Afterword

Notes on The Bloodstone Intercepts

I rarely check my spam folder. However, one day as I was doing so, somewhere between the Canadian Viagra deals and the flattering messages from Russian girls who really want to meet me, I noticed a message from: Bloodstone43956@I-mail.irs

The name reminded me of a grade B horror film. The long number after the name looked suspicious. The URL was unlike any I’d seen before. Perhaps the message contained a virus. I experimented with arithmetic for a while. The number 43956 turned out to equal 666×66 ~ this got my attention. Somehow I was getting the impression this particular email could be important. But questions lingered. Why was I copied on this message? Had I done something to intercept it? Was it real? Was it a hoax? There was only one way to find out. Curiosity got the better of me and I opened the message.

What got my attention next was the disclaimer at the end of the message:

“I-mail correspondence is administered by the IRS ~ Infernal Referral Service. Contents of all I-mail messages are considered confidential, and are intended for listed recipients only. I-mail messages are considered the property of The Corporation, and their ultimate purpose shall be to further the mission of Our Executive. Any attempt to forward, publish, or otherwise transmit all or part of I-mail correspondence to unauthorized recipients shall be dealt with according to the strict Rules of Conduct set forth by The Corporation.“

If this disclaimer wasn’t strange enough to be a joke, the fact that it was preceded by a message advocating various temptations leading to the actual claiming of souls ~ referred to as “contracts” throughout these messages ~ as a form of corporate profit (apparently intended for distribution and consumption in Hell) made my heart skip a beat. I entertained the notion some diabolical mistake had given me access to correspondence I had previously thought took place only in my world. It later turned out this was only the first in a series of messages, each seeming to reveal more about a world many people think exists only in fiction or metaphor.

These messages reveal a Hell owned and operated by “The Corporation,” a massive organization led by an entity, simply known as, “Our Executive,” totally dedicated to dominating a rival business, a company owned and operated by one known as “Our Competitor,” who I assume is none other than God. The goals of these organizations are of course diametrically opposed, and it seems The Corporation will not be satisfied until it puts its Competitor “out-of-business.”

I’ve been able to make a few observations about Bloodstone as well. He is arrogant, snobbish, hateful, condescending, unapologetic, and insulting. I haven’t noticed a note of humility or remorse in any of the letters. He appears to be absolutely loyal to The Corporation, even as he advances self-interest in general and his own self-aggrandizement in particular. It seems The Corporation was founded on pure selfishness, since it’s a major theme in many of the “I-mails.” No matter what he says, I get the feeling Bloodstone is not to be trusted. His logic may be twisted and his interpretation of human life may be skewed, so be on guard.

Temptation is real enough to me. Unfortunately, I succumb to it on a regular basis. The question on my mind is, “does temptation come only from within, or is some outside agent involved?” While sometimes it feels like I’m being tempted by someone or something, in a sense, it doesn’t matter. In the course of our lives, as we choose between right and wrong, good and evil, the consequences of our choices add up. Each day we make hundreds of choices, some leading ourselves and others in the direction of what we understand to be good, others leading in the opposite direction. Even if the devil exists, we are ultimately responsible for our choices – in the end, he or she is not to blame for our self-centered behavior. The devil cannot “make us” do anything. We have been given the power to choose between right and wrong.

It seems to me the cumulative effect of so many choices must be important, if not to our eternal fate, at least to the earthly lives of ourselves and others. It also occurs to me real evil rarely comes from only one choice, but all the little choices that set the stage for it. If there is such a thing as good, there must also be the absence of good we regard as evil. And for every selfless thought, it seems to me there is a selfish one, ready to tempt, able to corrupt, and likely to destroy those who are not on guard against it.

I’m publishing these messages to warn others about the danger represented by the likes of Bloodstone and Raventrap, to offer a clearer view of the temptations we all must confront. I really don’t know what will happen to me as a result. Maybe Bloodstone is a fraud, maybe not. Maybe I’ll be “dealt with according to the strict Rules of Conduct,” maybe I won’t. If these messages are part of a hoax, I have nothing to worry about. On the other hand, perhaps my opinion isn’t worth noticing either on Earth or in Hell.

~ Mark Murray