Binky Productions is a video production company that produces Films, Commercial Videos and Multimedia for artists.
Binky Ink is the writing division for freelance and fiction writing, as well as screenplay formatting.
Celinka Serre is also a YouTuber for Dragon Age gaming, and Green Healing for alternative and natural healing from abuse.
This is my first poem for The Black Veil and I am thrilled to join the publication.
Today’s poem comes courtesy from the past, from a notebook wherein I wrote some poems during my later teen years.
So without further ado…
HELL
It’s not a place where you go when you die, nor a place you go because you were “bad”. Hell is your existence on Earth, depending what you’re living through; what happened in your past, and who you are surrounded by.
Of course, it’s quite possible, to have Heaven on Earth. The complicated thing is, you can have Hell in Heaven, you can have Heaven in Hell.
‘Now listen carefully,’ the elder woman rasped, ‘you are never to travel to the Dunes of Novalei, do you hear? That desert is dangerous, treacherous, and it is haunted.’
The old woman walked over to the fire and stoked it before sitting back down on her stool.
‘Long ago, there was a great war between the two most fearsome warlords these lands have ever known. Both were proficient in great magic, and both were mounted upon great flying beasts. Their armies counted hundreds of thousands of soldiers and knights, and many of their greatest knights sat upon those great flying beasts.
‘Both warlords were set on conquering the other’s kingdom, and for many years they warred. Many died but there never was any real victor.
‘Then one day, they decided to settle this once and for all and declared a battle upon the then Plains of Dunalei where their armies clashed day and night.
‘For ten whole days and ten whole nights, they fought. They slew each other’s beasts, and bodies piled upon each other, creating mountains of the dead. The hills of corpses dripped rivers of blood as their slaughter continued until finally, tired and battered, only the two warlords remained.’
The elder woman paused and narrowed her eyes sinisterly.
‘But the warlords had not foreseen the arrival of a third ruler, one who had duped them for so long, one who had claimed to remain neutral in their war, and he came with his army and finished the warlords off and whoever remained of their soldiers and knights.
‘The new sole ruler laughed at his deception and triumph as he set the hills of corpses ablaze.
When I first met my friend AM in early high school, she was a bit of a troublemaker, a bit of a delinquent, a bit of a teen junkie too. She got into all sorts of trouble.
Of course, later in life, she got back on track and got her life sorted, and today has a good job, a good relationship, and many kids.
Back then, I was the only friend her mother allowed to visit because she felt I was a good influence. But while I influenced AM to straighten out her life, she influenced me to dare to do things I would otherwise never have done.
AM had a tendency to shoplift from the dollar store at the shopping centre. She had taken multiple chocolate bars, and she and I, along with her sister and their friend, decided that it was time I tried my hand at stealing something, and not just anything.
I was dared to steal a box of condoms.
So we sauntered in casually, went along the aisles, scoped out the place, or as much scoping as a bunch of fifteen-year-olds could do. Or was I 14?
Anyway, we went for the condoms and I just took the small box and very clumsily tried to hide it in my sleeve. Since that was failing, AM took it upon herself to carry the box out of the store, but by then, the storekeeper had seen us and was suspicious.
‘Hey!’ he called out.
We bolted out of there as he ran after us, and almost grabbed two of us, and we ran towards the shopping centre exit and right past the security guard who told us not to run. Then the storekeeper yelled at the security guard that we stole from him.
Julien comes upon the dream created by Nicolas before the blond warrior sheds all illusions. The two then shed all worries and all armour, and indulge in each other for all the Fade to see and hear them.
Note: Preview is SFW.
Julien came upon a small clearing that looked like the Arbor Wilds. He had been roaming the Fade since his death, looking for a place to settle in while he waited for Nicolas, ready to wait for him how ever long it took. This place had a familiar feel to it. He strode up the path and recognised that the cabin looked just like he and Nicolas had envisioned it would be. The cabin stood at the top of a small rise, the cabin itself from the outside looked homey. A roofed balcony with a pair of rocking chairs that looked just like the ones they’d sit on in their rooms at the Grey Warden fortress told him he had found Nicolas. He smiled before being hit with a pang of fear. If Nicolas was here, then did it mean he had found his death so soon? Part of him was glad of it, selfishly so, another part would have hoped to see Nicolas live until his Calling. Julien jogged forward. ‘Nicolas!’ The door to the cabin swung open. Nicolas ran out and stared at Julien, aghast. Julien recognised fear on his face, confusion perhaps. ‘Nicolas?’ The voice was Julien’s but he had not spoken. Behind Nicolas came a man – him, Julien saw, or at least he looked like him: same dark hair, same short beard and moustache. And he was shirtless. Julien’s heart sank. ‘What is the meaning of this?’ the other Julien gasped. ‘Julien?’ Nicolas asked, sounding unsure. Julien nodded. ‘It is me, mon amour.’ He looked down at himself, he was in the armour he’d worn when he died. He looked up at the other Julien. ‘What are you? A demon, a spirit?’ ‘What’s going on?’ the other Julien demanded. Nicolas began to slowly back up from both of them as Julien approached him. ‘This can’t be real, none of it can. This…was a dream, but I thought…you were real.’ ‘Oh, mon amour, you were holding onto a dream, afraid you’d get lost if you searched for me? Or had you thought you’d found me?’ The other Julien merely stood staring warily. Nicolas’s mouth hung open. ‘I don’t know.’ ‘What happened, Nicolas?’ Julien tried to sound soothing. ‘Speak to me.’ ‘I died.’ Nicolas downcast his eyes. ‘A demon took us into the Fade. The others found me but I chose to stay. This is a dream, I know it’s not real. But then are you also not real?’ ‘If you control the dream, then you will see I am real when it fades,’ Julien asserted. ‘Don’t be afraid, mon amour. I am here now, it is safe to let go of whatever this is.’ Nicolas looked at the other Julien who stood silent now. ‘It doesn’t have to be like this,’ the other Julien declared. ‘Doesn’t have to be like what?’ Julien demanded. Nicolas shook his head. Julien took a few steps forward but Nicolas backed away from him, keeping a fair distance between them. Nicolas bowed his head. ‘I want all that is not real to go now. I will deal with the grief on my own. Leave me.’ He closed his eyes and around them, the dream faded away, as did the other Julien. Nicolas’s clothes were replaced by the armour he’d worn in the Deep Roads. Julien waited, giving his love a moment. Nicolas lifted his head and his tear-speckled eyes widened when he saw that Julien still stood before him. ‘Julien?’ Julien nodded. ‘Oui, it’s me. For real.’ Nicolas let out a sob. ‘Julien!’ ‘Nicolas!’ Julien closed the distance between them at a run and took Nicolas in his arms, pressing his lips against his. Nicolas breathed in deeply, then pulled away. ‘It’s you, it’s really you.’ ‘Oui, mon amour.’ Julien kissed him again, feeling their love more vibrantly than when they were alive. He leaned his forehead on Nicolas’s, his heart soaring. ‘I’ve been searching for a place like the one in your dream. I was going to wait for you. Seems I don’t have to.’ Nicolas let out a gasp, tears trickling from his eyes. ‘Oh, mon amour. I’m sorry you have died,’ Julien sighed, chagrined. Nicolas shook his head. ‘I died the moment you did. You are my other half.’ Julien gently placed his hands on Nicolas’s face, his own eyes brimming with tears. ‘Then now you are whole again.’ Nicolas let out a sobbed laugh. He traced his fingers along Julien’s moustache and beard before plunging towards him and devouring his mouth. Julien groaned, tasting his love affectionately. ‘We are in the Fade,’ Nicolas whispered. ‘Yes, indeed.’ Julien chuckled. ‘Can we stay here as long as we choose?’ ‘We can. Many spirits I encountered in my brief travels claim there is no limit to what we can create here if we want.’ Nicolas gave him a lopsided grin. ‘Then we can make this last the eternity we’ve dreamed of.’
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