No ratings.
A cult of the mind |
There are rules, and then there are their rules. I just have to look in the mirror to remind myself whose I follow; to see that shine again, that faint glow of camaraderie. Sometimes I think I might win, and then today I realized there’s no such thing as freedom, only the pain of a barren destiny. I must overcome myself; Community over competition, unity over the cold breath of independence, the whole suffocating the singularly weak. I am between them now, alone, and my path is but a clearing in the woods I once followed as a child. I am grown, but yet still beholden to their desires, even now burdened with the strain of a debate I can no longer bear; one group within, and one without, both at war with my intentions. We all live and work here in the home of the many. I have a room I share with Constance, my sister citizen. She is suspicious and selfish, and has threatened my disclosure to the patriarch below. I fear something must be done tonight to bring her back into the fray. They demand her compliance. They whisper her penance. It had become a trial between us to see who would succumb to sleep tonight, but I was prepared; she drank her tea without a thought to the darkness that fell upon her. I rise now to her bedside with her sentence in hand. And then they are with me again, guiding my will, forging my fate. I hear them talking outside the door, encouraging me to fulfill the ritual, their voices empowering me; to overcome, to join them once again in rapture. And then the others are with me again. I hear them banging on the door, screaming my name, demanding, fearful. Afraid. But neither need doubt my commitment. I have found my family once again. We are home. |