The Calamities

This time, it’s a schoolhouse, a slow, gargled chant rising from within. In his realm there is hatred—secret hatred; there is disgust—unspoken disgust; there is treachery—family treachery; there is vice—deep, deadly, domestic vice. He saw Rose Jiang—Chinese woman, mid fifties, round face, black bangs so severe and so perfect they looked cut by a pair of hedge trimmers. They elevated the simple act of taking human souls to a circus of byzantine, labyrinthine bullshit—a convoluted process that served those at the top, those who wanted to keep power entrenched for themselves and who wanted to lord that power over all those beneath them.