Three Questions/Why Are You? (Bargains with Death)
This is entirely original fiction... It started out as a child bargaining with Death, but it changed into... something else. READ IT. I won't tell you what it's about, because even THAT is a spoiler. Just read.
"Why are you?" The child asked.
The dark figure blinked.
"Why? Why indeed," he pondered. The silence grew into a cacophony just beyond the edge of hearing. The child waited, the silence so loud it hurt. Finally, the figure met the child’s eyes.
"I cannot answer that now. Another question."
The child pouted, wide-eyed innocence like a candle in the darkness. The figure merely waited.
"Why does it hurt here?" The child placed a hand on the figure’s chest. The figure closed his eyes and came to sit beside the child. The child met his gaze again.
"Do you have a name?"
The figure thought for a moment.
"I have been called a lot of things."
The child looked at the ground.
"Oh. Okay."
They let the silence breathe for a moment.
"Let me tell you a story," the figure whispered, "about a boy named Armando."
"’Kay." The child shifted to a more comfortable position. The figure paused for a moment as the silence leaned in to listen. Then, he began to speak.
"It was longer ago than I care to remember… When Armando’s story began. He lived as all children do- in pure existence. It was on no particular day that he woke up wanting."
"What did he want?" the child asked.
"Freedom. And knowledge. He wanted to see what else lay beyond his life. He wanted to see what the stars saw. He had dreamed the night before of things he had never seen, and he wanted to know their meaning. So he left his home. He, and his two friends. They lived in a place that those few who remember it now call the City of Origin, or the City of Dawning. But it, too had a name. A name that most nobody remembers."
"Do you know the name?" The child asked.
"Yes. But I will not speak it. For the place that owned that name no longer exists. Nor does what it came to be called. All that exists now is the Nothing. It is the place called ‘End of the World.’"
The child blinked in confusion. "That is not a place."
The figure nodded in agreement. "True. But that is neither here nor there. Armando left. He never looked back. His friends were loyal; they stood by his side as he searched for the place of knowing. But when he found his answers, he found something else."
"What did he find?" The child questioned.
"Darkness," came the simple reply. "Darkness had been let loose. Armando decided that he was going to do something about it. He wanted to fight… so the Light made him it’s champion. He, and his two friends, a boy named Bastion and a girl named Kotir. They set out to seal the Darkness.
"They knew that they would most likely not be permitted to return home once the Darkness was locked away. They suffered many tears of sorrow and joy over the journey. They fought and laughed and cried and bled and grew closer with every moment. Armando was the champion, though, so the task ultimately fell to him to seal the Darkness. And when that moment came, so did the knowledge he sought.
"However, to seal the Darkness, he must seal himself inside with it. He hesitated, and in that moment of indecision, the Darkness took him and his friends. They fell because of his indecision. They still closed the door, but they found themselves locked outside it. So they faded into Twilight."
The child nodded. "That’s why you hurt. Because they made you stay here. Because you couldn’t find the Light, right?"
Armando nodded. "Yes. And that is the answer to all three questions."
The child stood up, taking Armando’s trembling hand in two smaller, steady ones.
"Come on, then! They’re waiting."
And for the first time since the Darkness came, Armando smiled.
Soooooo... comments? Surprised? Intrigued? I'll post a picture of Armando later.