Oblation

I couldn’t bring myself to close my eyes. I kept hearing something trickling down on the floor. Drop…. Drop… Drop… I looked around the room. There couldn’t be a leak on the roof. It hadn’t rained for months. Maybe the drinking water jar was leaking. I searched all around it for cracks. There were none. I lay back down on my bed.

Drop…. Drop… Drop… I listened. Drop…. Drop… Drop…  My breaths slowed down. I tried to focus as I listened. But I was growing tired with each drop. Each drop made my eyes feel heavier. Slowly my mind blocked out the real world and I slipped into a dream.

*****

I don’t remember if I was awake the whole time, but when I became aware of the surroundings I saw that I was naked except for a white loincloth and a woman whom I’d never seen before was applying some scented oil on my body. I tried to ask her where I was but the sounds that came out of my mouth made no sense. I was conscious but I had no control over my body. All I could do was look at her and hope that she could read my mind. She sensed the paranoia starting in me. She went away for a minute and returned with a cup. ‘Drink’. She brought it to my mouth and slowly emptied the dark liquid into me. It filled my insides with burning fire. It consumed my body. All duality faded away. The body perished freeing the mind. I saw myself lying on the floor. I saw it separate from myself… as I saw everything else. I saw the woman inking the body… marking various symbols… on the chest, on the shoulders, on the face. When she finished she bowed her head and left. Two masked men came in. They lifted the body upright, each man on either side, and they carried it outside. I followed. The door opened and a hundred masked men and women came into view. They parted to allow the two men to carry it forward. I thought I saw some of my friends in the crowd. All I could recognize were their eyes. Even in their eyes there was something unfamiliar… I couldn’t figure it out. The men carried it up some rocks and laid it down on a huge square slab. I heard the beats of a drum… in a slow and measured rhythm. A hooded figure approached… the only person not wearing a mask. But I couldn’t see his whole face. He stood over it chanting hymns looking up at the sky. The tempo of the drum beats increased. The chants became louder… almost breaching the barrier… turning into screams. He removed the hood and looked down. I saw his eyes and in them I saw… I saw reverence. All in the crowd looked at it with a reverence reserved only for the Gods. The man took out a silver dagger and the crowd marveled at its beauty. He kneeled and held the dagger above its heart. The drum beats reached a crescendo and the man plunged the dagger in.

Blood poured out and flowed over the edge of the slab and trickled down. Drop…. Drop… Drop… it painted the earth red. As the blood left the body the crowd faded away. Drop…. Drop… Drop… the corpse disappeared… the red earth receded from view… a blackness engulfed everything... the sound of the dripping blood also died down… and finally… stillness… in the realm of a timeless existence.