2. The Voice

"Close the Door," the Voice commanded. I knew that Voice, and I tried to obey out of fondest loyalty, but the world had disappeared, and I couldn't find the Door to shut the Future out.

The Voice mumbled on in the absent distraction that inevitably becomes all who seek solace in the empty void of Forever. "Why have you bothered me now?" the drooling Voice inquired uncaringly, though we had once been close.

Stammering in unformulated perceptions, I sought to seize an answer from the empty void of my mind, but the gelatinous fragments that pierced my soul's awareness crumbled in confusion.

"Fool!" the voice bellowed as it suddenly became Aware for the first time in its latent Existence. "You have let IT Inside and I am doomed to self-destructive awareness!" the Voice shrieked.

With eyes that see what is not, I saw IT follow me within, but then I knew it must, for IT is always by my side.

The Voice was outraged and horrified as IT thrashed open the Gates. We both expected the World to wrap around the darkness, cloaking the Voice's power with the mask of fear and trepidation that clings to all that is Real.

But it was not the World that flooded WithIn. IT had delivered a long-forgotten Promise. Another Door had been opened, refreshing the stale convalescent complacence that settles like dust on all that transpires. The Voice sighed in orgasmic exultation as it grew and languished in its newly re-discovered grandeur.

I myself was caught up in the Moment, but realizing the fortuitous state of my Predicament, decided to seize this opportunity of cognizant enlightenment to finally escape IT's reach. Knowing not which way to turn, I leaped into the Unknown, cascading forward through Time and Inward towards my Fate.

Shimmering lights flushed the darkened past down the circled drain of Time, bringing me past the Now and on to Then, while I gasped, drowning in my desire to be Free at last. But as the world re-materialized in relative certainty, I knew with complete resignation that IT was there as well. Although not visible, IT was out of sight, beyond my present, but within the Circle of my Fated existence.

I wiped the Unknown from the crusty corners of my mind's eye and, blinking in the harsh lights of Reality, tried to take stock of my lot so that I could face the New Day set before me. I stared at the soggy, broken bread crumbs that littered my Day's tattered tablecloth, and wishing my meal were more substantial, I whipped the cloth out from under the tarnished table settings, and sent them all crashing down upon my pride-filled hopes.

"Very clever," Maya muttered.

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EXIT