The Prophylaxis

She sits, like an apparition, upon what seems to be a mechanical device of some sort. The Prophylaxis. Innumerable myths have grown around her, enclosing her like the shadows of the abandoned Crominic buildings around her. Little children are scared into an early bed time by her, their mothers forcing them to eat the horrible gloop they make, saying “eat your food, or else The Prophylaxis will have you for dinner.”

I remember my interest in her as a teenager. We would make clandestine trips to the edge of town from where we would take the bus to Crominis. It was a two hour journey in a bumpy bus, Elenia and I sitting close, holding hands. From Crominis it was another twenty minute walk to the place where she sits astride her obscure vehicle surveying as they performed intricate rituals around her. They said she was the image of god, given to us to show us the True Way. However those who believed so found strong opposition from The Church. Many of the leaders of The Way of the Prophylaxis have mysteriously disappeared, and her followers staunchly believe that the Church is responsible for these disappearances.

Elenia and I would sit on the crumbling stone wall, a little away from the makeshift pulpit, from where one of the leaders of The Way would give his sermon. If our parents ever knew we secretly attended the meetings we would hear no end of it, we would probably never be let out of our houses again.

I went through a phase where I almost became one of those many maniacal followers of the way who resorted to extremism to spread the True Way. Even though the early followers of The Prophlyaxis preached a non-violent approach, the modern followers were a violent blood-thirsty lot, carrying out orders from their superiors under the influence of various mind-numbing substances.

Today I’m glad that I took more interest in college and learning than in the teachings of The Way, for as I see it now The Prophylaxis is being used as a political tool. The unscrupulous new leaders of The Way no longer care about the spiritual message of The Prophylaxis, but they let themselves be used as pawns by our parasitic politicians.

We still don’t know what The Prophylaxis is: where did she come from? Who is she? Is she of our world? Is she of divine origin, or just an ancient prank? Her body structure in no way resembles the body structure of our peoples; her mount is unlike anything we’ve ever seen; there is no recorded history of where she came from yet references to The Prophylaxis exist in our earliest written documents dating back to many thousands of years ago. Long dead civilisations worshipped her as a god. Then with the spread of the Lutwigian Church the worship of the Prophylaxis was forgotten, until a hundred and fifty years ago when scientists exploring the Crominic ruins found her, and she was once again known to mankind.

Today I may not be a one the fundamentalists of The Way, ready to kill for her, but like them I am ready to die for her, she has become my life’s study. My perspective on The Prophylaxis might be scientific but I am still a Prophylactic Agent.

Ok another 15 minute piece and I couldn't resist a mild pun. This painting is indeed weird!