I know everything that has happened is true. The words that have been spoken are true. I never could have imagined this. This is a dream within a dream within a nightmare, that I will never be able to escape because it is my reality.
No, it is fate.
The night is long, full of terror, and it seems that I must be what will expel them from this holy city. I must bring back the light. How? A man like me, shrouded in darkness, could never. I must find a way.
My thoughts are scrambled into mush. I see my wife, my child, my mother, my father, then I see those eyes. They bore into me until I'm able to see myself looking back.
I will never be saved. My hands press into my temples; the ache is unbearable. Needles driving into me, shot from a gun at point-blank range. I open my eyes to see the city street, the moonlight, and the bodies. I hear their lifeless wails; they echo between the silence.
"We must talk," The voice says, "Now."
Before I can respond to the monster, I'm transported in my mind to a room. A large room that seems to go on forever into the darkness. I stand amid a void. I no longer feel the pain in my temples or the racing beat of my heart. A wave of calm passes through me. I want to feel uneasy about it, but can't find the emotions to attach.
Lost to time and space, I stand among infinity, waiting for my turn at the cage.
Time doesn't seem to pass the same here. I cannot tell whether I've just arrived or been here for a year when I finally see the cage appear before me in the distance. I walk towards it, and with each step, I only seem to get further away. Something is keeping me from the cage, from the monster. I push hard and hard to no avail.
"Embrace it."
I stop, hearing the voice. Another wave of calm rolls over me. I close my eyes to the void and open them to the cage. Opening them to the eyes of a monster that I cannot see the shape of. They shine like two dwarf suns hung in the night sky, burning brightly from millions of miles away. Black slits mark them vertically down the middle, like a cat. I sense no malice in these eyes, see no fear or pain. I see only truth beyond the stars.
"I am ___________." He says.
I hear the name, but cannot make it out.
"Who?" I ask.
"____________." He replies.
Still, I hear the name but am unable to register it. Confusion marks my face like a mask.
"You cannot understand yet, but you will. Give it time and patience." He sighs. "You have many questions. Some of which I can answer, some of which you will not be able to understand. That is the nature of our relationship. The bond must form more strongly for the understanding to occur."
"Bond?" I ask.
"Think of it as trust. The deeper the bond, the more you will understand of me, the more of my power you will have. This takes time."
"Time? We don't have time. I have to find Evelyn and Lenora before they are nothing more than corpses."
"Time is nothing more than a concept. In this space, we have as much as we need. None will pass outside. You must build your trust in me as I must in you."
My frustration grows but quickly disappears, and I am brought back to the calm wave.
"I will take your pain. I only have one ask in return."
"Take my pain? You're nothing more than a monster that is leeching off my family."
I pause.
"You killed them! Didn't you!"
Another pause.
"My parents, you killed them!"
Tears fall from my face, washed away by the wave.
"I did not, yet, I played my role."
"Don't speak in metaphors!" I scream.
A sigh comes from the cage, and visions begin to appear before me. I see their deaths. Fighting. Pacts. Monsters. The wave rolls over me, and I feel the truth in what he said. I understand the metaphor. He did not cause their deaths but played a role in them. So strange, to see the world through these new eyes of mine.
"How will you help me?"
"Power."
"Will I die?"
"I cannot say."
"Will we find them?"
"I cannot say."
I look for a word but find nothing.
"Are you evil?" I ask.
"Evil is a concept for your kind, not mine. We are neither good nor evil. We exist to play our roles in the chaos."
I open my mouth to speak, but am cut off.
"You may not see it or even understand it, but chaos is in everything. Organized into the shapes of this reality. Pressed into the faith you have for gods and monsters. Forsight is a myth. That pope may claim to know, claim that a god has given him that power. But there is no power because chaos cannot be controlled, nor tamed, nor given. It's simply there, spiraling, waiting to unravel."
"I will fight with you," I say.