111: The Priest and the Vrŏzzōzite: Part Two

The priest slid open the wooden screen door when he heard someone occupy the space. Remembering the smell the last time his tentacled otherworldly visitor had come, he smelled it again.

"I've thought a lot about Vrŏzzōzed since you first told me about it. What’s outside of Vrŏzzōzed—eternity-wise? What’s the next degree?"

Vrŏzzōzed is the final degree. One cannot rest until the journey is over. One with Vrŏzzōzed seems to be journey’s end.

"What becomes one with Vrŏzzōzed?"

My essence.

"Your soul? Can’t be your body?"

No. What I am. Any awareness of what is and what is not, which includes me as what is.

"Your consciousness?"

More than that.

"More than consciousness? Your body? But you said your body will at some point become mortal when immortality ends."

Not consciousness and body. Consciousness and time. If I am self-aware and live a life in time, even in Time Immemorial, then outside of that, I exist or surely as I am, was, and will be. If I have ever thought a thought in self-awareness, I always have been and always will be; therefore, I always am. In Time Immemorial. And when I am outside of Time Immemorial, I am one with Vrŏzzōzed, sharing.

"Most educated persons see all of the evidence supporting the case for atheism."

Atheists never include time in their evidence. Yet they are educated and smart and know about time and even know about outside of time. Yet when they search for what seems, they deny the time in their lives.

"So what you’re saying is Consciousness + Time = Soul?"

If you mean consciousness to be self-awareness and awareness of all that is not self, yes.

"Self-awareness + Non-self-awareness = Soul?"

Yes.

"And what is Non-self-awareness?"

Being aware of all that is not the self.

"Isn’t being aware of all that is not the self actually self-awareness?"

So it seems.

"And once the self-awareness + Non-self-awareness is outside of time, then you are with Vrŏzzōzed?"

Your journey is over.

"Journey to Vrŏzzōzed?"

The journey to where you ultimately belong.

"Home?"

So it seems.

"Contentment?"

Self-awareness and Non-self-awareness that is content in all things.

"Sounds like Heaven."

So it seems.

___________________

THIS SUBMISSION

Standalone, or as the companion piece to "The Priest and the Vrozzozite Part One" at https://vocal.media/fiction/110-the-priest-and-the-vrozzozite-part-one and "The Priest and the Vrozzozite Part Three" at https://vocal.media/fiction/112-the-priest-and-the-vrozzozite-part-three

For Saturday, April 20, Day 111 of the Story-a-Day Challenge. Now well into triple digits!

365 WORDS

All pictures are AI-generated, but the implications are not!

---

There are currently three Vocal creators still participating in the Story-a-Day Challenge:

L.C. Schäfer, challenge originator

Rachel Deeming

Gerard DiLeo (myself)

PLEASE SUPPORT THEM BY READING THEIR DAILY SUBMISSIONS