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The Spectre - A Jewish Gothic
A sudden chill awakened me. As fleeting as it happened, it lingered deep in my skin as if a cold front had waved through the surface of my body. Though I was too tired to move, I moved my head instinctively toward a far corner. And the corner looked back. The shiver felt from my spine to my stomach and paralyzed me with fear, until within a blink it disappeared. Foggy eyes and confused mind I wandered back to sleep.
Morning came, and I followed my path toward the living room. As I always do. Only to find, it wasn’t the same as it was yesterday. It was an abandoned Schul, full of dead leaves and shattered stained glass puddles on the floor. The temple seemed old and disturbed. The absence of heat and the limitation of light through created for an eerie atmosphere which left me petrified. “Antshuldig?” I yelled as loud as the echo could travel between the walls and corridors. But only the void answered back.
As I stumbled my way through the Gothic passage ways of this Victorian structure, a gust of wind turned me toward the east. There a door slowly opened itself without hesitation. It revealed the access way toward the cemetery. clear as day and timid as night I heard the voice call… “Come to me ziskeit”. That voice, I had heard that voice before. But how could this be? As I followed the small steps toward the night time fog blanketing the cemetery. The only semblance of light was the moons beams creeping through the thick naked trees, their fingers touching the night sky. That and the scattered yahrzeit candles along the necropolis of the people of God.
I walked until my own two feet led me to the an unmarked grave, devoid of any stones placed upon it. From it radiated a deep hum, and a cold wind came with it too. With my very claws, I shoveled through the wet grass and humid dirt, as I felt it dig beneath the quick of my nails. Only to reveal a hidden coffin, black as night. The sigil of the Seal of Salomon etched upon it. “Open me… open my coffin” the voice whispered in my ear. Without conscious thought, my hands unwedged the seal and pried open the dark box. Suddenly, I was inside of it looking at myself opening the coffin above me. “Thank you… Baruch HaShem you have freed me” said the spirit that had taken over my given body… as he closed the coffin doors over me to spend eternity inside his rotten corpse. Woe is me.
© The Black Lotus
Morning came, and I followed my path toward the living room. As I always do. Only to find, it wasn’t the same as it was yesterday. It was an abandoned Schul, full of dead leaves and shattered stained glass puddles on the floor. The temple seemed old and disturbed. The absence of heat and the limitation of light through created for an eerie atmosphere which left me petrified. “Antshuldig?” I yelled as loud as the echo could travel between the walls and corridors. But only the void answered back.
As I stumbled my way through the Gothic passage ways of this Victorian structure, a gust of wind turned me toward the east. There a door slowly opened itself without hesitation. It revealed the access way toward the cemetery. clear as day and timid as night I heard the voice call… “Come to me ziskeit”. That voice, I had heard that voice before. But how could this be? As I followed the small steps toward the night time fog blanketing the cemetery. The only semblance of light was the moons beams creeping through the thick naked trees, their fingers touching the night sky. That and the scattered yahrzeit candles along the necropolis of the people of God.
I walked until my own two feet led me to the an unmarked grave, devoid of any stones placed upon it. From it radiated a deep hum, and a cold wind came with it too. With my very claws, I shoveled through the wet grass and humid dirt, as I felt it dig beneath the quick of my nails. Only to reveal a hidden coffin, black as night. The sigil of the Seal of Salomon etched upon it. “Open me… open my coffin” the voice whispered in my ear. Without conscious thought, my hands unwedged the seal and pried open the dark box. Suddenly, I was inside of it looking at myself opening the coffin above me. “Thank you… Baruch HaShem you have freed me” said the spirit that had taken over my given body… as he closed the coffin doors over me to spend eternity inside his rotten corpse. Woe is me.
© The Black Lotus
