The Vessel

At last, the seal would be undone, and he would have the glory and the riches within. Something about the jar he held in his hand, impervious to all manner of attempts to open it, held an appeal. After years of searching, he had finally found the answers to both what was inside, and how to open the vessel, and obtain its power.

Inside, the blood of a god, long since thought to be dead. Some cultures referred to it as a daemon, but he knew better. It had done great things. TERRIBLE... but great. And now, he was mere moments from opening the jar, and doing as the inscriptions said. He read them once more to ensure he did everything right.

Then, under the dark sky, with new moon overhead, it shall be placed upon an altar, and  the lid shall twist and be torn asunder from its seal. When opened, thou shalt take the vessel, and consume that which is within. Then the power of the great one shall be used once more.

Now, at the apex of the night, with a dark moon hanging in the air above, he placed the canopic jar on the altar, and removed the lid. The seal broke loose, and he watched as something terrible flew from the jar. It entered his body at every orifice, and burned inside him. As his mind burned, twisting in anguish, he realized the error of his ways. The jar was not the vessel. HE was the vessel, heralding the return of the great one. TERRIBLE! But great. This power was never to be his, and it was only in his last moment he realized how foolish it was to play dice with a daemon.

The ritual complete, the god rose from the ground, and began walking out of the church, as the altar behind spontaneously caught aflame. "Ah, free at last. How nice it is to find a more fitting vessel."

-------------------------
This blog post is part of a series of stories associated with Practice makes pretense, in which a collection of writing done in response to prompts is compiled. Then, the reader should answer the following two questions: 1) What was your favorite thing about the writing? 2) What did you feel as you read it?

If you would like to view the original, please visit the Practice makes pretense book on Wattpad, and respond to the writer.