Thursday, November 1, 2012

A Necessary Evil

Written for #ThursThreads
 
A Necessary Evil
By Lisa McCourt Hollar
“Joshua, what are you doing?”
“You know what I’m doing dear, I’m culling the herd.”
“The herd? Joshua, they’re humans, not cattle.”
“They might as well be cattle, Elizabeth, for all the good they do. Pollution, global warming, wars… they even kill their own children.”
“We were sent here to watch, not interfere.”
“We’ve been watching for millennia. Free will… bah. He gives them free will and they throw it away. Blind and dumb, they’re sheep being led to slaughter. If they are so willing to walk blindly off the cliff, then I’m only too willing to help.”
“With that?” Elizabeth nodded at the pouch Joshua held in his hand. “I know where that came from. Lucifer has never had their best interest at heart. He set himself up as a god… and you see where that got him. Are you so willing to follow in his footsteps?”
Joshua looked at the pouch, opening it and sticking a finger inside. Pulling it out he sniffed at the powder. Black, it smelled of death. “As far as I’m concerned, we are God.” Opening the window, the angel emptied the contents into the wind. “It is done.”
The powder swirled in the air, carried by the currents to the four corners of the earth. Children breathed it in on the playgrounds, the elderly began to cough, feeling a strange tickle in their throats. That night, humanity slept, a sense of dread hanging in the air. The next morning the dead awoke.
 
Word Count: 249


 

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