The Second Book of Genesis.

The Gospel of the Forsaken, by human standard - may be viewed as blasphemy. There is a Book of which no one speaks. The Bad Book twin to The Good Book. It remains secreted away...Locked in an enchanted, guilefully guarded prison-like room from the beginning of time.

Everything has its opposite. Heaven has its Hell. The Devil opposes God, Yin its Yang - Man and Woman. Life and Death. Left hand has its right.

Why then would the most revered Book of Life not have its opposing other.

The Bad Book of the Bible. Bad being relative, though not necessarily evil. But left up to interpretation.

Yes...It exists. That Book...The Faith Grimoire, so to speak.

The content found in this grimoire is not information on spells, rituals, or the preparation of magical tools...but rather lists of ingredients and their magical correspondence to the giving of permission to SIN to your heart's content.

We begin at the beginning.

You who read this might make the sign of the cross upon your chests...bow your knees, clasp your hands in prayer at the blasphemy which you believe will be my undoing. But facts are facts - and the fact is that the Book was written at the same time that the Good Book was being dictated to its various authors.

It is my understanding that the Bible was written by over 40 different authors over a period of more than 2,000 years. While traditionally attributed to figures like Moses and Paul, modern scholarship recognizes that the texts evolved through a collaborative process involving numerous unnamed scribes, compilers, and revisers. The authorship is complex, with some books having multiple authors and others being edited by various individuals over time.

Whether or not this is true, the fact remains...HERE WE ARE. Speaking of the Other Book.

The Original Ten Commandments.

1. You shall have no other gods before Me.

2. You shall not make for yourself a carved image.

3. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.

4. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.

5. Honor your father and your mother.

6. You shall not murder.

7. You shall not commit adultery.

8. You shall not steal.

9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

10. You shall not covet.

How many centuries have humanity been living and completely ignoring every single one of these commandments. In fact, it may be argued that adhering to every one of these rules would make for a very long, boring and colorless existence. I mean, even the Good Book says there is war and restlessness in Heaven. Mere mortals do not stand a chance at perfection.

Which brings us to:

The Opposing Commandment of The Bad Book. Or The Devil's version, you may say - It Has only one Commandment:

Thou shall Sin.

......

🎬 The Opposing Book is an interesting contrast - makings a mystery thriller of the forbidden scripture. But will there be a perilous cost to our knowing.

The quest and discovery.

When a haunted linguist discovers a cryptic map etched into the margins of an ancient psalter (a copy of the biblical psalms), she embarks on a perilous journey across continents and centuries to uncover the Opposing Biblical Book - a text said to have been exiled from scripture for revealing the Divine book’s shadow.

But maybe, some truths were buried for a reason.

Dr. Selah Vire, is a reclusive linguist and former seminary scholar. She had studied advanced, critical, research-oriented religious texts, theology and church history and had pored over the old biblical texts for a long time.

In her studies she had come across the idea that a second opposing edition of the existing Christian bible was locked away somewhere.

Searching for clues had become an obsession, causing her to be plagued by dreams of a burning library and a voice that speaks in reverse scripture.

Selah had an older brother who was an archaeologist, his love of the mystery of unearthing secrets had propelled her towards her choice of study. But he had died suddenly and mysteriously six months ago. Two weeks later, she had received a letter in the mail, in it, her brother warned her not to pursue her current search for the lost text. Included in the envelope was a strange looking old key, partially rusted and inscribed with an upside-down book.

Why had he died...and why did he not explain his meaning in his letter. Perhaps he had feared it getting in the wrong hands.

Distraught and restless - she decides to journey to an ancient monastery in the Carpathians. Here, within a dust laden room that time seemed to have forgotten, Selah deciphers a marginalia cipher in another 13th-century psalter. It speaks of The Opposing Book - a lost text said to contain the Divine’s contradiction, the mirror of Genesis, the gospel of the forsaken.

A secret society known as The Custodians of the Veil warns her to abandon the search. But Selah, driven by grief and a need for answers about her older brother’s mysterious death, refuses to listen, determined to unravel the truth.

- The Map.

The cipher leads her to three relics scattered across the world:

- A Black Bishop's last wish buried beneath the ruins of a sunken Ethiopian church - It implored extreme secrecy of the Book and directions to the urn containing the second key.

- A blackened feathered Urn sealed in a reliquary in a Vatican sub-basement - Here, the key is found with a map to the scroll.

- A scroll fragment hidden in a desert tomb guarded by a blind order of monks who speak only in confusing riddles.

Here, within the Order, she meets the enigmatic Father Miro, a defrocked priest with an eye that sees “the unseen”...and who directs her to the Seer Anahita.

Anahita, a dream cartographer, maps the unconscious and guides Selah through her visions. From her, she delved further into her dreams to understand the antagonist - The Archivist, a masked figure who hunts those who seek the Opposing Book, leaving behind death and the mark of scorched reversed scripture warning. An upside down bible burned on walls or nearby structure.

One such mark had been by her brother's body. Now she understood why she could not shake the feeling that someone had been following her.

The Secret Room

Selah finds herself deep beneath the ruins of a pagan-like cathedral - built atop a Non-theistic structure - here, one finds the non-theism belief in a range of both religious and non-religious attitudes, characterized by the absence of espoused belief in the existence of God or gods. They practice an apathy or silence towards the subject of gods and differs from atheism, or active disbelief in any gods.

Visitors were allowed to wander through the upper chambers - but were strictly prohibited to venture below. But Selah hid in an alcove until there was no one around. So far, the key from her brother's letter had not fitted into anything. Maybe here...she hoped, was the end of the journey.

She tried inserting the keys into a few of the old doors. her heart pounded at the varied sounds carrying in the acoustics of the great old building - she felt like angry ghosts were closing in on her.

Thankfully, finally, at the very end of the corridor, the key turned in the lock. The door creaked open painfully. Selah was sure she would be caught. But no avenging angels appeared - still, she felt watched.

Selah finds the Secret Room, the second key fitting perfectly.

She opened a chamber of mirrored walls and shifting inscriptions. The Opposing Book floats at its center, bound in glyphs and omens. She just had to reach out and retrieve it.

Still, why had it seemed so easy to just walk in and not have guards at every entrance.

She is confronted by paradoxical choices:

To read it is to unmake certainty. To leave it is to preserve the illusion of order.

Selah opens her satchel, retrieves her tools and reaches for the book, ready to pry it open and peruse its content.

As her hand touches it, the Book and the room dissolve into a dream-like kaleidoscope of possible realities. each with the same text inscribed within the Book.

THOU SHALT SIN!

The Revelation was startling. The Book is not merely a text - it is a living paradox, a sentient scripture that rewrites reality around those who read it. It was sealed away because it speaks not of commandments, but of questions. Not of salvation, but of sacred doubt.

What does this prove. Has humanity been wrongly vilified for sin all this time. Is sin an accepted norm by whomever created the world - and are humans at liberty to dwell unfettered and be fully invested in free will without repercussions.

Could the known unholy be holy after all? How could she release such a devasting truth, or untruth to an already suffering world.

The hairs on her neck prickled - something was wrong. Turning around, her eyes darted to the four walls of the room - Suddenly, as if emerging from black smoke, a dark figure became eerily spawned from the shadows. In every aspect it appeared to be dressed as an avenging ninja cloaked in something older and more sinister.

But behind this human apparition, a second figure was also seeping from the shadows, both of their faces were masked, black and ominous.

Will Selah walk back into the world, her eyes glowing with the mirrored light of enlightenment, her psyche whispering a new and questionable gospel, one not of answers, but more of of a revealed and sacred unraveling and unknowing.

Part II

🕯️ The Struggle Beneath

Selah stood in the center of the mirrored chamber, the Opposing Book cradled in her arms like a sleeping flame. Inscriptions meandered across the walls - words that rearranged themselves when she blinked, phrases that whispered in languages she hadn’t yet learned.

From the wall around her, the figures unfolded like smoke...Their black cloaks Cloaked, sleek and angular, like ninjas forged from obsidian and grief...garments bearing symbols older than scripture - sigils of exile, of divine contradiction.

The first one's mask was smooth, eyeless, mouthless. A void.

The other figure seeped from the shadows, taller, slower, cloaked in the same darkness. Two masked sentinels. Two shadows of judgment.

Selah stepped back, clutching the Book. The chamber pulsed.

The first figure lunged.

She dodged, barely escaping, the blade slicing air where her throat had been. Her satchel spilled - tools, mirror, feather, blade, scroll. She grabbed the blade and held it up. The ninja paused, its mask reflecting her face - then its own, flickering between human and something else.

The second figure moved now, circling. Selah spun, ducked, rolled. The Book flew from her grip, landing near the pedestal. She reached for it - but the first figure kicked it away.

Then the second figure spoke.

One word, in whispering breath. A voice she knew.

“Selah…”

She froze.

The mask tilted. The figure stepped forward, slowly removing the veil.

It was him.

Her brother Jon.

Alive. But how! She had seen his body buried...or had she? It had been a blur.

Eyes like hers, voice with urgency. “I came through the veil. I followed the inscriptions. I’ve been protecting the Book from the Archivist.”

The first figure hissed, mask rippling. It was not human. It was the Archivist - keeper of silence, hunter of paradox.

The world needs to know. It growled.

Selah and her brother fought together now - one click of a button on her blade turning it into a sword-like staff. Her brother, an expert swordsman, wielded his blade. The chamber cracked with light and shadow. In the final blow, her brother struck the Archivist’s mask, shattering it into smoke.

He had not killed it, he knew - but temporarily disabled it as it disappeared into vapor.

Silence returned. Brother and sister embraced, though she was a bit mad and happy at the same time.

Selah knelt, breath ragged, the Book in her hands once more. Her brother touched her shoulder.

“You were never meant to find it alone, I had friends who used a sleeping draught to simulate my death". Selah glared at him, but was still thankful for his presence.

As they hurried, he explained the reasons for the charade.

🎬 Epilogue of the Unread Gospel

The chamber pulsed with light, inscriptions still shifting like vapored breath on glass. Selah knelt beside the pedestal, her fingers trembling. She opened the first chapter and snapped a few pages, and a few others further back for proof, if only for herself. She then returned the Opposing Book to its cradle. The pages fluttered once - then stilled.

Jon stood behind her, his mask now discarded, face etched with years of silence. “I had to disappear,” he said softly. “I knew you would’ve followed the trail of the Book into the fire.”

Selah nodded, but didn’t answer. She raised her camera, took three photos - one of the cover of the Book, one of the mirrored walls, and one of Jon standing in the fractured light. Proof, they agreed as he snapped a few of her as well.

They didn’t speak as they left the chamber, Selah holding tight to the crook of Jon's arm . The secret pathway back through the cathedral was winding, the air thick with incense and dust.

Jon had kept the keys...he still had the Archivist to contend with, for he would return someday.

At the threshold, Selah paused.

“We could’ve read it through,” she whispered.

Jon shook his head. “Some truths aren’t meant to be known. Only glimpsed and guarded.”

She nodded. Together, they had locked the chamber behind them - returning it to its silence.

Outside, the sky was welcoming the twilight.

As they disappeared into the mist, the Book remained untouched, its mirrored pages closed. Somewhere deep within, a single line glowed:

To know the divine, one must first forget the name which opposes it.

To remember only brings chaos.