We Led the Cataclysm

A poem I wrote for a contest on the writer's cafe. Enjoy

After the battle, all that stood was you and I... We locked eyes, adrenaline still clearly visible in our visage... "Why do you stare at me so?..." In my mind, there was no answer... Only memories of servitude and war... We had lost our cause and become nothing more than hollow harbingers... I dropped my sword and shield, and began to remove my armor... "This is where it ends, my friend...", I said.

 "I knew that one day you would rise against me, brother...", he said as he began to remove his armor. I thought of all we had done, everything we had taken and destroyed. We were blind to our own sins, and he relished the battle. Every minute of it... "Is destruction all you know, dear brother?... Is there nothing else left besides pain and vengeance?..", I asked..

 He frowned at my words and shot back with rage in his tone, "What else is there besides an end, brother?... Love? Compassion for the very people that took everything from us? Have you forgotten your reason?!!...", he screamed... "You were my reason, brother. It was my own fear of you travelling alone that forced my hand... I harbor no hatred for these people. I killed only in your name...

 For a long while, I felt I had a sense of purpose, but when I saw the look of fulfillment on your face as you slaugthered the innocent; my heart turned colder than your own... Until this last battle, I had forgotten who I was. I will no longer kill in your name...", I said slowly... We remained silent for a time, then he finally spoke. "You know I cannot allow you to live if you stand against me, brother. This is foolish, how could you hope to defeat me when I gave you power?..", he said, with a smile that sickened me...

 "It is true that you tried to give me power brother, but with that power came envy and wrath. That was my defining moment. No matter what you subjected me to, I could not hold hatred in my heart. This is how I know that you will fall today... By my hand...", I said. For the first time since we had began our conquest, I saw true fear in his eyes. I knew then that he could not hope to defeat me...

 He turned and started to run, but the blood-stained ground rose up around him, holding his hands and feet. The land wanted retribution for the fallen. And I, in all my sanity, cast away the desire for peace among the living. I took his heart in my hand and asked, "Who were we, before the battle?..." I heard him struggle to speak as his heartbeat began to die out, "We were harbingers... We led the Cataclysm..."

Author's Note

Constructive criticism always welcomed.

Reviews

[Sami Khalil]

"Only memories of servitude and war... We had lost our cause and become nothing more than hollow harbingers... I dropped my sword and shield, and began to remove my armor..."

A powerful and intriguing poem on the value of war and the realizations after all of that. The war within is ever continuous and relevant to each of us. A wonderful write I might add...:).............

[LJW]

This would read better as a short story.

[Glen Yumang Manese]

"We were harbingers... We led the Cataclysm..."

seems the faith of this narrative ---
was foreshadowed from the beginning...
of what was to happen in the end...