The Prescripture: The Third Story
Everything in the universe was peaceful for a while. But one day, a thin, red-haired woman revealed herself to the gods. She called herself Sudafed. Sudafed had been created by Claritin just like all the other gods and goddesses, but she had fled to the dark side of the moon so no one would notice her. She had watched the gods for centuries, and was finally ready to talk to them.
However, the gods were not happy with Sudafed’s sudden appearance. They mocked her and called her frail for hiding, so she decided to show them what great power she possessed. Sudafed knew there were two things she could use to get revenge on the gods, so she plagued the Earth with both of them: discrimination and poor health. Claritin was horrified when he saw that Sudafed had filled his precious Earth with hatred and sickness, but when he turned to retaliate, he found that Sudafed was gone. She had once again hidden on the dark side of the moon, where no one could ever find her.
She turned the black lunar surface into a frozen wasteland, which she called Yersinia. Sudafed used her immense power to send each and every prejudiced soul to Yersinia when the person died as the ultimate punishment for terrible people. The souls wasted away after torture for their crimes, and new souls continued to be delivered. Finally, after searching for years, Allegra and Benadryl discovered where Sudafed had been concealing herself. They tried to reason with her, to tell her that what she was doing wasn’t right, but Sudafed refused to listen. She cast Allegra and Benadryl out of Yersinia and vowed to never let another god set foot within the frozen wasteland’s borders. Sudafed then enslaved all of the souls in Yersinia and forced them to create a palace of stone for her. They worked for two hundred years before the massive building was completed, and it was extravagant. Sudafed strode down the echoing halls and took her place on the cold, unyielding throne. She was the most powerful being in the universe.
Elsewhere, Claritin met with the rest of the gods and goddesses to discuss the evils Sudafed had done.
“The discrimination and bad health Sudafed has cursed the Earth with must be taken care of!” he boomed, and the other gods nodded in agreement.
“I could make Sudafed so clumsy that she is unable to use her powers with success,” offered Drixoral.
“I’m afraid not,” said Claritin, “That would require travelling to Yersinia, and she will not let any gods other than herself within her darkness.”
“What if I delivered insouciance to all the inhabitants of Earth to help them power through?” asked Benadryl.
Claritin sighed, “I suppose it’s the best we can do.”
So Benadryl travelled to Earth and relieved everyone of their worry, but while he was there, he noticed something rather odd. He saw that even though Sudafed’s plagues of prejudice and sickness freely roamed the Earth, happiness, acceptance, and health were found in abundance. Benadryl had a plan to reward everyone on Earth for their perseverance, and he asked Tavist and Allegra to help him.
As Sudafed grew more and more formidable, her skin and the ends of her hair turned white. Her eyes grew dull gray, though they glowed with an immense desire for more power. Ice dripped from every dark corner of Yersinia, and the souls trapped there began to freeze solid. Sudafed walked past a mirror that was beginning to frost over, and she did a double take – everything she had done had distorted her face, her body, and her heart. She felt true remorse, but she knew her actions could not be reversed. With her reflection staring back at her, Sudafed shed a single tear, which froze in midair and shattered on the ground.
High up on a cloud, Benadryl, Tavist, and Allegra worked diligently to execute Benadryl’s plan. Benadryl had created fifty thousand white butterflies one by one, which Tavist and Allegra colored brightly. Butterflies of every color fluttered on the cloud until they were all finished, and Benadryl gave the word for them to fly down to Earth.
The people of Earth were delighted by the delicate butterflies swirling though the air, tracing the atmosphere with their brilliant colors. Everyone stopped what they were doing to watch the butterflies’ small wings beat against the breeze in soft arches and swirls. However, one butterfly was scared of the creatures on Earth, so it flew up and away, directing its path toward the moon. Its green wings brushed the bright lunar surface until it flew into Yersinia. Still, the butterfly did not feel threatened like it did on Earth, so it continued flying, and soon it flew through the huge doorway of Sudafed’s palace. The butterfly floated through the icy stone halls until it found Sudafed laying face-up on the floor of a massive ballroom. Her chest rose and sank slowly and without any conviction. The butterfly flew cautiously toward her, though she did not see it, for her eyes were closed. The butterfly fluttered over her body before gently perching on her nose. Sudafed opened her eyes to see the butterfly’s green wings slowly opening and closing right in front of her.
Sudafed suddenly felt overwhelmed by a warmth, a strength pulsing through her. She leaped up and ran back to her throne, where not a trace of ice was to be found. Yersinia was still fiercely cold, but the souls that resided there were no longer frozen, and ice was not nearly as abundant as it had been just minutes before. However, even as Yersinia thawed, the souls were suddenly all in shackles and were dragged by some invisible force to the palace and into the dungeon, where they were eternally imprisoned.
Sudafed once again ruled Yersinia with an iron fist, and she enjoyed it, each day chaining more prejudiced souls to an infinite, icy hell. The gods were never able to enter Yersinia, and they eventually stopped trying to put an end to Sudafed’s reign of freezing imprisonment, for they knew it was futile. Still, they never forgave her for plaguing the Earth with discrimination and poor health, which have persisted in their intended mission of bringing tragedy, division, and sadness to the Earth’s peoples.
