Fire Burn, Cauldron Bubble
by Nicholas Hall
Prologue
Copyright© 2018 – Nicholas Hall
"The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary; men alone are quite capable of every wickedness."
(Joseph Conrad)
Spurred by a plethora of tales cascading throughout antiquity of death, destruction, mayhem, dismemberment, and an unfathomable list of evils and punishments slathered like butter on hot toast upon humankind by the supernatural; the unseen, yet often spoken of in hushed terms, those things that go bump in the night, monsters hiding under the bed daring a foot to free itself from the covers and venture a step to the floor on a dark night, ghosts, goblins, and gargoyles inhabiting old abandoned houses, vampires, ghouls, werewolves, witches and warlocks, sorcerers, and sundry other frightening, menacing, paranormal creatures which send screams of fright from young and old on Halloween, lurking in dark cemeteries, unlighted corridors, mausoleums, and locations "known" to harbor these harbingers of painful, excruciating, unimaginable death, the human animal carries charms or talismans of rabbit feet, silver crosses, amulets around the neck, bags of garlic, and an elaborate set of rituals to ward evil away.
Yet, for all of the stories and concerns, one would ask, are there any recorded deaths from any of those aforementioned evil doers or does the real evil, the most insidious cause of death lay within the real world rather than the supernatural, embodied in the human animal itself?
Oh, man how evil is thy nature when seeking a fortune through illicit, illegal means? Oh, man how can thee murder, according to the Center for Disease Control in the United States for the period ending December 30, 2016, 71,135 of your own kind by drug overdose, a life and death most destructive, more painful, and deleterious than those imagined by myth by fabled creatures?
Perhaps, just perhaps, it is time for those creatures to act and notice to those manufacturers and marketers of this death to heed well Shakespeare's warning,
Double double, toil and trouble,
Fire burn, cauldron bubble.
By the pricking of my thumbs
Something wicked this way comes.
It comes on padded feet, gnashing teeth, scorching hell, and gives truth to fiction.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or locales is entirely coincidental or used in a fictional content.
The Literary works of Nicholas Hall are protected by the copyright laws of the United States of America and are the property of the author.
Positive comments are welcome and appreciated at: nick.hall8440@gmail.com.
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