Back in the canal, Dan felt the teeth begin to throb
in rhythm with his souls frequency. Not a lullaby. A countdown.
The Crowned-Deep's whisper coiled around his spine:
"I don't want to exist anymore, Dan. And soon, neither will you."
Opening: The Physical Battle
Dan's fist connected with something that felt like
flesh but moved like water. The Crowned-Deep didn't have a body—not really—but
here, in this space between death and damnation, it molded into one to devour
him properly.
They grappled. Hours? Days? Time was a currency left
behind here.
DAN: (gasping, bleeding from wounds that shouldn't
exist) "You want God to admit He fucked up? Get in line. Every parent who
drowned their kid, every priest who failed, every bastard like me who traded
souls for comfort—we all want that conversation."
The Crowned-Deep's grip tightened. The pressurized
air began to close, slow, and sawdust started to build in Dan's lungs, not to
kill, but to seal.
DAN: "But here's the thing you don't get, you
cosmic fucking martyr: God's not going to apologize. Because if He does, it
means we were right, and God was wrong. And Gods to broken to admit he's the
wrong one here. And tic, toc… is the clock forever?"
For the first time in centuries, The Crowned-Deep
hesitated.
That's when the fire ants came.
They poured from cracks in the canal walls—red as
sin, countless as regrets. They crawled up Dan's legs, his arms, into his
mouth. Each bite didn't hurt his body; it ate his resolve.
You failed your parents.
You terrorized those girls.
You're a predator dressed as a victim.
Dan screamed, the sound swallowed by chittering
mandibles.
The Witness Question
The Crowned-Deep pinned him against the double-edged
teeth that were there, but mysteriously nowhere... Dan's spine cracked—or maybe
it was his soul, hard to tell the difference anymore.
DAN: (spitting blood and ants) "So what am I to
you? Another assimilated soul?"
The Crowned-Deep leaned close, its voice dropping to
something almost... sad:
The Crowned-Deep: "You're my witness, Daniel.
When I stand before God and demand He answer for this creation—" (gestured
to the canal, the teeth, the cosmos of suffering embedded in bone.) "—You'll
be the one who needs to exist, not me. You'll tell God: even His monsters
wanted mercy in control.
The
Lord Jesus Christ spake and both Dan and The Crowned-Deep heard, "it
repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his
heart".