Putting it here for an easier retrieval.
"Tell me a sad tale."
The memory of your voice flows through my mind as it generally does at this location.
"This is a new one," I begin as I stare down at the ground beneath my knees.
Grass has not grown in the area for more than a hundred years, and I have no knowledge of botany to guess if it even will sprout from the ground again. Not that it matters. I am the only one who visits this remote area.
"Sorry, old friend," I say as I look up at the weathered grave marker. "Minor distractions are a comfort from the woes of the world.
"You know full well that even though society progresses, people basically don't change. They always want more, sometimes using force to take it, and war is the ugliest aspect of that greed.
"Yes, the world is at war again. But I digress."
Pausing for a moment to gather my thoughts, I listen to your faint heartbeat emanating from below me. It consoles me somewhat that you chose to take a short break instead of outright extinguishing yourself as has always been my worst fear. And I do not scare easily. Except for when it comes to you.
At least sad stories bring you peace. Which is weird since the state of depression is your permanent default.
"I was haunting another nursing home when it happened. It's one of the remaining few, since everything is being destroyed by the natural disasters that are plaguing the planet with more frequency and ferocity.
“And the more the storms rage, so do the people. As though their anger alone is righteous enough to end the chaos about which they brought with their inattentiveness to the environment. Even now, as the reaper's timepiece ticks and tocks toward the final hour, they cannot accept responsibility.
“But I digress.”
The grave marker is unnecessary, because who would think to dig in this area? Touching it, a branch of some tree that is most likely long extinct, I imagine that it is your face I am caressing. Weird, considering your skin was never this rough.
As I wonder if I will ever touch you again, I continue, “So there I was, casually walking down an empty hallway. Absent of physical human representation, but not of their sounds. It would be a lie to say their wailing was not a welcome respite from the rest of the world's insanity.
“It took only a short time to figure out the tragic part was not the obvious hopelessness in the air. While the call lights guided me as though I was on an inverted catwalk, I felt like one of the Gothic spirits you so adored lifetimes ago. Gliding past darkened doorways, I imagined that I was a mere shadow cast on the retina of aging eyes.”
You could have put them out of their misery, further contributing to your own. But I am not as capable as you. My mercy is bestowed by continuation of life, a variation that has its usefulness for my kin. Yet it is something I never valued enough to implement.
“Speaking of life, there it was. Hovering over a dead body. At first I thought it was oblivious to the concept of death, which would have been a weird oversight for a geriatric care facility attendant. How many times had it changed a brief that had not been dirty for however long?
“You can see by the images of my thoughts why I'm referring to it as it.”
Androgynous, with a strong leaning toward being female from my perspective when I squint my eyes,
"Tell me a sad tale."
The memory of your voice flows through my mind as it generally does at this location.
"This is a new one," I begin as I stare down at the ground beneath my knees.
Grass has not grown in the area for more than a hundred years, and I have no knowledge of botany to guess if it even will sprout from the ground again. Not that it matters. I am the only one who visits this remote area.
"Sorry, old friend," I say as I look up at the weathered grave marker. "Minor distractions are a comfort from the woes of the world.
"You know full well that even though society progresses, people basically don't change. They always want more, sometimes using force to take it, and war is the ugliest aspect of that greed.
"Yes, the world is at war again. But I digress."
Pausing for a moment to gather my thoughts, I listen to your faint heartbeat emanating from below me. It consoles me somewhat that you chose to take a short break instead of outright extinguishing yourself as has always been my worst fear. And I do not scare easily. Except for when it comes to you.
At least sad stories bring you peace. Which is weird since the state of depression is your permanent default.
"I was haunting another nursing home when it happened. It's one of the remaining few, since everything is being destroyed by the natural disasters that are plaguing the planet with more frequency and ferocity.
“And the more the storms rage, so do the people. As though their anger alone is righteous enough to end the chaos about which they brought with their inattentiveness to the environment. Even now, as the reaper's timepiece ticks and tocks toward the final hour, they cannot accept responsibility.
“But I digress.”
The grave marker is unnecessary, because who would think to dig in this area? Touching it, a branch of some tree that is most likely long extinct, I imagine that it is your face I am caressing. Weird, considering your skin was never this rough.
As I wonder if I will ever touch you again, I continue, “So there I was, casually walking down an empty hallway. Absent of physical human representation, but not of their sounds. It would be a lie to say their wailing was not a welcome respite from the rest of the world's insanity.
“It took only a short time to figure out the tragic part was not the obvious hopelessness in the air. While the call lights guided me as though I was on an inverted catwalk, I felt like one of the Gothic spirits you so adored lifetimes ago. Gliding past darkened doorways, I imagined that I was a mere shadow cast on the retina of aging eyes.”
You could have put them out of their misery, further contributing to your own. But I am not as capable as you. My mercy is bestowed by continuation of life, a variation that has its usefulness for my kin. Yet it is something I never valued enough to implement.
“Speaking of life, there it was. Hovering over a dead body. At first I thought it was oblivious to the concept of death, which would have been a weird oversight for a geriatric care facility attendant. How many times had it changed a brief that had not been dirty for however long?
“You can see by the images of my thoughts why I'm referring to it as it.”
Androgynous, with a strong leaning toward being female from my perspective when I squint my eyes,
"Never trust a fox. Looks like a dog, behaves like a cat."
~ Erin Hunter
~ Erin Hunter