Red as riding hood 999

 

For the second time today the clocks around the world stopped. First there was the threat of world war three then the bombs dropped. The mushroom clouds swallowed all of history in a few bites. Yet the poor bastard... Edward Blue-water had a girl on his mind. Things were not over maybe especially in the afterlife. His daughter was supposed to be born today. He was running next to his wife as the doctor's wheeled her toward the maternity ward. She was screaming at him.

"I don't care what I said to better damn well give me some painkillers or I will get drunk on your blood!"

"That's it honey just keep breathing, that's right deep breaths." Said Edward.

"I swear to the most high I will make you pay for putting me in this situation." Said his wife.

That was the last thing she said before the mushroom clouds sang their song. A quire of destruction in the temple of tomorrow. His daughter was a late term abortion as were any of his hopes for the future. They woke he in hell and he assumed her (his daughter and sweet sinless child) was in paradise. He started looking for his wife but wished he had never searched her out. He found her in the Joy Divisions of hell. Brothels in the concentration camps of the damned. He cried like a baby at the harsh reality of her ceaseless labor much to the amusement of her jailers.

Her mouth was always to full for her get a word out. But he eventually wandered off in the abyss cradling his middle class resentment. A kind of fury at his own spiritual inadequacy. The truth of the matter Edward Blue-water was unnecessary information. There was no good he could enforce and no evil that others did excel at. This for the first thousand years ate away at his confidence and led to a existential crisis.

He would stop by to check on his wife every hundred years or so but Beatrice was always preoccupied. Eventually one of the demonic hell spawn she birthed asked him

"why are you still here?"

He responded "hope for the future."

"your hell is so personal that strangers laugh at you in your suffering. The demons that torment you are all who know of your existence. All of them are the children of your hope." the Young Demon laughed for a moment the asked "have you ever seen Paris Texas?"

Edward Blue-water shook his head no then asked "why?"

The demon continued "It's your story but with picturesque and glossy Americana. You see the fallen angels are being punished for laying with the daughters of men. And women have original sin for taking a mouth full of that original sin. and... you? your just there but with tears in your eyes."

"It's been over a thousand years maybe they demons will let you have a turn? make way this poor soul has been cuckold by eternity." But Edward ran and did not return. Beatrice did not notice.

But there is nor perspective shift that changes the nature of that reality other than laughing at your own pain.