GENESIS (GODS CHAIN) (10 page)

‘I think we should get out of here
!
’ Cameron
whispered
as both walked along
side the mural,
en
trance
d
with the
disturbing landscapes.

A third vision was that of crumbling castles and cathedrals,
all
burning
.
T
all
orange, red, and yellow
flames curved around the edges of the other pictures
,
lick
ing
and intertwin
ing
with the green vine jungles painted alongside
.
The second jungle scene held
another distressing
depiction
,
in which
many chain-mail clad soldiers with red holy
-
crossed tunics and glistening metal helmets
struggled to overcome the macabre worship of the nat
i
ves.
Each warrior displayed a small
,
silver
,
semicircular coat of arms stamped into
his
helmets.
So life-like and so real it seemed to be—t
hey all fought to live!

In the next painting,
holy warriors
in
rough white tunics and appeared to be fighting alongside superbly styled Arabian Knights with long
,
white and grey
robes,
flying through the hot winds of the desert
a
top majestic black steeds
.
E
ach anxious knight
seemed
to look around in awe, steering
his
deadly attention one way and then
another
.
It was a despairing and awesome si
gh
t!

All combatants were locked in a military mêlée to the death against some unnamed and unholy dark host of heavily
armoured
devils
with evil black eyes and sharp
,
pointed teeth.
The demons had
sharp and dangerous spikes on top of
their
black helmets and
gripped
bloody battleaxes
in their fists
!
The boys could almost hear the battle cries and blood curdling screams
of the people depicted in these
oil pictures
, who seemed to
struggle in some long forgotten land
—a
land of mountainous sand dunes
,
a
dry place extending over many, many leagues now wet with blood.
Grains and grains of the desert were covered over with wet, slick scarlet blood
. A weird crimson sun doused over the macabre red sands. End was inevitable.

‘Mmmm. Spooky.’ Cameron looked at Scott
, who
did not reply.

The atmosphere somehow felt heavier
after they’d seen the dessert battle,
and the boys
walked on
to another wall
,
which also held
a large mural.
The painting
seemed to be
of
an impression of the universe. A mighty explosion of wondrous colours expressed a cataclysmic energy into the room
and introduced
a myriad of stars
that
appeared to twinkle madly. Thousands of
stars
!

‘It must be an optical illusion
,
’ Scott spoke uncertainly
.
I
t looked so real
, though...the boys
could almost feel
the
attraction of this great void drawing them inside
.

In the centre of the wall
hung
a drawing of some monstrous looking nebula shaped like a
deformed,
masked
visage
made up of purple and blue gases and a
spiralling
-
out
-
of
-
control Milky
Way
.
An image of a great comet exploded out from the left side of the wall
,
streaking
towards many different worlds.
Devastation
of all the planets in the twisted system
seemed certain
—the painting
appeared to be a grim depiction
of Armageddon
.

The last
mural,
if you could call it such
,
was somehow
both
stronger
than
and in complete contrast to the other oil paintings.
It was a plain white wall, with no features
at all...
except
,
with closer investigation,
Scott discovered various clusters
of finely dotted brushed black marks
, which looked
almost like a light dust or mist forming on different areas of th
e
enigmatic white surface.

‘What a load of old rubbish
,
’ stated Cameron, as Scott stared at
the wall
more closely.

The boys turned around
,
ready to escape
this peculiar room
,
when suddenly their hearts jumped
.
It was the caretaker!
He had quietly entered without warning
and was standing
silently
right behind them
.

‘I thought you lads were going to the top?’ spoke the man in a soft voice.

‘Where di
...
did you come from?’ Cameron
said,
startled.

‘I have been here only a moment,’ replied the man
,
staring at the scenes
.
‘Amazing
,
are they not? I have always been fascinated with this room,’ he paused
.
‘
It’s
sad and yet, so
wonderful.’

‘What
are they about?
Who painted them?’ Scott probed as the caretaker continued to look thoughtfully around the room
.
Suddenly,
the caretaker
’
s face
seemed to open up with surprise and he startled, as though he did not recognize the boys.

‘Wh...?’ he breathed.

Then his gaze seemed to achieve its former composure.

‘Come now, come out of here and go up to the top and onto the tower and have a good look outside, before it gets too dark
to see anything
.
You’ll find it much more fun
up there
.
Hurry up
—
I will be closing up soon!’
T
he thin man usher
ed
them out
of the pentagonal room and
quickly locked the door behind.

At the top of the staircase,
the boys jumped out of a small turret and onto the flat
roof
top
.
The
stair
door
flew open as Scott turned to close it
and
smashed
against the
t
urret wall
.
A
gale was blowing over the exposed
,
red sandstone roof
, but
a
stonewall barrier surrounded the roof like a safety fence, rising to about chest height
and making the boys feel comfortable about being up high in such a wind
.

Th
e whipping wind
was
so
much better tha
n
what the
boys
could have
ever imagined!
They were instantly blown and buffeted about to the far wall as the wind
cycled
around them on the tower top
.
Their hair wav
ed
around
insanely above their heads and
both lads were taken completely by surprise as the wind push
ed
them about from one walled barrier to the next, almost
blowing them off their feet!
It was great fun
. Scott and Cameron
half
-
r
a
n from one wall to the next
, laughing wildly as they
look
ed
over the edge
s
and lift
ed
themselves a little onto the stone barriers,
exhilarated by the
simple boyish fun and daft bravado!
They could hardly hear their own shouting for
joy and the wind of it
!
It had been all worthwhile.
Scott and Cameron were e
cstatic with energy!