A secret compound of Christian monks exists inside a high wall. Standing outside the doors of the main cathedral, a head priest speaks to two of his underlings. He shows them four jewels, each of a different color. There had been four head priests, each with his own jewel. However, this priest had had the other three murdered and had gathered each of their jewels. Now that he has them, he can reach his goal. The head priest and the underlings go into the cathedral, down a long hallway, and all the way to the back where the door of the holy of holies is. They enter and the head priest lays the jewels on a table and says that Jesus will awake now. Jesus is lying there on the floor, dead and dormant, all wrapped in old strips of white cloth like linen or gauze. Jesus stirs slowly at first and then sits up, emerging from his shroud. His skin is pale and diseased, bloodless. His limbs are shrunken, yet his belly distended and bloated. His face is bloated and ugly. He is hairless. He is a piteous creature and base. On his face is an expression of wickedness and disgust. He has been held here against his will. He carries a whip, curled with sharp angles into a rough spiral. He uses the whip to attack the head priest and one underling. I no longer notice them. Now the only two I notice are Jesus and one underling. This underling is different. This underling is transformed by the greatness of the emotion that now fills his breast. This man sees Jesus. Truly sees and understands him in all his vileness and cruelty. And he loves him all the more. Even more than he ever has. He backs toward the door saying all the while, “I didn’t know. I didn’t know. I didn’t know. I love you. I didn’t know…” The underling leaves the room, but Jesus can’t or doesn’t follow through the door. The man, enthralled and inflamed by his great love, goes down the hall and outside the cathedral, to the stained glass windows in the back that look into the holy of holies. The windows are locked from the outside. The man unlocks a window, and Jesus flies out into the sky, a great pale beast. He is free.
– Dream by HC, drawings by HC & ADK
