Belief

Short piece on belief.

“We must believe!”

The crowd was ecstatic. Five thousand of them stood before him, evolved, or devolved, into one terrific collective mass. Faces eclectic and varied as only humanity could be but morphed into uniformity by the moment, sweating, heaving and moving as one delirious whole. It was almost a geological process, played out at one man’s gleeful behest, the first display of a newly discovered power that was rattling through him, disjointing bones and stretching skin until he could feel himself far bigger than before. His was a force that could compress a drift of confused and chaotic gravel into strata of absolute certainty, a force that could conjure mountains out of nothingness.

“We must believe!”

Another unified heaving upwards and outwards for the expanding rock face he’d honed his audience into. Belief, belief, belief. The strongest word the speaker knew, even when blandly generic to his own ears it held a power he’d never known could exist as it projected outwards. Say it enough and this new Everest, this new and terrifying peak could do more than grow heavy and solid, it could be brought crashing down onto the heads of those unwise enough to linger at it’s base without falling into it willingly. The speaker beamed inwardly, triumphant at the rush of creation, barely noticing the question of intent lingering beneath the euphoria. What would he do with this? What should he do with this? A thought easily dismissed and a question not to be asked. All there could be in this instant was power, his own, and belief, belief, belief.

No Cure for Shell Shock, my collection of short stories, is available for free on Amazon Kindle until the 24th of March - grab your copy here (amazon.com/gp/product/B01943SIIO). Reviews and shares much appreciated!