Death had long since devastated the Earth. No pestilence nor plague had ever wrought such damage. No life was sacred, no life was spared. The agony and the horror was its Avatar. There was no river of the water of life, there was no God, and there was no lamb - for they had all long since been devoured. The tree of life had been felled and all of its fruit consumed. There were no ladders reaching for the sky, the heavens, or the moon. Now there was only curse and night. The people of the past had chosen their God, and they had chosen badly.

But the good Prince Prosperous was plump, happy, and sagacious. His far flung dominion long since depopulated; he gathered his closest courtiers and walled them into his palace of abundance. There behind thick iron gates, deep underground, they reveled and partied and feasted on the last remains of the Earth.

The palace contained nine large chambers each imbibed with a different hue. From each one there was no manner of ingress or egress; only the good Prince Prosperous was able to move freely among them. He was safe from the death outside and armed himself amply in case of any frenzy from within. These chambers were dance halls or ball rooms in which the courtiers continued to revel and glut themselves in defiance of the dark bloody death outside.

Prince Prosperous believed that he had been smart in providing more than enough. He had been smart in protecting the chambers from any tortured soul still wandering the parched wastelands. He drank and ate and grew safe in the belief that the last of the Earth was his.

Each chamber contained no windows, no natural light. The first was whitewashed. Smothered in emulsion to hide the decay. The courtiers therein danced solemnly to the same song; nourishing themselves on boneless and skinless chicken. They neither grew nor starved and nothing ever changed.

The second was vivid and red and lined with velvet. It smelt of farts and cum. The courtiers therein licked anus and sucked on the snakes of temptation. They gorged on the fluids of each other's souls and danced a wicked fandango, in spite of the fierce winds that they released upon themselves. The third chamber was painted orange. Its vibrant walls concealed a plethora of abundance. This large chasm was aflush with feasts and treats. It contained the largest number of courtiers of all the chambers. Crammed in next to each other on long tables and benches they guzzled and glutted, chomped and chastised each other for not consuming enough. Valhalla-esque in its glory, the third chamber was the Prince's favourite. He wiled away many a dark hour there straining and stretching his glory, hoping beyond hope that he hadn’t been forgotten.

The fourth chamber was entirely green. The courtesans who dwelled within fought and squabbled over the resources therein. Even though there was enough for all they bartered and bribed in order to gain more for themselves. They sold themselves in the manner of the red chamber purely so that they could gain more fat. This was the chamber of individualism. The chamber of the New World. The fifth was resplendent with brown. It was the only chamber to contain running water, and the courtiers fought each other angrily over access to it. These souls were less ample than in any other chamber, and they hated themselves for it. Chubby is what chubby gets; and that’s not enough. They blamed each other for their lack of fat; their lack of ability to gain. They were wrathful at having been left behind. Why not them? If only they had been given the same opportunities as their peers?

The sixth chamber was the perfect depiction of hell. The emaciated souls therein were punished for their crimes. Infidels, heretics, and atheists, who refused to follow the teachings were flagellated within an inch of their lives. Prince Prosperous liked to visit them when he was feeling down. The seventh chamber was bruised black and blue and splashed with the red of blood. The gainers herein were prone to outbursts of unadulterated violence against each other. Did you eat my last bit of steak? Then you deserve to die! This chamber was filled with food fueled rage and anger. The Prince stored most of his weapons there.

The eighth chamber was gray, like waste water. Its inhabitants were scatalogically brown. These courtiers lied and deceived their way to bodily excess. They stole from their mother’s purses, and they denied outright that they had already had two desserts; even when all evidence pointed to the contrary. But it was the ninth chamber that was painted black. It was the ninth chamber in which the Prince dwelled. 

Like the other chambers it contained no windows and no light. There was an ebony grandfather clock against the far wall. Prosperous gnawed on the bones of the deceased, swelling himself bigger and fatter. He waited impatiently for some courtier from another chamber to fall victim to his temptations and desires. He consumed his peers the same as he had consumed his citizens, and his lands previously. He was the fattest man left on the Earth and he was still growing.

The good Prince was partaking in such a feast when he sensed something grotesque. The music was still playing in the other chambers but it had somehow changed its tune. He sensed a dream approaching and with effort arose from his chair. The music faded, as did the sounds of the revelers. Still there in the background but somehow becoming less and less. It was something bizarre yet beautiful, wanton and terrible. He felt its presence as the silence of death grew nearer.

The grandfather clock struck midnight and the orchestra ceased to play. Death had broken through the palace gates. It grew bigger as it marched through every chamber. Eight courses down, its unrelenting hunger knew no mercy. It looked upon the good Prince Prosperous and he looked upon it. Somehow present and somehow not. Somehow larger than the room and yet somehow still within it. Prosperous pleaded that he had been a good Surplus. He begged for his life upon the fact that he had spent it devouring others. It spoke to him:

“I am the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end. I will take from each person in spite of what they have done. Blessed are those who cannibalised their greed. Blessed are the sexually perverted and immoral; the gluttonous, and the fat. I will take from them and add them to my scrolls. Come! Let the one who is hungry come! My scrolls have prophesied this moment. I will take away from any person who wishes to share in the tree of life. I am the holy city and the grace of the lord. Revel in my rolls."

Prosperous knew that his time had come. It was all consuming. The Earth was dead and it still wasn’t satisfied. Danni followed behind him.