"He awakens!" The triumphant shout rose over the battery of angry drums and the chorus of screaming voices, a chorus of terror and ecstasy, as newly opened eyes looked out over stone and flesh.
Enormous fires burned atop each of the four stone ziggurats, towering flames reaching up to the night sky. Thick plumes of smoke filled the air and colored the moon a deep red. A wall of men painted in blood pounded, pounded the drums that lined the outer walls of the stone temple. Women danced all around him, trailing silks behind them, their naked bronze skins painted in white, shimmering in the light of the torches.
Four victims were laid bare before him, their young, unmarred bodies stretched out over the stone altar, held down by acolytes masked with skulls. He saw the fear in their eyes and breathed in deeply of the intoxicating terror that rolled off them.
tha-thump..... tha-thump.....tha-thump.....
Their racing heartbeats echoed in his ears and thrummed in his chest as the drums beat faster and the cries and shouts of the writhing masses that covered the temple floor grew more frenetic. He greedily drank in the building crescendo, his hunger finding sound as a monstrous rumble.
"Silence!"
The priest's cry reverberated against the stone walls as everything stilled and silenced, saved the few muffled sobs from the altar. The elaborate feathered headdress and blue painted face of the priest filled his vision. Too white teeth smiled at him, before disappearing behind the priest's bowed head. "Is my Master pleased with the offering?"
