It Shall Be

Something I was playing with

He tried to care once upon a time.  He placed his misguided heart on an alter and offered it to the world around him.  A single stroke was all it took, a tongue shaped knife sliced through its thick meaty core.  The thumping stopped and its life blood spilled across a massive mosaic of what was left of his dreams. 

And with that single stroke, the sky darkened and lightning struck what was left of his hope.  A lonely tree in the center of a desert caught a blaze and shook with the thunder.  As this storm rolled in through this hollow eve’s sky, he bowed his head and started to cry.

The tears he bled were drowned by disdain, his sobs snuffed out by the distant roll of thunder.  The crowd of people, all who were familiar, danced in the storm and sneered at him with great scorn.  They paraded his weaknesses like they were strings attached to a marionette.  They pulled those strings and sought to bring him to his knees.

His severed heart still lying on the bloody alter started to beat.  A slow thump at first, almost barely noticeable, but then it began to race.  The tears on his face flowed more freely and the wicked smirk that the world had never seen swept across his face.

His sobs turned into screams of triumph and rose louder than the growing thunder.  His eyes flashed bright and emotionless in the blaze of his hope burning in the distance.  As the blood of his broken heart reached his toes he stared at the masses.

“And which of you comes to tear me down?  Who among you thinks you can stand against this coming dark that is left of my soul?” And not a person moved at the bellows of that question.  The laughter sharply exchanged for laments of loss as each person fell to their knees. 

The realization started to set in on their faces as they begged forgiveness for not understanding their actions.  Their tongues fell into his blood and their salivating mouths eagerly lapped up the bitter sweetness, each drop easing their fears.

He took a deep breath and exhaled a cloud of bitterness that encompassed them all.  Denial rose in his voice like a canon igniting.  “I can’t hear your lies, I’ve grown deaf to any truth you might have had and now I can’t even make out your voices.  What more do you all want from me?  Am I just a tool for you to fix your problems?  Have I not been what you needed me to be?  Is this why you all couldn’t be there for me?  Because tools are so easily replaced these days right?  Because the things you take care of serve you best while the things you neglect end up destroying you in the end.  This is what you have made me, a neglected tool that at its last use took a piece of you with it.  Is that what you really wanted?  I’m glad that I didn’t matter to you.  I am not who I was and who I am is the monster you created.  You have only yourselves to blame and the only weakness I had you all destroyed.  Thank you for that,” he shot at them. 

The sky grew bright with the fire that engulfed the tree that was his hopes.  The ashes started to float through the air, dancing in the storm that has yet to break through the dark sky.  Another peel of thunder rolled through the clouds and lightning started to dance around them.  The winds swirled around the group creating an invisible wall.

As the tree ceased to exist, the ashes were all sky bound.  They mingled in the wind surrounding the people gathered on their knees and in this cyclone showed them the truest thoughts that were his beliefs.

Images of love for them, of kindness and warmness rose out of the swirling ashes.  Hope that they might be okay through all of their dark times , happiness that he was with him.  And as the whirling display came to an end, three words surrounded them.  Love.  Belonging.  Family. 

When they saw the words, they looked puzzled.  He stepped towards them and said in a strangled whisper, “these three things are the feelings that I had towards you all.  These are the things that I had hoped for.  Look at the mosaic closely, it is all of you being happy.  ALL of you with no pain, no fear, no sorrow…and look what you have done.  All of my hope is gone, my dreams are broken, and this carcass that is condemning you housed a soul that wanted you and even that had to be destroyed.  I tried to care and this is the wage that it has paid me. “

And with that, he wept no more.  His face solidified with no emotion.  The rain had started to fall and washed away the blood and ashes.  The wind died down to a sweet lullaby.  The crowd of people started to stand up and took one step towards him.  He scoffed and walked away, whispering, “Now you reap what you have sown.  It shall be as though I never was.”  

Author's Note

Hit me, I could definitely use a nudge in the right direction please.