Cursed Blessings

Prologue

          As I stood by the door of my house, I realised that it was a mistake. Whatever gifts I had meant to give to them had become curses instead. They had suffered misery and pain with each bomb that rained from the heavens. Landless peasants; they turn away and call me the ultimate evil. But to the greedy, my creation brought about elation, but that was it. So I lie to myself and say that it is Destiny, that it was all meant to be, but my soul... I think it would never rest in peace. Not if someone is dying every ten seconds.

         I used to wonder whether civilisation could end. Then I thought about the ancient cities- Atlantis, Athens, Sparta... I breathed out slowly as the magnitude of it all sunk in. We all keep moving on and changing so quickly, that we miss the real motion of it all. And we confuse ourselves with our strange understanding.

         I smiled, recalling a little joke a friend had made. He had said that it would not matter if we do not find a synonym for thesaurus. Everything would be gone. I thought again: will it?

         I clutched tightly at the object in right hand, fearing that it would fly away. I prayed silently that the cursed Stone would be the last of its kind. I started. What had I mean by "its kind"? Surely there couldn't be any more of that monstrosity?

         It was true though that I was initially fascinated with the idea of turning ordinary metal to gold. An alchemist does not worry that gold will lose its value, or that people could die because of it. It is a well known fact pure gold was too soft to even be welded into ornaments. How then can it be a weapon of mass destruction?

         So this morning, I went out. I walked to the cypress tree and I laid the Stone far beneath its roots. I was hesitant in all my movements, perhaps not feeling quite as confident about this as I was last night. My laboratory tests and experiments had not included this. The power of the Stone could attract it to the Earth's core, and after that, who knows what could happen?

         It was my curiosity and thinking that led to all this. So I stopped- thinking. I resigned myself to whatever my hands were doing. My callused brown hands looked old all of a sudden, and I wondered how much time I had spent surrounded by my chemicals. Whatever these old hands do may result in the eventual annihilation of Man, but I was determined that the Stone must be destroyed. It has to be destroyed!

         My hands gained a curious energy and worked furiously digging up the caked soil. There was a sudden fire in me that was determined to do what I could in hopes that Future Man will forgive me for what I have done.

         Our fathers that have passed have long said that it rebirth was the result of death, and I wondered then the extent of its truth. Neverthless, I thought, it is time to put aside my chemical romance. The lexicons I shall leave to dust. I will put human instinct to the test. Covering up the green light in the soil, I stood up and faced the enemy.