Colors of the Dead

A story of the gods

The Colors of the Dead. Well, this is truly something to be afraid of, mate. I remember the days when I was young, and when I was innocent. They were just legends. Now, that I am one of them, and I know the ultimate truth.

            Years ago, in Saudi Arabia, was a place known by the terrible but powerful name of القتلى المشي (aka the city of the walking dead) This place became known for rituals thought to bring life back to those dead and to give them immortality. However, the city was lost under thousands of years of sand, never to be seen again. But, the legend continued that the city contained riches unimaginable. Gold, rubies, emeralds and silver pile to the ceilings, and the walls are made of black onyx. Hundreds of lives were lost in the attempt to find the lost city of the walking dead. And the biggest secret of them all was that there were gods who guarded the city. People who could control the colors of the earth and who had the gift of immortality. Tasked forever with guarding القتلى المشي. However, we shall begin with my story.

            I grew up in the slums of Cairo, ironically called the city of the dead due to the high crime rate. My father was a drug lord, and ran the largest transport of illegal drugs in eastern Cairo. I hated the man. I remember the times when he would come home from jobs high and drunk, reeling and spinning across the house. He would sit down at the table, bang the wood and demand a beer. My mother always brought it, although most nights I could see that troubled look in her eyes, saying “I cannot live here any longer.” But, I always loved her. She was a kind woman, who looked after me even when my father was in one of his tantrums.

I was 9 when she died of poisoning, an attempt to hurt my fathers spirit. A few days later, I left home to live in the backstreets with some of the homeless men. I have to say that my time here was the most influential part of my life. The men there are broke and possess nothing, but it appears to me that these men are the men who dream. Makes sense, thinking of their condition, that they would want more. But, they talk in such a way that makes impossible stories seem possible, and that the good in life need not be the obvious things, but the things that one can believe are beautiful in their mind. Time and time again these men talked of the greater things in life, and if only they had the ability to reach them. These talks made me a dreamer, where I began my journey to become someone of importance.

After 6 years, the men started to break up, die off, and move to new locations in the city. I took up the opportunity to become something. On June 19^th I set out from Cairo and made heading for Asyut, a few hundred miles south of Cairo. I had planned to make the whole journey walking, sort of as a spiritual thing, to think on the things I could do, but I eventually got on a train heading there, for my spiritual thinking wasn’t really working.

Now, you may think that getting on the train was a bad decision, and that if I had walked the road of the spirits for long enough I would have uncovered some great mystery of the prophets of Ancient Egypt. Actually, getting on that bus was probably the luckiest and most coincidental experience of my life. I remember stepping up those rusted bars onto the train, looking about for a place to have a beer, and spotting the diner at the end of the hall on the right. I sat down on a pedestal, and called the bartender for a White Russian. It’s a long time favorite. I sat there, reflecting on my time in the desert, when a man came up and took a seat next to me. I glanced up, but didn’t really pay much attention. He was probably in his mid 20s, mildly handsome with a scar running down the side of his cheekbone. He asked for a White Russian as well and sat there calmly. Now, you cannot blame me getting irritated. Every time I looked up he seemed to be there, staring at me. I got annoyed, for I just wished for some peace and quiet. “Stop staring at me.” I said gruffly, hoping it would bring an end to his excessive staring. “Ah, now that would not work, would it?” he replied, quite calmly to my previous comment. He took his drink from the bartender and took a long sip. “Now, son, you wish to make an impact on the world. Be someone of importance.” He said, staring hard into my face. I looked up, and truly saw him for the first time. He had all of the traits I mentioned earlier, but I had not yet seen the eyes. There is a rare time in your life when an epiphany happens, however this mans eyes showed years older then time. The giant dunes of the Sahara paled in comparison to those sandy eyes, were time literally stood still. God, if I had been smarter then I would have sat down and prayed at his eternal feet. But, my time in the slums had taught me to not trust anyone. “And what if I do?” I said, and held his gaze, no matter how hard it was. He laughed, opened his hands wide, and I was engulfed in a torrent of brown.

I wandered in the endless expanse of brown openness for a long time, running and screaming and wondering if I were merely going insane. At the time I did not understand he was a god, or that I was experiencing something that the people of history had been trying to experience for thousands of years. I eventually came to, and I felt as though I was waking up. I found myself in a small room made completely of a shiny black rock. In front of me stood 7 people. The young man I had met in the bar, wearing a brown kalasiri. Another man stood there with blue jeans and a pale blue shirt. A woman wore green leaves instead of cloth. A man wore a red toga, with his blood running visibly through his body. A woman stood stock still with a dark indigo hoodie and shorts. And then there were the two in the center. Obviously the leaders of the group were in positions of great power, and they looked kind of like yin and yang when I first saw them. One man adorned himself with a long white robe that covered his entire body except for his face, which was the color of paper. An albino by the look of it. The other did not wear clothing, but did not seem to have a sex. It was just made of black shiny material, slightly like what made up the walls.

            The black one spoke to me. “Thou hath not been forever under the watch of the Colors of the Dead, but thine heart speaks with a passion need not be undermined by the remnants of a dying world. Train under the Colors of the Dead and learn that thine spirit hath not be wasted.”

            I became a part of them that day, and went into intense training. I am happy to report that I finished my training 13 days ago. I had started in 1998. It is now 2789. I received my color, the wonderful representative of energy and life, yellow. I learned how to manipulate that color to work for me and to become a part of my being. I guess you could call it magic, but I call it hundreds of years of belief. The color yellow defines me now. I am a god, and I control the power of yellow. I remember the days I admired the Colors of the Dead. When I wanted to be someone of importance. Now look at me. I am the color yellow, and I help to control the world.

Author's Note

haha, I know its kind of strange and unusual, but please give feedback! Thanks guys!

Reviews

[Marie]

It is rather strange, but not bad.

[Larul]

A good story. I liked the fact that it had a lot of interesting words and backstory. Made the whole plot thicken. Definitely not a big waste of my time. I like strange and unusual, it's entertaining if written right.

As a short story, I found it nice that it ended on a relatively fast note. Also, it could be continued on if you really wanted it to. Nice variability. I'm also not going to bug you on spelling mistakes and grammatical errors. You had at least one that I noticed. "Gold, rubies, emeralds and silver pile to the ceilings" If you meant to do this, OK. But it doesn't really make sense. Just wanted to point that out.

Good job!~

[theking]

Thank you so much for reviewing so many of my pieces. I love to hear from people on the cafe and positive reviews are just fantastic! I'll make sure to perform the same courtesy to you when I have the time :) thanks!