Free to Lie in Chains

“Where should I start?” he asked, laughing bitterly.

   “Benedict, why not start with the truth for once?” pleaded Rose. There was a long, agonized silence as Benedict stared sullenly outside at the pouring rain and flashes of lightning followed by fierce rumbles of thunder. Rose shuddered and huddled against him as the cold, biting wind drove icy sheets of rain into the rocky shelter they had fled to when the sudden squall had sprung upon them. 

“If only…” Benedict murmured. Then looking down at her shivering, vulnerable form pressed against his, he relented. “Very well,” he sighed. 

“I loved to play tricks. I was good at them too. I had my fun, made life interesting. My friends just laughed at my antics. I never took things very seriously but I was just a young kid, no one cared. My mom encouraged me to be honest but I preferred to follow my father’s example. After all, his example was all I had ever known anyway because he was never there. I just heard of what he did.” he paused briefly, bit his lip then continued. “One warm spring day, I was playing a game with one of my friends. We were just outside of the impoverished laundress’s house. A kind neighbor had recently installed new glass windows for her. I began taunting my friend, daring him to throw a nearby cinderblock at the glossy, new windows. He refused but I persisted. Finally, a surge of spite welled within me and my taunting became nasty. I mocked his living situations. I knew that he was ashamed of living with his grouchy old grandmother who was locally despised. Her filthy habits were like a black smudge on the reputation of the village. No one knew that he lived with her. They thought he lived with his parents in the country. Ashamed and desperate, he yelled at me and grasped the cinderblock threatening to hammer it into my skull. He flung it and I dogged. With a splintering crash, it shattered the window. My friend turned pale and whipped his head frantically from side to side, looking for an escape. 

   “GO!” I shouted. “I’ll take the blame! But you owe me for this.” Nodding his head shakily, he turned and fled. Rubbing my eyes ferociously until they began to water, I walked hurriedly to the front of the house and knocked. The laundress opened the door and peered out, uncertainly. With a choke in my voice, I sobbed out my confession.

“I was outside your window playing when a big boy came up and started taunting me. He made fun of my dad and called me evil names. Then he picked up a cinderblock and threw it at me. I dodged it and it hit your window instead.”

Clutching my hand, the old lady steered me to the side of the house. She shaded her eyes against the sun and looked up ahead. In the distance, the figure of my friend sprinting away could still be made out dimly. With a grim shake of her head, she let go of my hand and hugged me.

“Don’t fret little one,” she comforted. “All is forgiven.”

I waited until she left, and then I wiped away my forced tears, grinned impishly and ran into the woods, meditating possesively over what payment I would demand from my friend. Suddenly, a cold, muscled, and scaled creature twined around my ankle. I recoiled wildly. Screeching, I tore at my pant leg, only managing to lift it soon enough to watch with deathly terror as the serpent-like creature sank its fangs into my skin. Gasping and pale from pain, I stared mutely as the creature slithered off my leg only to morph into a more gruesome, goblin like form. 

“Lies.” it hissed. “You’ve chosen the lie. You are mine now.”

I stared, confused.

“I am the Liar.” he hissed. “I’ve given you a great gift, one that will grant you all the world has to offer. Not only will you be a compulsory liar, you will also have the sweet gift of compelling your victims to believe in your deceit. My friend,” the creature leered, “you will know the truth and it will be your bane.” Then my world went black.

When I woke, I knew the light better than ever before. I knew it in its entirety. Truth was everywhere. It’s brilliance trapped me. I hated it. For years now, I’ve attained everything I’ve always dreamed of. I have success. I’m rich. Hah! I could rule the world if I took the notion. The entire earth adores me. All cultures bow to me. I embody everything that you believe you desire. Oh, it was all earned through deceit, lies, perjury, you name it. But if I told you that I did it honestly, you and all the masses of helpless, hopeless people would believe me. Don’t you see? To be a master of lying, you must include as much of the truth as possible. I know so fully the thirst, the hunger, the loneliness, the aching of the heart. Haven’t I promised to fulfill those piercing desires with every false solution that I know exists? All the while fully knowing and hating the one and only thing that can fulfill that ache. Truth. I despise it. I know it fully and have chased it madly and it forever evades me. What I most desire is poison to my blood and forbidden to my soul. Hah! The Father of Lies has chosen me as his son and I know the Truth as he knows the Truth. I know the Truth so well that I know I’m defeated and defenseless. What is the point of living only to face the One Who has triumphed? But I continue grasping and talking and lying, lying, lying. I’m chained in lies. The venom in my blood has filled me with all but one thing. Truth is the one thing that has the power to heal me. It is the light that surrounds me and yet it is the one thing the darkness of my soul will never permit to enter.” 

Turning suddenly towards Rose, tears streaming down his face, Benedict groaned, “Won’t you leave me? Don’t you see? The goodness and truth that dwells within you has no place here.”

Rose looked back steadily at him, “The Truth will set you free.”

He laughed.

“Really?” he queried. “Do you believe that? After what you’ve heard?”

“Yes.” she answered bravely. “Do you trust me?”

“How can I?” Benedict grimaced. “When you don’t even know that everything I have told you is false? Remember, I am impelled to lie and you are forced to be convinced of my falsehood.” The darkness filled his eyes and he clutched his head, convulsing violently, 

“What is Truth?!”