Ethereal Pixie Rings Of Mercy (EPROM) 1/8

This week I am posting all eight short chapters of my story Ethereal Pixie rings of Mercy (EPROM) on Steemit. Note that the story is rather densely written and that, as it is a piece of out-there speculative fiction that is inspired by christian tradition, it may be considered offensive to some. It is the story of an angry atheist who finds himself trapped in an unexpected afterlife. I'm not going to give any more spoilers, you will have to read for yourself to find out. If you are a christian who is easily offended, please note that this story is meant as a lighthearted peice of speculative fiction, not as an attempt to promote some theological hypothesis about creation and no attempt to lead you astray. When in doubt if a story like this might be offensive to you, please stop reading now.

This is the first of the eight chapters I'll be posting this week. For those who prefer reading the story as an e-book, a free e-book version of the story is available on iBooks , Kobo , B&N , Scribd and SmashWords. It is also available on Amazon under a different name. But unfortunately Amazon stopped price-matching free e-books, so the Amazon version isn't free.

So, have fun with this first chapter, I'll be posting a second chapter tonight, and will continue to post two chapters per day until I've posted all eight chapters of this short story.

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Bad Tidings

“Inconvenient timing !”

Those were David’s first and only thoughts after the doctor had told him the bad news. How could he complete the manuscript now that he had most likely only a few months left to live? Not a single thought about his own impending doom. He had known the message would come for a very long time. He just didn’t know when. Only the manuscript mattered to David at this point in time. Humanity was sick, and David’s research could be just what the doctor ordered. The time David had left might still be just enough. If only his own disease would allow David to continue working at almost full capacity for the next two months. Remembering the fate that had befallen both his mother and his two elder brothers, David knew the chances of this happening now had become pretty slim. David had entered the final stages of the disease. His work could have changed the role of science in society. It could have lead humanity into a new era. An era free of superstitions, free of charlatans preying on the vulnerable by claiming supernatural powers, and most importantly, an era free of the evils of religion.

David's parents had both been devout believers, and so had both he and his brothers. In the end David had felt a great sense of relief when he had cut all his ties to the church. How could he believe in a God that allowed his mother and his brothers to die such dreadful premature deaths? But most importantly, how could any ‘loving’ God allow David’s young daughter to be diagnosed as a carrier of the same awful disease that had killed both his Mom and his brothers? While the death of his mother had left David with feelings of incredible anger towards God, the day his daughter Angelique was diagnosed as being in the first stage of the same devastating disease was the day David became an atheist. It was that day when David decided that religion was a plague that needed to be stopped, and David would do anything in his power to stop it.
The disease was terrible and relentless, but at least it was real and honest. Unlike the religion that his mother had clung to up until the very end. Even the last words she spoke with her battered body’s very last and painful breath carried a plea for mercy to higher powers. The priest at her burial even had the audacity and bad timing to say that God had a plan for every one of us and that there was a bigger plan behind his mom’s death. What kind of evil and sadistic God would conceive of a plan where multiple generations from one family were decimated by this slow and terrible disease?

No, there was no bigger plan, no God, no afterlife, just this existence right now, with no purpose other than handing down
knowledge to the next generation. Religion? Religion was a collective delusion, a terrible disease that caused war and suffering.

David had known about the odds even before he and his wife had met. His religion though, had dictated that anti conception wasn't an option. David loved his precious little angel Angelique with all his heart. But to know what she, too, would likely be facing, he wished he had seen the light about religion before. He and his wife should have used anti conception. Hell, even an abortion would have been a valid option if it could have spared Angelique this path of pain and suffering.
His mother and his brothers could have had a dignified end if their religious mindset had not taken away their option of choosing their own moment and manner of leaving this world. No, religion in David’s memory was a concept that was inextricably tied to guilt and suffering. An undeniable evil that David passionately desired to purge humanity from. David’s IQ was phenomenal—he knew he was one of the smartest people on earth—and he used the full power of his intellect in his attempt to rid this planet of its terrible ailment. David was a mathematician. His work on the “Proof of absence paradox” could allow other scientists to once and for all scientifically prove the absence of anything paranormal by applying his new theorem to the result of carefully constructed experiments. David’s work was almost done, but without a manuscript ready for publication before his death, David’s theorem would most likely die with him. David had created an entirely new branch of mathematics to complete his theorem. For four years of his life he had worked on the theorem, and just when completion was within grasp, the final stage of his disease had come along to spoil things. Religion was a terrible disease that was causing pain and suffering to countless people. It was the reason for much violence and numerous wars throughout human history. It was the reason his own mother had taken months to die a slow and painful death while her life could have ended quickly and painlessly instead. Yes, religion was a disease much worse than the disease that was about to kill David. It was ironic that the disease that had cured David from this other disease, his religion, would now most likely not allow him to cure the rest of the world. The odds were against David finishing his manuscript before the disease would make working impossible.

But that would not stop David from trying.

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Continue to Chapter 2.