text: Julia lay still in my arms. The gentle rise and fall of her chest ceased an eternity ago but I still held her. Cradling her like an infant, she looked so peaceful. Her limp body so delicate and as light as a feather. I was afraid that if I let go, she would be carried away by the gentle stream flowing around us. My world was in ruins. Piles of sodden debris lay around us, stacked higher than the houses they were once part of. Wooden walls had cracked and splintered by the unrelenting power of a sudden flood, collapsing houses in on themselves. The swollen river had burst its banks sending forth violent streams that snaked between the thinly scattered islands of detritus, tearing up the soil and marring the surrounding landscape. Corpses choked the river, clouding its crystal waters with scarlet streaks. Little was left but murky pools that drowned the country as far as the eye could see. Everything was lost. The grey firmament above opened to allow a single slender beam of light to trickle down from the heavens and caress Julia’s pale cheek. The soft glow brought a shade of warmth to her cooling flesh. I couldn’t believe my baby was gone. I was holding her when she first came into this world, and I was holding her when she left it. Seeing the light in my daughter’s eyes slowly ebb away was a cruelty no parent should ever need endure. Dappled rays played across her wet skin, tracing their way between droplets until finally coming to rest upon her amulet. A small thing wrought of copper and iron but beautifully inlaid with intricate tracings of gold. An amulet dedicated to our God, dedicated to You. We prayed diligently and did everything the Wise Ones told us to do to appease you. Not a single prayer was skipped, or offering missed, or ritual withheld, or any of your commands questioned or denied. We devoted ourselves in our entirety to you. And yet death and destruction are what we were offered in return. Does that seem fair to you? Not to me. I won’t pretend I know anything of the machinations of the divine for I am no priest and but a lowly mortal, but we clearly defied you otherwise why would this have happened? Why did the rains we so desperately needed and begged for continue well past the seasons end? Why did the river become so swollen? Why did the banks burst to release watery wrath upon us? Why would You allow this to happen to us? To me? But You didn’t let death take me like everyone else. You spared me. You may think you saved me, but you have done quite the opposite. I have been left with nothing but misery and sorrow. You kept me alive and took that which I love most in this world. There must be a reason for this, to keep me alive and no others. Whatever the reason, I will have no part in it. I once harboured the most fervent love and devotion for you. We all did. A powerful all-consuming love drove us blindly into your arms, our faith in your wisdom and benevolence held us tightly in your embrace. We thought we were safe. Misplaced were our feelings when our judgements were so clouded by deceit. Now, in loves place, I harbour something else. Something stronger. Hate. It feels wrong to hate you, but I can’t help it. It’s not that I can’t stop, it’s that I don’t want to. You deserve my hate for what you did. It is true you are a God and I am a mortal, and that most would consider me ungrateful and foolish for hating one so powerful and wise, yet I still do. You think despite taking all that I love that I should still revere you, that I should still worship you, that I should fill the void in my heart with the love of my creator because that is all the love I will ever need? No. You are sorely mistaken. You have forsaken me, abandoned me in this harsh world, and taken everything from me. I shall do the same to you. They say you die not only with the passing of your last breath but that you die a second time when your name is uttered in this world for the last time. I have not the power to invoke a physical death upon a deity such as yourself, but I can starve you of the attention you so desperately desire, of the love and worship you draw strength from. I cannot kill the unkillable, but I can make you wish you were able to die. Hence forth I, your last living breathing son, renounce you as my God and Father, and cast you out of my heart into the blackness of the void in which you have left me. Your religion died with the people who drowned for I will take it no further. I won’t even grant you the courtesy of speaking your name one last time, that too died upon the lips of someone lost to your wrath. In killing Julia, you have killed yourself. I hope it was worth it. Now we both are alone.