It was going to be another horrible day. The child had already retreated to his memories of eating apples with Gloria. He was already begging for forgiveness, apologizing to everyone that he was looking toward when he would see Gloria again.

The proceedings went along...

"Our Messiah is unshackled."

Two cloaked women walked to either side of the child and undid his bindings and blindfold, and then removed the old mittens.

"The tools of his mercy are revealed."

"Huh?" the child mumbled as the color drained from his face. He stared at the naked woman shackled in the cage.

"Our Messiah enters the Realm of Proving."

"Gloria?" the child whimpered.

"Our Messiah bares himself to the world."

"Why are you there, Gloria?" he said, unable to believe his eyes.

Gloria, that beacon of hope, looked up and straight at the child, and put on a feeble smile.

"Our Messiah will now show an act of restraint."

"I'm helping open the way to Paradise on Earth," Gloria said, the painful words clumsily falling out of her mouth.

The child wasn't sure what to think.

"Why are you talking like them?" he mumbled.

The Madonna's words snapped him out of it real quick.

"Our Messiah becomes a receptacle for the Envoy of Paradise."

All at once, every brain cell he had went into overtime.

"I don't wanna!" the child cried. "Gloria!"

"It's okay, Messiah! Save us! You can save us!" Gloria yelled back, tears streaming from her eyes. "Save us and be free, Messiah!"

How could anyone bear it? How could anyone bear the pain radiating out of his heart?

"No, Gloriaaaaaaaa!"

The child was hurting. He wanted to die. He'd rather die than suffer through this.

But he didn't have to suffer for long, because they took away his ability to think, and hurt, and feel betrayed with that stupid, cursed, and painful concoction in the needle.

"The aspect of Baphomet descends."

"My Messiah..." Gloria said, biting her lip until it bled. "It's okay... You'll be free..."

She started wiggling her wrists.

"Our Messiah, channeling the power of the Envoy, is unleashed."

Gloria revealed herself to be freed and held out her hands while smiling.

"It's okay, Messiah... I'm happy to be the one giving you your freedom--"

"Our Messiah storms into the Garden of Eve, to pluck from her Sanctum, His forgotten fruit."

The child tore into her stomach with his sharp claws, and Gloria clamped her teeth together.

"Our Messiah searches for the sake of his flock."

Gloria held the child's head to her stomach, directing his clawing and bites.

"It's okay... Messiah..."

"Our Messiah drenches his hands in blood so that we may be forgiven."

The child dug and dug, pulling pink vine after pink vine out of Gloria's garden, venturing deeper and deeper into that vibrant garden.

"Our Messiah plucks the forgotten fruit from the garden."

The child pulled his bloody head out of her body as Gloria fell onto her back, her stomach open for all people to see. The child, meanwhile, with tears streaming so viciously from his face that they were washing away the blood, had in his mouth a rotten apple core. He, somewhere deep inside that horrible haze knew... That rotten core was the one he had discarded. The one she had kept.

"It's... going to be okay, My Messiah," Gloria whispered. "We did everything right this time..."

"Our Messiah takes into his body the holy key and embodies the path to Paradise."

The child started roaring. The flames in the room changed colors, cycling through all colors of the spectrum, and the room shook violently. Black lightning spilled from the floor, every crash booming. Somehow, the Madonna's cackles overwhelmed the otherworldly booms.

"Behold! Our Messiah evolves and takes his place as the Bringer of Paradise! Behold! Throw yourselves, my followers, for I have brought the Gate to Paradise!"

Flames blew out from the child's every orifice as the Madonna cackled, completely irreverent to her child's pain.

"Rejoice, my flock! Our Messiah has opened the gates to Paradise! We will pass through--"

A laugh echoed from the child as the flames started warping and taking shape--a feminine shape.

"Thank you, my Eternal Child," echoed from the flames, sending a paradoxical chill down the bones of all who watched.

The flames started scattering out, and from within them came--

"FAINN!"

***

Fainntwo's yell snapped me out of the memories. I pulled my head up from the water-like floor and felt him tugging on my arm.

"Fainn! Why didn't you tell me! Fainn--"

"Fainntwo--I saw them! I remember them! Mommy! The flock! Gloria--Holy shit, how did I forget Gloria? I have to save her. I can still save her--GRAAGH!"

The pain was unreal. Fainntwo started yelling in agony too.

"Fainn! Stop it!" he cried as his body and my body were pulled together.

The flesh of his hand was melding with mine as he tried to pull away his head. The flesh between our heads--it looked like chewed-up gum with holes appearing as it stretched. The pain was magnifying, like we were stuck in a feedback loop. I felt my pain, then it traveled through fleshy strands to him, hurt him, and came back to me--

"FAAAIIINNN! Please stop!"

"I can't!" I cried back.

"Svilran! Elma! Dorthaunzee!"

"Those girls--"

"Think of them, Fainn!"

"I'm trying!" I cried as I tried to pull away. I had started bashing Fainntwo in the head at some point.

"RAAAGH!" Fainntwo yelled. "Fainn! Think of Svilran's boobs, you pervert!"

"Svil's boobs--"

I was suddenly propelled away from Fainntwo and hit a memory wall.

"What the..." I said as I held my head. "What happened?"

Fainntwo's hand appeared before me, and I looked up at him. "Svilran's boobs have caused a lot of near-death situations. The closet you've gotten to a fatal nirvana was when you were touching those things..." He shook his head at me, almost disgusted. "That's why they jogged you up and kicked self-preservation into gear. Those boobs have scarred you on a deep level. So much so, you can keep your personhood... Boob fetishist."

"I... still don't get it."

"The threat of annihilation wakes up an individuality pretty well." He lifted me up and quickly pulled me out of the labyrinth. The moment we crossed the boundary, we fell onto the floor, panting.

"Fainntwo? What happened in there?"

"All I can think is that we got too close. You having the memories I was supposed to keep from you blurred the lines in the worst way. You are defined by not having those memories. If you have them, then you aren't you. You're me."

"I'm... I'm sorry, Fainntwo," I said, looking at the pained me.

He looked at me, his cheek on the floor, and sighed. "Me too, man. But... It's not all bad."

Fainntwo got up and helped me up.

"It'll be easier to explain it now... Or, rather..."

He was looking ahead. I followed his gaze and was stunned by what was ahead. "What the..."

"The thing locked up in here, beneath all those memories is her. Our mother... A fragment of her."

"What?" I stammered.

We were on a white, snowy disc. On the opposite edge of this disc, against a backdrop of stars, and shackled to a black, chain-link wall, was a buxom woman with closed eyes. Her black hair was short, with wavy bangs at the front. She wore a skin-tight and webby black dress, one that accentuated her curves so well that I could see every imprint clearly.

"That's not the Madonna," I said in disbelief. Honestly, it looked like it could be her sister, maybe, but it wasn't her.

"The Madonna was our biological mother for that life, but she wasn't our true mother. That mother is there. She's the thing that came out of the flames... She's the first mother we had."

The woman opened her eyes, revealing the deepest pools of black. Her smile hadn't changed, but it was somehow still more oppressive.

"The human who became a demon, and our eternal mother, Marellia."