The Betrayer
"See that fox right there, the Roman magistrate! His name is Decius Commodus is the one who must be killed. His death will scare the Roman occupiers and give us back our country!" The wolf spoke sternly and mercilessly and yet Eliezer knew Jonathan's orders must not be disobeyed, if the revolution against the occupiers of Judea was to be successful. "Do not doubt my request! For when he dies, a powerful army of strongmen shall come to our aid, led by the Promised One and the rest of those usurping Romans will cower in fear back to Italy. The fear we will cause in their hearts will win us back our land."
Eliezer had his own reservations about doing such a deed, which was in such violation of the very basic tenet of Jewish law and religion "Thou shalt not kill." This simple proscription, as had the other laws and regulations, had guided civic life in Judea for countless generations And yet, during a time of war as was common throughout their history, murder was a necessary and vital function of the army. If God had given it His blessing (and the lion truly believed that Jonathan violent though he may be, was indeed a prophet), then this murderous act would be justified. Eliezer knew full well that the payment for his education was not deserved but given to him by a generous donor who did not ask the money back but wanted a certain "mission" accomplished in the city. To not complete this task would be thankless and since the lion did not know the reach or true intentions of the man who had hired Jonathan and gave Eliezer his scholarship, this task would be done.
"Do this task, with this." The jagged blade, stained black with both obsidian and malicious thoughts was now in Eliezer's possession. The cold wickedness from that knife seemed as though it was forged in the fires of the pit, with cruel illogic and madness carved into the edge- it truly was an evil weapon, used solely for the realization of evil purposes. "Hide this in your robe so that none may see it. Once you have accomplished what you set out to do, leave!" Once the lion grasped this cruel dagger in his paws and could sense the evil inside the blade, he asked "Are you sure this will truly bring about the Promised One as told in prophecy?"
"My dear Eliezer, if the Promised One would come, He would have done so already. It is our duty to be our own Promised Ones and if one man should come from our nation to save us, then so be it. It is our imperative!" And with that, Jonathan clad in a black cloak, a slight wolf who could have snook into any place unnoticed left like some devious shade and faded out of sight. Now Eliezer knew what he had to do and also knew how to get there. The fox who he was about to assassinate was an individual whom he knew very well and before long, his footpaws led him to Decius' household. He had eaten at the fox's home before, knew the names of Decius' children, and he was very much a friend, or as much a friend as a Judean scholar and a Roman administrative official could be, given the circumstances. With his heart in his chest and a cold steel reminder of his accursed mission in his robe, the lion knocked on the door.
"Pax, I say unto you and please do enter this most humble household! You are Eliezer, son of Yehuda. You are always welcome here, my friend." The fox's voice was soft, polite, and delicate, almost disarmingly kind and welcoming- Decius might have been employed by the Roman government but certainly he did not share in Nero's heavy-handed behavior, and this gentle soul was in no way guilty for all the Jewish suffering. And how could he do this to a trusted friend- but he was. When Decius had left his threshold into the cool night air, out of the view of Decius' children (there was absolutely no way they needed to see this abomination), Eliezer took the initiative.
"What is it you w-?" The fox's words were halted mid-sentence forever by the well-placed blade to his stomach as a puddle of blood fell to the ground and Eliezer threw off his jacket and knife and began running as fast as his hindpaws carried him as quickly as possible outside the city, the haunting " How could... you? Why?" of the dying fox still echoing in the lion's ears. There was a gate which led outside the city and he took that gate before the centurions could react to this awful scene. But once he left the scene of the crime, the lion would be greeted by something even worse. There was outside the city's gates, a field where nothing grew. Eliezer knew the city of Yerushalayim like the back of his paw but he had never seen a field this barren so near the city. There was only one thing growing in that field and that was the most ugly snag of a tree the lion had ever laid eyes on, a tree which looked like God had truly forsaken it. Eliezer could not help but look more closely at this ugly black tree and saw a noose with a body attached.
It was a canid, a jackal whose neck had been caught in a noose- signs of decay had already set in and he had been hanging for quite some time. A judicial verdict or a suicide was not readily known just by looking at the victim but one thing was for certain, he was as ugly as the tree he was hanged on. The skeletal remains of a muzzle were open, the same way a terror-stricken individual's mouth would be at the moment of death. Whoever left this world did not do so peacefully and there was an ominous feeling about the whole thing as the flies and other unclean beasts gathered around the cadaver. Surrounding the hanged body were two others, a wolf and a lion whose bodies had been turned a grotesque grayish-white and they smelled like decayed bodies.
"Eliezer! Behold us for you shall become like us, a rotted husk for your crime. I know everything about you. You are a betrayer- and so are we!" It was a voice whose source could not be seen echoing through the night, quiet as a whisper yet also louder than a trumpet to those with a guilty conscience like the lion.
"Who are you?" the lion said as a chilling shade seemed to appear out of the hanged corpse. A greyish-black shadow issued forth from the long since expired body. Everything about this spirit was foul and unclean- his very presence leeched the heat and energy from the world around him. Indeed, the world around him was not only deathly cold but also warped by insanity and hallucinations of terror. Above his decayed and disgusting muzzle was the only source of color in the jackal's otherwise lifeless appearance, two blood-red eyes filled with a hatred to all living things so great not even the world's most powerful warriors could stand strong.
"Who I am does not matter so much as who I will come to be known as! You see, I was like you once, young with the world in front of me. And I followed a charismatic individual who claimed to be the Promised One but my loyalty was for sale. I turned him into the authorities for money who killed him in the most painful manner imaginable. Now I follow those who betray their friends, even to the grave and beyond to torment them. I am Yehuda ha-Sicarii, the one on my right is Brutus, the one on my left is Cassius and we are the spirits of Betrayal!" To stand in the presence of such terrible reprobates was to feel your strength and courage leave completely- feeling this demonic ghost and his henchmen was feeling the very essence of death itself.
"Your murder of a friend is what brought us here and now you will see your fate for this awful thing you have done! You will have no peace from us until you are willing to pay the price." The lion was unconvinced of this former criminal's demonic power and said as much as he inquired of what the demon had in store for him.
"Wraith, tell me what will my punishment be?" Yehuda took him by the paw and the two others restrained him so he could not escape. Eliezer could see his body on the ground and he knew instantly that he had died. He could see the sky growing smaller and the layers of earth beneath him as the temperature started to get hotter and hotter. The tunnel led to a holding area awash in red-orange flames and similar in appearance to the vent of a volcano. It was filled with species of all kinds and all nations, screaming in pure panic with futile pleas for someone to save them from the heat and pain. They were all burning yet they did not die and they were not consumed by the flames and kept burning. Through the sea of disfigured faces, Eliezer could see the wolf Jonathan being tortured by having disgusting, asymmetrical beings pierce his side with burning knives endlessly.
"There is no escape for me from this torment! God, in His wisdom gave me what I most wanted in life. I wanted to spread hatred and pain... and now I am hated and in pain, world without end!" Jonathan's words echoed throughout the burning caverns of that terrible place as he was yet again being stabbed. He saw Ph'aroah and Haman and Jezebel screaming in agony for help, their bodies scorched beyond recognition. Yet in their wicked lives on earth this is what they had chosen for themselves as their eternal inheritance. No one would come to rescue them from this terrifying place. There was no peace or sanity for all the creatures in here, all of the unrighteous screaming with no water to drink and nothing green to speak of. There was fire everywhere but it made remarkably very little light.
At the center of this most miserable place was Helel ben-Shaher, at one time the most beautiful of all the angels, now immolated in a state of perpetual decay and torment as Beel-zebub for his act of mutiny in Heaven. He was leading a numberless multitude of fallen angels in blasphemy against the Father who threw him out of that realm far above the stars for the sake of his conceit and pride. And his hatred spilt out towards the entire world and all of its inhabitants, a red-white-hot anger when he saw the beauty of the world that was so far away from his current, miserable state. This was a place with no hope at all, a place for the condemned of this world from which there was no escape, a place reserved for the devil and his disloyal angels. This was the Valley of Hinnom! And as a contrast to the cold of Yehuda ha-Sicarii, the other betrayers, there was nothing but heat which came over him hotter than a thousand desert winds.
It burned the lion to a crisp down to his very soul and there was no pain on earth he had experienced that could even come close to this ultimate punishment. Somewhere, off in the distance, the lion could see through his pain-wracked eyes, others from his earlier years, including his father attended by angels clad in white. They were enjoying themselves, drinking wine and laughing in a fertile green valley far off in the distance, their lives in total peace and happiness. He could hear the jackal demon's voice through the flames and the heat and the pain " I know you want to be there- everybody does. But your inexcusable sins have placed in you this situation. And those who end up here will never escape, in a land without water, without music, without joy or mercy or wisdom or anything you would want! It is where you will spend eternity when your living days are done! But your experience of this torment will end... for now!"
And then after an indeterminate amount of time (the concept of time itself is warped in this wretched place), Eliezer was dragged out by Yehuda and taken back to the coolness of the field, which desolate though it was, served as a great alternative. Actually, anything would have been better than where he just was. "And every time you fall asleep, I can take you back there and torture you until you confess. You will never know peace, you murderer!"
The lion was absolutely relieved to be back in the land of the living though he was overwhelmed with curiosity as to who his tormentor and disembodied guide to the fiery pit was. "What is your true nature, you unclean spirit?"
"I am the spirit of betrayal made manifest. I am the patron and king of traitors, conspirators, and those who murder in cold blood. Anyone unfortunate enough to speak with me is living under a curse."
"And how long will you wander the earth unpunished?"
"We shall wander the earth until the end of days when I shall be condemned to burn alongside the damned. We will work in the hearts and minds of the ones who seek revenge. Do you not realize that as demons we survive because of malice and ill will? We will die only when the thirst for revenge and love of hatred dies, thus I plan on wandering the earth disembodied for a very long time." And with that, the foul apparitions disappeared to leave the lion alone with his thoughts... but only for one night.
Three days later...
Eliezer found himself in the holding cell for prisoners in Judea under the most sadistic garrison the Empire employed. The lion was beaten daily and knew that he would be taken back to Rome for their cruel tortures, which would culminate in his death and public humiliation at the hands of the Roman people. But as the lion looked at what was left of his once-muscular frame, now beaten with whips laced with shards of glass and his coat of fur, now balding in many areas due to malnutrition, he could at least say that he was now free of that wicked demon the moment he confessed his sins to the prefect in Judea! And the worst tortures on this earth would be preferable to the treatment he had received every night when sleep inevitably came and he was dragged down every night by Yehuda and Caesar's killers... dragged down to experience the horrors of Hell!