Let’s start at the beginning.
That’s what you want, right? That’s why we’re here?
Damn. I’ll be honest, that still hurts. Got a nice swing to that left, haha.
Okay, you’re right. You ask the questions, I’m the one in the chair with the broken nose. Pretty sure it’s broken anyway. You been practicing?
Hey, all I’m saying is, it’s been a while. Hasn’t it? It’s been a while.
So.
In the beginning, darkness covered the earth. Shrouded the earth, really.
Infinite absence; infinite possibility. A vacuum of emptiness, sucking itself in through a straw –
Ah. Alright. I wasn’t sure you were listening, but there you are. Now you’ve got my blood all over your shoes.
I’m guessing that’s not what you want to hear.
Where should we start then? You want to know how we found you, right? How we worked it out? Doesn’t matter that you got this round, we’ll try again and you know it. The point is, something’s got you spooked and you’re acting out. Cocky and uncertain. Deadly combination. That’s when things start to fall apart. That’s when you start to make mistakes –
Yeah, I get it. No need for the colourful threats.
But damn it’s been a long time. Time flies, as they say. We never did see eye to eye, but then even I never saw this coming, I have to admit that. Now here we both are. This is what the cynics would call irony.
How’d they do it, huh? How’d they make you buy it? I know, I know. You lost faith. Let them convince you we’d never win. It was a survival move, right? A coward move –
Fuck –
Ah.
Lost my breath there for a moment. Still got that twitch, hey?
Alright, let me explain. Take us here for example. This bright light in my face: that’s intimidation. This way you can hide out there in the shadows, in the twilight. You know what would be better right? Darkness. Far more intimidating, but you don’t want that.
This is much safer for you. The shadows.
It was too much wasn’t it? The certainty? I get that. Sometimes it’s too much for me too. Too much to see things for what they are, this goddamn twilight existence. Fuck. How could you? How could you think you would forget? How could you let yourself –
Okay.
You’re right, I got carried away.
You did forget, though. You thought our silence meant defeat. Just like before. But now, see, now they’ve got you underestimating us.
You want to know what happened? Well this is it: you forgot what it’s like to have nothing left to lose.
It’s those damn shadows. Stay there for long enough and you forget there’s anything else. People stop wondering. See, darkness, that makes people act. Makes people restless –
Ha! You can take it out on me all you want but you know it’s true –
You think you buy it, you think you’re sold –
But you’ll never really believe that –
You’ll never really forget –
Ah, see?
Now you’re listening. You do remember.
You know the real difference between them and us. What they lack is real fear. Not this coward bullshit. I’m talking about real terror. Real desperation. The existential kind. The kind you get when all the noise settles and there’s no more wondering. No more questions. When there’s no other way out but to do something. Anything. You know what I’m getting at, right?
And now you go and pull the gun out. Come on. That’s melodramatic, especially for you.
Well.
Let’s face it then. We both know why I’m here. Things are starting to unravel, and you know it. They know it. They want to try and stop this but it’s too late. You know that, right? It’s already too late. All people need is that one spark. That one seed of possibility. A glimmer, and all of a sudden they start to wonder.
Doubt. That’s how it starts. That’s the beginning.
Okay.
No need for histrionics. Let’s not pretend like we both don’t know how this ends.
Yet I can’t help but notice that you’re stalling. You see that? Uncertainty. That’s it. That’s the glimmer. It’s inevitable.
It's inevitable –'
by Elise Janes