| |
––––––––
They awake in confusion.
Cold of the damp wood, they are in darkness. They do not know where they are.
She awakes first. The room is unknown to her. Why is she here? How did she get here?
Who brought her here?
The stirring of another distracts her. A friend. She was talking to him before this, a faint memory.
“Tucker?” she asks. He grunts, the sound is familiar, she knows the sound, it’s the sound of a friend.
“Where...where are we?” he asks. She does not know. This was not where they were, a place of comfort, of warmth, the safety of their home.
This is cold, dark.
“I don’t know...I was home. We were...weren’t we talking online? Playing a game?”
She remembers. Her office, leaning back in a chair, the lights off, a candle was lit. It was supposed to be a scary game. Something with candles. A friend told her it would be scary.
She is terrified.
They stand, the feeling returning to legs. She looks around, the room is empty. Faint light shows wood floors and walls. It feels like a cabin in the wood. She sees a door, closed.
He also sees the door, he puts effort behind it. The door doesn’t budge. “Fuck, hang on, I think I can do something here.” He checks his pockets, looking for a tool. She sees the glimmer of metal, something to remove the rusted hinges.
A revelation. She can see. Light, where’s the light coming from?
She turns and sees the window, pale moonlight shines in.
“Tucker, wait.” She moves to the window. Afraid. Confused. Cold. Nauseous. The multitude of emotions running through her. She can’t be expressed in a single word.
The sight outside brings no comfort. Trees. A dense forest. A fog. Isolation. Unfamiliar.
Lost.
You are Lost.
She turns to the friend “What did you say?”
“I asked if the window is locked, I can’t get the hinges.” He moves to her side. He sees the woods and the moon. His face shows her worry.
He sees their world. Unknown woods, pale moonlight, isolated. Afraid.
“It’s not locked.” He reaches his hand to the simple latch. Escape. A way out. He slowly opens the window to their cage, she sees he is afraid of making noise.
The air is colder outside. It rushes in to greet them. They both shiver. They were dressed for the comfort of home, of safety. They are not prepared for this.
You are not prepared.
“What?” She asks her friend. Her voice is loud.
“Shh! We don’t know what’s out there” he scolds. He peers his head carefully outside their cage. “It’s not high up, we can get out.”
“Should we though?” She is hesitant.
“We have to, it’s the only way.” He is trying.
They leave the room, the only world they know in this place. They are on the path forward. The grass short, wet, it does not make noise when they land.
He leads forward, he is careful, unsure of what lies before them. She looks at the trees around them. No light, no path, an endless wood. She looks to the sky at the moon. The only light given to her. The trees also reach up to it for salvation.
One stands taller than the others. Distant, far deeper into the wood, barely breaking through the fringes of pine. She is confused by the sight, she thinks to step forward.
“Hey!” He grabs her arm. He had moved forward. Or had she moved back? He gestures to the front of the cage. “There’s a path ahead, this way.”
She looks back, she cannot find what she is looking for. She follows his lead.
They move forward, and yet are still so far away.
The cage is familiar to her. A cabin, a home, a place of retreat and comfort in a different time. It reminds her of before, of time with family, of escape from trials and trepidation.
Of betrayal. Of one left behind.
“There’s a truck!” He exclaims to her. Her mind is brought out of its cage. Excitement, a promise of escape. They move to the machine that sits in the clearing before the cabin. The mist parts, the truth revealed. A machine rusted, broken, intwined with the grass, trees, and other dead things around it.
A false promise.
“Fuck.” He exclaims. “Maybe we can find something in it at least, a map, where we are.” He begins to search. He is still trying.
“Ok,” She says, hesitant, unsure, “I’ll check in the back—”
They must be tested.
“Alice”
A voice echoes from their cage. The door opens.
“Alice. I’m here. I made it. Where are you?”
The voice of the one she loves. The one she left behind.
She can’t deny him again. She moves to the door.
He grabs her arm, she is pulled out of her focus. “Are you fucking crazy? No, let’s go!”
“But Tuck, Ethan’s in there. Didn’t you hear him?” She tries to move back to the door.
“I heard something, but I fucking doubt it’s him!”
Alice. I’m here. Where are you? Don’t leave me.
She feels guilt. She cannot turn back.
“Tuck, let’s just check? Please? We were locked in too.”
She pulls forward, she doesn’t wait for his answer. He doesn’t hold her back.
The door to the cabin opens, a glow comes from within. Fire, light, a comfort. She approaches the door and finds the lantern sitting on a table. It lights the inside of the cage, hollow, empty. Another door across from her, locked firmly by bolts and bar. Their cage. There is no other door, no trapped room. She does not see who she loved.
“Ethan? Are you in here?” She grabs the lantern, the comfort envelopes her. She puts false hope into the light as she looks into the empty cabin, silence her reply.
She frowns “Tuck I don’t see—”
He grabs her shoulder. She’s startled, the light flickers. She starts to protest when he points to the dark. She follows his direction.
Eyes in the dark. Fires reflected in shadow, burning into her.
The Repentant.
Why did you leave me Alice?
A hollow wind follows hollow words. The comforting light reveals the shade of what once was. The Repentant. It steps forward to them, claws to strip pain, long limbs to carry the burden, a hollow where love and suffering once lived.
And wings to rise above their sins.
The twisted form of who she once knew looks to her. The torchlight eyes burn into her. A hiss from a hungry mouth approaches.
You left me Alice.
The words ring from the hollow in its chest. She is frozen, the Repentant has found its meal.
His hand reaches forward and grabs the lantern from her hand. The Repentant draws closer, hunger burning.
She sees the lantern thrown at who she once loved. It cracks and flame covers the shadowed form, twisted screeches of agony fill the silence of the cabin.
“RUN!” He grabs her hand and pulls her from the fire, the comfort, the warmth, as the screaming continues. He drags her away from their cage, past the machine, deeper into the trees.
He is still trying.
––––––––
They flee deeper into the wood. The screams of the Repentant stay distant. The two are scared, they do not understand. Not yet.
The wood clears and reveals another cabin. They stop at the edge. Confusion. The cabin is the same, every detail exact from once before.
“I don’t...did we go in a circle?” she whispers, she’s afraid of who might be inside. The man set ablaze. The man she once loved.
“No, we ran in a straight line,” he responds. He tries to sound confident, but nothing makes sense to him. He does not believe there are rules here.
The Repentant screams in the distance behind them. They are reaffirmed, this is not the same cage.
She does not believe they have a choice, but cannot turn back. She moves forward into the clearing.
She leaves it behind again.
He follows behind, a glance towards whence he came, he sees only thick fog and trees. He knows it will not be hard to follow where they have gone. But he wants to move forward, to find more, to leave. To keep trying.
They approach the door. It opens without resistance. A cage, like the one left behind, but not empty. Furnishings, semblances of comfort are here. A bed with much wear, a place of rest. A pack near the door, prepared, reachable, a salvage for escape. A table with seats, a place to sit and think.
She is drawn to the table. A map is sprawled over it. The world lies before her, many cabins in pockets of dense wood. An unknown edge that encircles it all. Four paths marked that meet.
The center marked with an X, defiant, warning.
She finds a cage circled, the one they are in, she sees they have moved closer to the center. Frustration fills her, they have retreated within, they have not escaped.
“Fuck,” she profanes in anger. “FUCK. Where the fuck are we?!” She thrusts her fists on the world, staring at the X, demanding an answer that has not yet been earned.
“Shh! Not so loud!” He tries to warn, “He could be follow-”
“It.” She defies. “It could be following.” She turns her anger to him, this she cannot leave behind.
“Right. It. That thing could be following. Let’s....let’s try to figure out where we are”
He is still trying. She will not accept.
“I know where we are, Tucker. It’s circled right here.” She gestures to the world and their cage. “What I don’t know is what the fuck is going on!”
“I know, me too.” He approaches the table, he ignores her anger, her fear, and turns his view to the world. “But it looks like there are roads. Maybe we could take one to the edge, figure it out from there.”
He observes the world and the paths that run through it. He drawn to the center. The X. A moment of wonder, curiosity. His fingers linger near the answer.
“Well, we stay the fuck away from there, at least,” she states in her anger.
“Uh, right.” His fingers retreat, but the desire is still there, the answer could be there. “We might have to though, there might be—”
“That’s dumb, you see a big red X on a mystery map, you don’t run to it!” She continues to flee, to deny. “We don’t even know who made this, it could be a trap!”
The locked one knocks from within. They turn to the door, the same one that kept them in their cage. They are not alone.
She grabs his arm and pulls him to the exit. She wants to flee again.
He does not.
“Tucker. Come. On.” She pulls harder. He begins to move but stops. A thought, revelation. Drawn maps, comforts of home, a plan against the path of the world. This is not the way of those that fly.
“Wait.” He pulls out of her grip as she moves away from him, ready to abandon another. “This doesn’t look like something those things would make, what if it’s another person?” He takes a step towards the door, and she steps out of the cage.
She wants to run again. To abandon.
The Repentant screams in the hollow wood. She turns to look for him. The trees are endless, shrouded in fog. But the sky is clear, and the moon is bright. She looks to the sky for a sign, for direction. She sees things that dart out of focus, things that hang high above her world.
Those that fly.
He turns the handle to the door, and another is released from his cage.
––––––––
They are confused. The one released is older, frail, broken. He wears the face of someone they knew. Someone from before, a life outside the cage.
“Jake?” He asks the Frail. He moves past them, to the comforts, gathering what remained, the things of a world long gone, ready to run once again.
“Move move move moving forward life given not taken move forward always forward never out forward move forwa—”
“Jake” he asks again, trying. The Frail remains broken. He turns to her for validation, but she has already decided. She grabs the Frail and forces him to face her.
“JAKE.” She strikes him. The Frail eyes focus on them for the first time. “Alice...Tucker...” Recognition. The Frail remembers again.
He moves to her side to look upon the one he knew. “Jake, what...what happened?” He tries to get her to let go of the damaged one. She refuses, she has decided.
“How did we get here?” She yells at the Frail demandingly. “Did you do this?”
“What? Alice, how could he have done thi—”
“He’s here, the last thing we remember was playing a game with each other. He must know, he’s got a fucking map, so fucking tell us!” She batters the Frail once again. But his mind is shattered, the Frail does not feel, he has stopped trying long ago.
“Tell, not tell, nothing to tell, everything to tell. You are here because you are. I’m here because I am. Always have been. Years and years and years and—”
She throws the Frail in disgust. She turns her back to another friend, the door still open, the sky still wide.
He goes to the Frail and helps him up, his anger to her. “Jake,” he tries, “what do you mean years? It’s only been hours for us.”
The Frail stands and continues to gather his comforts, he looks to him with recognition. He looks to her with worry. He looks at both of them with fear. “Time, no time, all time, it’s all here. Moving forward, always forward, never out, life given not taken.”
The Frail steps to the map, a finger outstretched to the center. The X. “The Truth, within, always forward.” He looks to her; she has turned her anger to the Frail again. “Truth within, false, lies, sin, repent or fly, repent or fly, always stay.”
He looks to the Frail; he does not understand, but he is trying. She approaches with her anger again.
“So you DO know how to get out of here!” She grabs the hand of the Frail, forcing it to the world on the table. “Show us! Stop being useless and get us out of here!”
He tries to take her hand away from the Frail. “Alice, why would he stay—”
“NO.”
The Fear echoes to the wood, the sound carries to all who would hear. The cries of The Repentant echo. They understand refusal.
She looks to the door of the cage, anger replaced, her fear is echoed now. Fear of seeing her sin. He turns to the Frail, wanting to understand, not to fear.
“Jake, we can’t stay here, those things will find us soon,” he tries.
“No, can’t. They’re flying now, not safe when they fly. You can’t make me, life given not taken, you can’t. You want to leave? Then you go, this is not your cage, it’s mine, you can’t take mine.”
“Jake, we’re not trying to take your...cage” he appeals, or maybe he understands? “But I’m not gonna leave you behind, bud.”
“Fuck him, let’s go,” she rages again.
“What the fuck, no! Alice we’re not—”
The Frail retreats from them, he grabs a comfort. A tool to him, a weapon for them and the trees. It will not protect him.
“You leave, my cage, not yours, mine, you can’t, always out, forward forward forward—”
“See? He's gone full psycho, probably chop us up if we walk backward.” She grabs his hand and pulls to the door of the cage.
He refuses, releasing her control over him. “The fuck is wrong with you, he’s our friend and clearly needs help! If we were like him, he’d help us!”
“Bullshit.” She has turned her anger to him now. “He’s crazy, there’s nothing holding back what he wants, and what he wants is us to leave while holding a fucking axe.” She accuses the Frail who continues to fear. The Frail feels her disgust, and He sees for a moment that truth.
But he is still trying.
“Then that’s why we should still try, right? Otherwise we might as well kill him, cause that’s what those things will do once they find him.”
She doesn’t want to hear him. She knows there is truth, but cannot accept it yet. He is still trying, and he is moving forward. They may succeed. A test is given.
The roof of the cage crumbles, a catastrophe echoing throughout the world. The scream of the Repentant. The one from before, flesh charred, a scar from their revolt, their fear. The Repentant still wears the same face.
You abandoned me!
It pushes through the dead trees of the cage. The Repentant moves to the sinner, she retreats to a wall. He tries to intervene, to attack the assailant with wood. His strike is feeble, the Repentant’s is not, he is sent to the other wall of the cage, weak, dazed, hurt, he is unable to try.
You hurt me!
The Repentant turns to her, she continues to flee, to abandon, but the cage is strong, the doors are blocked. She cannot turn away. The face looms, it judges, it angers.
It hates. Eyes burn at her, she cannot meet them. She closes her eyes to the world, to the pain.
It will show her all the same.
A hand raises. A sharp edge. Flesh torn. The Repentant screams. Blood falls on her face.
The weapon is pulled out of the back of the Repentant. The Frail steps back, blood of a sinner on his hands. He has turned the attention of those who fly, sparing her.
“FLY!” The Frail raises his weapon. He has found his strength once again.
But the Repentant is prepared. Wings spread, the Frail screams in terror, they take to the sky, leaving them below in the cage.
She stares above, abandoned. He regains his sight, failed in his effort.
They are not ready to fly.
Not until they come to me.
––––––––
They flee again. They always run. Fight or flight, it matters not. The path always leads here.
They find themselves in a clearing. The trees, the path, it all looks familiar to him. He sees the patches of grass where foundation should be. A cabin that once was. Removed. No longer a cage, but an empty void. A promise lost.
They have entered a place of failure. A place of the past. An inevitability.
The life of the Repentant is still on her face. The one she loved. The stain of it carries with her. She does not acknowledge it, and he does not speak of it.
“I don’t like this, we should keep moving.” She pushes forward through the clearing. He follows, looking back once more. She does not, but they both wonder the same. Is this all that awaits them? Is there a point? Why?
They discover the inevitability, the truth, when they emerge onto the path. One of the four. A cut of short grass through the dense wood and fog.
“A road!” she exclaims. Hope. A dangerous thing. It always deludes. She seeks to find it far too late.
“We can leave! We just have to follow it! Come on!” She pulls at her companion. He does not heed her. He looks at the crossroads. The center. The defiant X.
The Monolith.
“I don’t think we can,” he replies. He does not seek hope. He may repent.
“Fuck that, fuck you, fuck this place, I’m going.” She turns, defiant, hopeful. She walks down the path, away from the Monolith.
She is halted. A body falls from the sky. Mangled, broken, bloodied, unrepentant. Their friend from the Cabin.
She stares at the corpse. A weight is felt, heavy, dragging. She drops her effigies of comfort. Their burden is not what encumbers. Hope has left. There is only the Monolith.
He turns to her as she walks to his side. He sees her defeat.
“Fuck,” she exclaims angrily. He feels it too. They stand together, unmoving, unsure.
The one that dropped it lands. The one that chased, the one that seeks them, the one that was with them from the beginning.
The one She knows very well. The one she abandoned. A shell, hollowed.
Repented.
It screams at them, lurching forward, hungry, claws stretched, wings spanned, heart empty. It will fill the void.
The Repentant pulls her upward, ready to show her the new world. But the man acts, he grabs the beast and stops the ascent. He continues to try. But what is it he tries for?
The beast screams, several others echo his confession, the wood carries the sound. She feels trapped, she cannot face him. But she can see the hollow. The void in the chest, the hole where something dear once lived.
She frees an arm and reaches into the spot once more, trying to steal from there once again. Her hand finds pain, heat, then light. Fire erupts in the void she steals from.
The Repentant echoes a familiar pain and releases her once again. The man and the woman fall to the earth as the beast soars higher, light and flame trailing behind. It is not repentant, it may no longer fly. They look to the sky as the beast erupts in fire. A fallen star, now ash amongst the pine.
She cradles the hand that stole. It is blood, scar, and ash. The pain will remain, and she will continue despite it.
He stands from his fall and goes to help her, but she refuses his hand. “Don’t fucking touch me.” Words spoken in anger, in hurt. He looks at the path before them. His doubt returns.
Silence stands between them. The cries of Repentant continue to wail. A cascading symphony of remorse and forgiveness.
He stares down the path. He sees the end. “Do we...” He starts, looking for confirmation, to be enabled. She shakes her head in anger. Hope is dangerous, it is the damn before madness and despair.
“The FUCK are we supposed to DO,” she yells down the path. They hesitate again, confused, hopeless, vulnerable.
It is time.
I call to them. I beckon them with their name, their title.
Sinner.
––––––––
I pull them to me, they cannot resist now. They will face their sins, or they will be lost.
They know this. They feel this. But they have yet to accept.
They enter my domain. There are no trees here. There are no cages. The fires burn on each road that lead here. Four roads that cross. Four fiery pits. The defiant X.
They burn brightly, what they burn is not known, how deep they burn is not known. But they know their heat. It envelopes all here, it envelopes them.
“What is it?” she asks. She stares upon me from afar. She wants to approach, but she still hesitates. They all do who enter here.
“This...is where we’re supposed to be.” He steps forward. He is still trying. He is still willing.
“The fuck is that supposed to mean? We’re not SUPPOSED to be here, we’re supposed to be home!”
A thought comes to her. An accusation.
“Did you have something to do with this?” She steps in front of him, she stops his path.
“What? No! How could I? I just meant...I just meant that the road leads here. Everything does here. So, like, this is where we should go.”
He falters, he pauses, but her hold on him is less now. He is sure of what he knows, but lacks conviction to resist. He needs to be tested.
She does not lack, but she does not accept her sin. She needs to be tested.
They will betray you.
“The fuck you say to me?” She lashes out at another friend.
“I didn’t... I just said that this seems like the right spot.”
“This is all a game to you, isn’t it? You’re just toying with me.” She judges, she deflects, she’s not accepting.
Give them to the fire.
She looks to him, she looks to the fire. The great pits that cleanse. Where the Unrepentant are delivered.
A thought. A desire. She wants to offer him. She wants to leave. She wants to abandon.
Again.
But he is trying.
Do you want redemption?
They both hear me. They both turn to me. They both acknowledge me.
“Yes,” he says.
“Yes,” she lies.
Life is given, not taken. One must give, or one must burn. Only one may fly.
She looks to me, she looks to him. “Give what? I’m not going to burn him!”
“What? Why would you burn me?” He steps away from her. His bond to her is tested.
“It wants me to burn you! But you brought us here! The fuck are you trying to do, Tucker?” She approaches him in anger. He sees her rage, her fear.
Life given, not taken, never abandoned.
“I didn’t abandon him!” she screams at him. Her anger forces him back. He approaches the fire, he feels the heat.
“I didn’t say you did!” he protests. He tries for her again, he continues backward. But his eyes move to me. Her rage still burns.
“You don’t have to! You always felt that way!” She pushes forward in anger. He feels the heat on all sides now. A choice will be made, whether he tries or not.
“I can fucking tell and I’m tired of being judged for my decision on my life! And what he did was his decision, not mine!” Her hate positively screams. They echo her screams, they echo her hate, hollow replies to a hollow sound. They fly and circle above, watching her.
Watching him.
He watches back. He feels the heat. He sees me. He knows.
Life given, not taken.
He is done trying.
He will.
He runs to me.
She is surprised, but she is not done. She gives chase. They both try for the defiant X.
And she is faster.
She uses her anger to defy him. She does not want to burn him. But she does not want him to succeed.
She blames him for guilt. She blames me for judgement. She wants to take from him. To spite him, to spite the one she abandoned.
To spite me.
She runs to him. He does not see her. His eyes are only on me.
She pushes him to the ground and leaves him behind. She has betrayed another.
She continues forward. Her anger drives her. She feels its power, its rage, its burning within. She wants to take from him, to take from me. To take her life back.
Life given, not taken.
She falters in her step. She looks at the friend left behind. To the abandoned. To the betrayal. To the despair in his eyes.
He is no longer trying for her.
And she has lost her chance at redemption.
Another Repentant, one of many who found redemption, many who found salvation, many who fly. This one comes, flesh is ripped and torn, her life is taken, the Repentant removes the source of ego and thought, leaving the rest of the flesh and life behind.
She does not fly, but she is raised to the sky. There is still life in her, she can still see, she can still feel. She sees the world below of unending trees and cages. She feels the wind and freedom of flight.
She sees her body below moving further away. She feels the life pouring from her neck, and the claws of the Repentant on her cheek.
The Repentant will feast on what remains. She will see this too. She will feel that too. What is left will fall to the ground. It will lie amongst the roots with the others who have failed. She will see the caged run. She will feel their fear. But they will not see her. They will not feel her.
She will be abandoned.
––––––––
He moves to the one he once tried for as what remains of her pours into the soil. He kneels in the life, he is surrounded by life and heat.
Do you offer this?
The Question is asked of the man once again. He kneels in the pool of life pouring from his friend. He is surrounded by it. The last of her warmth seeps into the cold ground.
“Offer what?” he responds feebly. He thinks he doesn’t understand. It is always the same. A feigned ignorance. A voluntary repression. They never want to admit the cost of salvation.
The Question is asked again.
Do you offer her?
The life is still on the ground, surrounding the man, it does not reach the stone.
“Will it end this?” he pleads again. Defiant until the end. Always defiant, always repeating. Acceptance is rare, even at the end. They always fight until the end.
The life continues to pool around him, so much from so little. It can be ended, it can be maimed and martyred, but it can never be taken. Life must always be given before they can fly.
And we know he wants to fly.
“Yes,” he says. The life has been offered, once trusted by him, now freely given at the end. The Door can now open.
And the Man can fly.
Then enter.
The door opens in stone, the void offered to the Man. He stands and walks through his friend’s life. He takes it with him.
The Man walks into the void, the door closing behind him forever. He steps through the dark, ascending on unseen stair. Liquid begins to fill and surround him. Life he cannot see, but willingly brought. It swallows him, it drowns him, it dissolves him piece by piece. His life, taken by hers.
His world goes dark.
––––––––
Moonlight shines after a time. He can see again. Wind rushes past his face, whistling through the hollow in his chest. He catches the air, he soars higher, his eyes look to the trees and their clearings. Many more cabins, many more cages, many roads.
Many Lives. Many Sinners.
All leading to the Monolith.
The Repentant will bring them to me.
He will help them fly.