Temple of Bones

"are you ready?"

"we will start cutting now."

His heart begins throbbing, his body shaking, he had difficulty breathing, fear has already took over his his entire body. Suddenly, the typical room in the housing block converted from the decently sized space to a small and cold corner.  He started getting covered with cold sweat, he felt weak, frail. and lost conscience. The smell, acid and bitter, of the sanitized equipment, filled the air, the odor of the room was unbearable. The doctor asked the assistant to bring the blade from the table. In one moment the entire room changed in color from white to red. The sound of a carousel diminished with the view of his leg detached from his body. Who is this guy? Why does he not show any attempt of resistance or interest what is happening to his leg now?

He is a regular citizen with a normal job and normal life. Once he has heard there was a trick to improve his life quality by scarifying just one bone from his leg to the Temple of bones. The ultimate reward is obtaining a lavish life where one would not need to worry anymore about a normal job where one goes every single day. The Temple of bones provides everything just in exchange to one’s leg bone. Sounds so easy and attractive.

Time has passed, and he wakes up. What can he observe after a forced nap? The entire room is shining with red glow, while his leg's bone lays on a cloth and emits a bright white light. He feels paralyzed while the last melodies of the carousel music are disappearing as soon as doctor grabs the bone and leaves the room.

Who is this doctor with such cool-headed attitude towards the patients, so much so that he even does not ask anything, does not offer any help after the operation is over? The doctor is the Man of the Temple of bones. His entire life is dedicated to collecting leg's bones. The doctor does not have any mercy to the patients as he knows his duties quite well: to be a mediator in the deal between the Temple of bones, which offers a lavish life as soon as you voluntarily allow to give away a leg's bone from you. feelings have no  place in his job. The doctor comes, cuts and leaves the space fulfilled with red and citizen stays after with his ticket to the lavish life.  

Scene 2

The guy gets himself back to good health a while after the surgery. So what is next to him? He does not know. He is confused since in one hand he has lost part of his body while in another he has upgraded his life to a new comfortable level and a peaceful existence. He decides to walk away from the room and go towards the Temple of the Bones where he can attend the daily sacrifice collected by doctors. 

He leaves the room. He does not feel any changes in his body. He is still under the spell from the carousel melody and the only internal instinct is to see for the last moment for his bone leads him.  He is part of the street walkers, part of the people's circulation, part of the city. On his way to the Ceremony Of The Sacrifice, as he turns in the crowded sidewalk, he sees the corner of the Temple Of The Bones. It is so colorful, dazzling the eyes with white and red bones, the structure stood tall and majestically. There is a garden that surrounds the Temple, and it is barely visible due to the dominance of the building’s scale. People are already gathered around to witness this daily event.

The guy is walking through the crowd, the air filled with the smell of flowers, yet he can still catch the odder of the flesh. The sky is clear. There is a light breeze, but it feels like the sun is trying to burn the crowd from above. As he stands closer to the temple, he could hear the unsettling sound of the structure grinding. It felt cold while standing next to the Temple of Bones. "BAM!" it happened out of nowhere. People started running away from the Temple. Doctors who bring sacrifices surrounded the building as soldiers around a castle. The air is filled with dust and ashes. The sky turned grey. Everything felt motionless and blind. His instinctive reaction was to dash towards the falling structure, to grab his sacrifice. His leg. The guy does not see any doctors on the perimeter. He is getting closer to the Temple.

Then, it happened!  A strange yet familiar sound starts to grow in the middle of chaos. Merging with the sound of the crumbling structure and agonized screams, he couldn't tell where it was coming from. As he walked closer to grab his leg, the noise grew louder. The guy finds a gap within the guards of the Temple and approached his cut bone. And once he lifted his sacrifice, the noise overtook him. He felt numb and mangled again. He knows this feeling from the operation. He drops his leg and starts skipping towards the melody. It leads him away from the Temple. He forgets his initial instinct which brought him earlier to grab the bone and run away. He does not remember how he manages to walk and goes down under the road.

Scene 3

And there, he finds himself, in that room. The melody of the carousel is so strong and defining outside, but fades away under the road, while the smell of the sanitized room grows stronger. The room feels tiny, stuffy, humid, and gloomy. There are people, all looking the same, all scared and confused. He stares at them, while they stare back; motionless figures filled the room. All legless. The other ones from the city. The others who just bought the ticket for the lavish life. The victims. Suddenly he understands and opens his mind. The temple will regrow and rebuild itself, while they sit there; leftover!