked shore,

Dual bullets flew

And ripped her face in two.

In twin succession,

They went right through,

Like two men sharing one loo.

Creating a magnificent

Portrait of flexible fibers, brain

And muscle, shattered bone

Rotating at velocity,

Thickening the iron that

Exploded from her head.

Her momentum came

To an abrupt stop

Upon the water’s surface

As gravity tugged her corpse under.

With her hand slipping beneath,

Post half her smile and blown out teeth,

An elegant motion absurd,

She gave Elias the unexpected bird.

Elias then shot her body to stew,

And whispered a solemn, “Eff you too.”

But Elias thought of Brad,

Thought dignified, and wished her, “Adieu.”

Tossing a grenade

Where Despera had laid,

Elias soldiered on

Through the morbid forest,

Escaping its confines by dawn.

Finding a place to lie,

On the outskirts of the plains,

Fatigued and battered,

Elias recovered for a moment.

This wind massaged his face

As idle clouds rested overhead.

Sunlight sliced through

The moist dew upon

The waving blades of grass,

And generated a shimmering

Crystal green ocean.

Elias caught an abundant

Scent of Sweet Pea

Drifting across the rolling plains,

Stimulating his inner passions and

Granting him the strength

To journey the final length.

“So long as you strive, you shall obtain.”

Read the inscription

Above the rustic wood doors

Of the castle entrance.

Elias knocked with the butt of his gun

And pushed open the doors

When no one had come.

He infiltrated with the gun sights

Leveled with his eyes,

Expecting the worst

To burst from its cover.

Towering pillars stood

Throughout the immense hall,

Lining a center walkway leading

Toward an ascending staircase

At the northern end.

Elias continued to aim and walk

Along the columns of pillars

As he made his way

To a marbled square area

With the stairs just ahead

And a door in the left wall.

Elias reached the door

And readied a grenade.

Upon pulling the pin,

He kicked open the door,

Rolled in the miniature bomb,

Shielded himself and fell to the floor.

The blast ripped the door

Off its hinges. Wood splinters

Sliced through the encasing walls.

Smoke and debris drifted through

The naked frame as demolished rock

Rained upon Elias’s shielded head.

Awful ringing echoed within his ears

As he rose and composed himself.

Elias then walked through

The opening and swore,

“Ia ben zona,”

Dignified Hebrew.

Once the dust diminished,

It revealed a shattered pedestal,

White ceramic pieces

That littered the ground.

Written on one of the larger pieces

Was, “R. Mutt 1917.”

Elias pondered whom

This person could have been

As he quickly relieved himself

Upon the broken stone

Like a functioning fountain

Found centered in the gardens alone.

The room was instead a narrow passageway

That led to a black steel elevator.

Elias pressed the button

With the graphed maximum,

Brought up his gun,

And popped in a Dum Dum.

But the bell dinged, as

Double doors opened

To an empty box.

Elias stepped into the elevator

And found the twenty eighth floor.

As the steel cage rose towards the sky,

He humbly waited

While humming his remix

To the “Three Little Birds” tune

That played over the speakers.

“Don’t worry,

About a thing,

Cause every little thing,

Is gunna be alright.”

“Rised up this mornin’,

Fought through some cursed trees,

Many darn monkeys,

Thought they were clever and I weak,

But then I shot them down,

Like the setting sun,

Sayin’, this is my message to you-ou-ou.”

The joyful music ceased

As the motion stopped

And the doors slid apart.

Elias kicked off the back wall

Of the elevator and ran

For the nearest cover,

A nearby pillar,

The final floor between

Him and this “lover,”

Soon to be host of an epic scene.

The spacious room

Was well lit from

Burning flames along

The burgundy walls

Summoning Apple’s dancers

Upon the black tiled floor.

Thick walls added

A soliditary chill to the room.

Four massive pillars of

Roman architecture towered

Toward the floor above.

Painted upon the vast ceiling

Was a remarkable picture

Deprived of renewed color.

Once all noises drowned

And unusual disturbances relinquished,

Elias wandered below

The environing ceiling and

Pondered on its meaning.

Diligent brush strokes

Scribed a naked tree

Sprouting from the ground,

Confessing a forlorn plea.

Forking branches and

Shriveled fruit dispersed

From the rooted stem.

The tree was bare

And empty, except

For a comforting clemency.

A worn out rope hung

Between a branch

And a heart.

“Tension stern,

One wished to be parted,

But her fire would still burn,

And his doubts then departed.

Not a wall but

A rope between,

Strings attached for now

Of what we really mean,”

Was engraved at the base of the painting.

Hidden meanings within

Hidden means Elias thought.

Elias shifted his eyes from the art

And traversed to the opposing door.

Behind his back,

The heart fell from the picture,

Tugging at the rope

Until it hung

Directly centered within the room.

Blue blood ran from

The four corners of the portrait

And spiraled down

The descending rope.

The heart ached but

Retained a pulse and

Began to beat.

The rope soaked

With the rotten liquid,

Its fibers stretched

To their length

Until finally, they

Simply gave way.

The warm beating heart

Crashed into the tile floor.

It burst into millions

Of tiny droplets that

Fell into the cracks

Between the many squares.

The blood flowed

Throughout the encompassing space,

Seeping past Elias’s feet

And eventually reaching the final door.

As Elias turned around,

His eyes were scorched

By an impending doom

That spread in every direction.

The fire surrounded Elias,

Depriving him of precious air to breath.

Blackness began to overtake

His sight, his field of view narrowing,

But the encircling flames

That fronted him

Were whisked apart

As the wide Red Sea.

A person stepped through

The gap, the fire regaining

Its envelopment of the two.

The person wore

A snow white, gothic overcoat

With straps and leather belts

That spanned the details in the fabric.

Solid black boots were worn,

Untied laces dragging and torn.

Its hand hovered above the hilt

Of a sheathed sword,

Ready to be drawn at any

Sign of hesitation from Elias.

Its face veiled

By a Jabbawockee mask

Tainted with specks of blood

And its Pantene shined

Strands of hair.

It stopped several squares

Before Elias and spoke.

“My God-given name

Of one and the same.

Let it be Irascor,

Let it be the anger and hatred

Feeding this flame.

Beyond the door behind you

Awaits the one to pursue.

But first, listen of the worst.

Prevail against ember

And your age will flee.

But do remember,

That it is a one way key.

Are you willing to go

The distance for immortality?”

The sentence came to a close.

Irascor drew his sword

And disappeared within the dancing wall.

“A heart without a beat

Is a life incomplete.

Reattach the strings of life,

To end this pitiful strife.”

The claustrophobic fire

Was pushed back to the edges of the room

As Irascor appeared farther away.

Elias discharged a full magazine

Into Irascor, riddling its chest

With hollowed bullets,

Resulting in an expanding

Cavity of blood.

Irascor began walking toward Elias,

Sword leveled with his head.

Elias reloaded without delay

And fired away.

Irascor’s clothing was white no more.

The stains dripped upon the floor

As a blood colored cascade.

As Elias reloaded,

Irascor glided forward and impaled

Its sword within his chest.

Elias had the wind

Knocked clean out,

Dropped to his knees,

And coughed up muddied blood.

He then retrieved his machete

And slashed at Irascor’s legs,

Revealing flowing lacerations and veins,

Bringing Irascor to his level.

Elias aimed the barrel

At Irascor’s head and

Began putting bullets

Through its brain

As he continuously stabbed at its heart.

Once the carnage was finished,

Just one laid upon the cold floor.

Elias then seized the beating heart,

Extracted and abandoned,

Lying upon the ground

And reattached it to the rope.

He carried the key

To the final door

And hung it from the knob.

The heart found its way

Into the keyhole

And turned the tumbler

As it accomplished its role.

Elias found her

As he walked into the room.

Blood and guts still stuck

To the bottom of his boots.

Walls as white as her grays.

A glassless window to observe the days.

Layla stood beneath the celestial sky

Staring deeply into space.

Elias brought up his arms and held her close,

As tears ran down her face.

“Your youth to be saved through me,

My sacrifice grants eternity,

As beauty holds and age doth flee,

Never, shall love, let us be.

Layla, what was meant

By those last words?”

“Destined to be,

But at the price of losing me,

While you live on.”

“To finally meet you, and feel your warm embrace,

To see the nose wrinkly on your face,

As you searched the stars of space,

To finally fondle your cute toes,

And point out your pointy witch nose,

Giving this fairytale its expected close.

Yet before I even knew, I would soon lose you.

Why did you visit my dreams

And still have me come, knowing full well what would be done?!”

“Would you trust me if I said to take my hand,

That we would one day meet again?

Would you doubt me if I told you to take a breath,

And cherish this moment, of only a few seconds left?

Love is worth waiting for, is it not?

When one knocks on God’s door, and leaves this world forgot.”

And with her words elapsed,

The spell was cast,

And she was gone.

Like Richard’s past summer wreck.

It then began to rain.

Droplets slipped down the neck

Of the glass window,

Never to fall into the room again,

For the fire was extinguished,

Her fading essence of this world relinquished.

Elias reminisced on her last words

As he raised the gun to his head.

His finger added tension to the trigger

As his hand violently trembled like Pooh’s friend Tigger.

He cried an ocean of tears,

And begged God to let him go.

Unable to compose himself,

Elias closed his eyes for a final time.

But there was no sound

Of an ejected round,

As his body collapsed upon the ground.

Elias’s heart simply refused to beat,

For a life now incomplete.

The woven string unseen

Was the distant, adorkable love serene.