Apocrypha Sequence: Divinity
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Suffer the capriciousness of the gods ... Imagine the story of Moses from the perspective of an Egyptian commander who has lost everything to the ten deadly plagues. Can solace be obtained from a religious manifestation that appears only to mock? And in a world of shifting moral values, who is to say the Antichrist isn't just a decent guy dealing with his own issues?
The Apocrypha Sequence is a series of dark fantasy collections with interwoven themes and interconnected stories from Shane Jiraiya Cummings, Australia's master of the macabre. Also in the Apocrypha Sequence: Deviance, Inferno, and Insanity.
Shane Jiraiya Cummings
Shane Jiraiya Cummings has been acknowledged as "one of Australia’s leading voices in dark fantasy". Shane is the author of the forthcoming Yokai Wars series (Circle of Tears, Clockwork Legion, and Blight of the Underworld) and the dark fiction books The Abandonment of Grace and Everything After, Shards, the Apocrypha Sequence (Deviance, Divinity, Insanity, and Inferno), and the Ravenous Gods cycle (Requiem for the Burning God and Dreams of Destruction). He has won the Australian Shadows Award and two Ditmar Awards, and he has been nominated for more than twenty other major awards, including Spain's Premios Ignotus.Shane is an Active Member of the Horror Writers Association and former Vice President of the Australian Horror Writers Association. When he is not writing, Shane is an editor and journalist by day. By night (and on weekends), he can be found indulging in hobbies such as playing the guitar, photography, sword fighting, and testing the limits of his new cruiser motorcycle.In his youth, Shane was trained in the deadly arts of the ninja, and the name Jiraiya (lit. "Young Thunder", after the legendary ninja Jiraiya) was bestowed upon him by his sensei.Shane was born and raised in Sydney, Australia. He lived for many years in Perth, Western Australia, and Wellington, New Zealand, but he recently returned to his old home town to revisit the ghosts of his past.More information on Shane (including his free fiction) can be found online at www.jiraiya.com.au.
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Apocrypha Sequence - Shane Jiraiya Cummings
Apocrypha Sequence:
DIVINITY
Shane Jiraiya Cummings
Copyright © Shane Jiraiya Cummings 2011.
Smashwords Edition, License Notes:
This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e-book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. Except in the case of short-term lending, if you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
All characters in this book are fictitious.
No reference to any living person is intended.
* * *
CONTENTS
Introduction
Sobek's Tears
Virgin in the Mist
Memoirs of a Teenage Antichrist
Blasphemy on Eight Wheels
Genesis Six
* * *
Introduction
Welcome to the Apocrypha Sequence, a collection of themed stories outside the continuity of my 'regular' collections, Shards (flash fiction) and the forthcoming The Abandonment of Grace and Everything After (short stories and novellas). The stories in the Apocrypha Sequence lie somewhere in between. There is some overlap between the Apocrypha stories and those in my collections, but this is because I have cherry-picked stories from my body of work to suit the themes present within the Sequence. For each book in the Apocrypha Sequence, I chose a story or two from my collections, a couple of previously uncollected stories, and the odd original or two. Each volume in the Sequence is a remix. You might find a story from this volume elsewhere (by itself or in one of my collections), but its inclusion in the Apocrypha Sequence gives it a more appropriate context—and in some cases, demonstrates its place in a shared world of directly-linked stories.
Apocrypha Sequence: Divinity explores the fallibility of the gods. The realms of mythology and religion are often open to interpretation, and humanity's belief in wise, benevolent, and all-seeing deities is sorely put to the test in these stories. Imagine the story of Moses and the exodus of the Jews from the perspective of an Egyptian commander who has lost everything to the ten deadly plagues. With the gods themselves using humans as pawns, who can claim true righteousness? Can solace be obtained from a religious manifestation that appears only to mock? And in a world of shifting moral values, who is to say the Antichrist isn't just a decent guy dealing with his own issues? The gods are here, right now, and their goals may alarm you.
Read on and enjoy this volume, and if you crave more, please seek out the other three volumes that comprise the Apocrypha Sequence. Details about the rest of the Sequence and my other e-books can be found at the end of this volume.
— Shane Jiraiya Cummings
* * *
Sobek's Tears
On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn—both men and animals—and I will bring judgement on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord.
— Exodus 12:12
I suffered through the plagues of Moses's God. Boils scourged my skin. Locusts and frogs invaded my house and destroyed my fields. I drank unclean blood in my thirst while praying to the Gods for fresh water to return to the Nile. I have endured hail and darkness and the rotting of my animals.
All this I suffered in the service of my Pharaoh. Despite my suffering and the suffering of the people of Egypt, I obeyed Pharaoh and offered sacrifices to the Gods. Then Moses and his Hebrews took the last shreds of my life away.
That tragic night, his God ravaged