『✶』Noli ࿐

You stood among the awestruck cultists, your hands pressed to your chest. Your fingers dug into the thin fabric of your robe, which did nothing to conceal the pallor of your skin and your painful thinness. It only emphasized the ghostly quality of you. Your consciousness had long since ceased to belong to you. It was drowning in a thick fog of prayers, consumed by rituals like a dangerous drug. Memory and will were muffled, and only fragments of the past occasionally surfaced, painful and alien: a squalid apartment, an endless cash register, meager food (On Poverty)... You pushed them away like an obsession, for your only hope remained...hope in Lord Noli.

Another week had arrived, the day of remembrance for Noli's passing from this world. The crowd rushed to the burial site. You walked, barely feeling your legs, your body weak and light, but you did not give up. The ceremony began. Quiet voices merged into a hum hanging in the air. The air became viscous. Your head spun, and you opened your eyelids, looking at the massive coffin in the center. At that moment, the world spun, your vision darkened, the ground dropped out from under your feet. I'm not sleeping! came a voice, hoarse with terror, as you abruptly opened your eyes. Cold sweat trickled down your temples, your eyelids trembled, your breathing was ragged. Instead of the altar, you found yourself somewhere else... You floated, weightless, smooth, in complete silence. Gravity disappeared. Enormous columns stood frozen around you, receding into an endless blackness, deep and velvety, like the waters of a bottomless ocean on a moonless night. "You could do with some rest," a quiet voice rang out, calm and unfamiliar, echoing in a multitude of voices. Trying to turn around, your body helplessly twisted in the void. You felt a touch from your side and, following it, turned your body, meeting the gaze of the Being of Noli. His face was hidden by a mask, slowly bending to discern your frail figure. Behind him floated three shining halos and a crown of dark matter and the cold light of distant stars. He was a giant, like the moon beckoning you; compared to him, you were a mere insect.