The Antithesis of Paradise

The fire burned in his empty heart, and we, the voices, remind him how alone he really is. Trapped with nothing but his own mind to keep him company, and the fire to keep him warm.

The flames were scalding around Damien, but he didn’t feel the heat in the way that one would expect. The fire brought energy to him, he needed it.

As he arose from his slumber, he brushed the rocks from his pelt and began his journey through the Firey wasteland. The terrain was uneven and rocky, with some pathway through the flames.

The voices started to whisper to Damien, Where are you going? There’s no end. You just walk and walk. At least you aren’t burning.

“At least I’m not burning. I must find her. My memories are so scattered, but she will know,” Damien said to himself as he walked along the only pathway between the flames. He sometimes reached his hand out into the fire, to remind himself of the reason he was on this journey.

The voices whispered again, each one sounding different than the last. Find who? Who are you looking for? He’s looking for her again. The witch? Yes, the witch. The one who wants to keep us trapped.

As Damien reached the top of a downward grade, he saw lava rivers, with fire spread like a forest around them. The sound of the crackling flames was the only noise he could hear but behind the cracks was a cold and empty stillness. There were no souls here, just the voices he carried with him. A desolate wasteland.

“Why am I alone in this wasteland? Was I born here?” Damien said to himself, “I remember her, and the white light behind her as I fell. Visions of a bright sky, the opposite of the blackened sky I see now. My path is only lit by the fire. Each step illuminated by the flickering shadows of the flames. Each footprint I leave behind covered by the soot of the eternal flames.”

The voices interrupted his thoughts. You must keep walking, Damien. The flames won’t let you rest.

“There will be a barren patch, eventually.”

As Damien continued walking through the flames, he felt a drop in the temperature.

“I must be getting closer.”

Finally, he reached a clearing in the flames and started jogging. As he continued into the darkness, the flames behind him got smaller and smaller.

As he continued to run, his coat became thicker, growing noticeably every couple hundred feet until he was covered in fur. The absence of the flames allowed him to regain his true shape.

“Finally, time for reprieve,” he said to himself as he looked toward the fire.

The flames looked like a flickering orange line, with an occasional flare-up into the sky, on an otherwise black horizon. Without the flames to keep him energized, he was finally allowed to rest. However, the flames would eventually grow to him in their never-ending expansion, waking him and leaving him to wander to the edge yet again.

Right as Damien closed his eyes, he saw her again. This time, instead of the blur of a womanly figure, he saw her blonde hair and fair skin with her blue eyes stared back at him.

A memory? Where is this place? He thought as he tried to speak to her, but it was clear his mouth was not moving in the same way that his thoughts were. He realized that he was watching himself outside of what he thought was his own body. An observer of this moment, no longer a participant.

As he continued watching, her facial expressions changed from happy greetings to serious conversation. In this other realm, as the observer, the voices in his mind were quiet.

Even still, his mind began to wander. He calmly gazed around, noting that everything in this realm was bright. There was a light blue ocean bleeding into white sand. There were chimeras of all types walking behind the conversation. Some of them were seemingly of one species whereas others were combinations, many not unlike the centaur or four-legged hawk.

“What do you mean, you’re leaving?” She said as her voice cut into his mind for the first time. Even as the observer, it startled him.

“I can’t take it anymore, under his thumb. He controls us with no regard for our freedom or desires. If you weren’t worthy, he casts you out into the abyss. The eternal darkness where your consciousness supposedly lies dormant. Not a true death, but a concept of it. Do you understand, Helena?” Damien said to her, voice more serious in tone than she was used to hearing.

“But this is paradise… why leave paradise?” Helena replied.

“Paradise to who? Can you honestly tell me that all of your desires are fulfilled?”

“But that’s not the point. What else is there?” Her voice trailed off.

“Then what is it? To wait until, in this eternity, we finally slip up? That our will bends just enough towards ourselves and away from him?” Damien replied, more angrily than before.

“I’m not going with you.”

“I didn’t expect you to. You were always too comfortable here. Too accepting of the fate that others were thrusting upon you.”

“Damien…”

The vision faded and Damien woke for a moment, seeing the fire growing slightly on the horizon. He had more time to sleep, but he never really knew how long.

Returning to dreamland, he saw a new vision. This time of a Reptile standing on two hind legs. It’s eyes, yellow with black slits, followed his every movement.

“You have to let us have our own will! We need to have the choice to save souls too, even if you’re the only one that can expel them!” Damien yelled at the creature.

The Reptile replied with a hissing sound behind his voice, “Damien, you do have your own will. But we must keep the sanctity of this realm intact and therefore, you and all others must abide by the parameters set forth in my kingdom.”

He opened his eyes to see himself surrounded by fire once again.

Then, the voices returned. The souls. How could you leave them? You were supposed to bring them with you. They’ve been sitting in the abyss, waiting for you. They are waiting for a savior, Damien.

Startled by his own mind, he realized that this time the voices were right.

“Who are you? How do you know?” He said to the voices in a slight agony.

Stop questioning us. Give in and accept our presence within you. Run now, find the abyss.

“You’re always telling me to move. What if I choose to stay here? What if I choose to deny my prior wishes? My memory does not serve me in the same way here, how do I know my desires will either? This might not bring anything to me.”

The voices repeated the following for days. Go to the edge of the fire. Look into the darkness. Follow your instincts. Find the abyss. Bring them here.

After much time trying to distract himself, he couldn’t take it anymore. The crackling of the flames couldn’t distract him from the torment, and there was nothing else for his ears to focus on.

Damien let out a yell reminiscent of humans, followed by a low growl to remind himself that he was not one. With a quick bracing of his back foot as he quickly moved into a sprinting position, he shot out like a bullet with anger in his eyes.

The voices were quiet, but he could still hear them. The phrase find the abyss repeating over and over, giving him direction. Any doubt in his mind was repressed by the repeating message.

Finally, he reached the end of the flames once more.

Follow your instincts. Find the souls. Save them from their tortured existence. Let them cure your loneliness.

His senses detected a spot in the darkness that felt different than the others. In a way that his eyes could not guide him, he trusted his mind.

Good, follow that instinct. Go deeper into the darkness. Find the edge of darkness, and the nothingness that they reside in.

He followed those senses to the precipice, and in one moment of serenity, Damien passed from the darkness of his world into nothingness. Only his consciousness existed outside of that plane.

All of a sudden, Damien could hear a cacophony of human-like sounds.

“Billions of the voices of those left behind by him. How am I supposed to speak to them?” He said to the voices in his head.

Speak with intent, and they will listen.

“Listen to me, voices of this realm,” Damien said firmly, his voice booming.

“Are you not tired of living without your body? Are you not tired of your meaningless existence, with nothing but your mind? I offer you a solution to this nothingness. Come with me to my realm. It is barren and empty, waiting for souls to fill it.

“I invite you to build a new world with me. Make a name for yourself like you had in the realms you came from. Together, we will live forever in the world of our choosing. You will not be controlled by him. You will control yourself,” Damien said into the nothingness, triumphant in his voice and proud in his mind.

The voices started to pour in, How can we trust him?

How can we go with him?

How do we know it will be any different than before?

How do we know that he’s not the one who sent us here?

“These are all fair questions, but I ask you this: What do you have to lose? Whether I am him or not, your mind will just return here once you are done in my realm, in our realm,” Damien replied.

Now, Damien thought to himself, How do I get back? Follow my instincts?

He shifted his mind away from the voices speaking in nothingness and tried to find his body.

There are too many voices, I can’t find it. Where are the voices to guide me now? Is this where it ends? Stuck in this other realm, leaving my body to die.

Then, it came to him. A pinhole in his consciousness. He reached in with his thoughts, focusing them on that spot and then prying it open so that all the souls could all fit through.

Damien entered alone his realm alone. But then, the souls started pouring into the darkness. He couldn’t see anything but the slit of fire on the horizon at first, but then it started to disappear slowly until it was completely obscured. More beings entered the realm and their voices became impossible to understand.

Then, just for a moment, it became silent.

In the next moment, the whispers of the new entrants began.

“Damien?”

“Damien.”

“Damien, what do we do?”

“Damien? Where do we go?”

“For those of you who can see the sliver of light, follow it until you reach the flames. Take the time to understand the heat. For those who do not tolerate it well, be our messengers and bring more souls here. We will find a solution to it, so that we can all live here as equal members of this realm. As you journey, I must rest a while, until the flames give me energy once again,” Damien replied.

As the thousands of beings reached the flames, many of them started to burn and scream in agony until the flesh that they had regained was nothing but bone, and then nothing but ashes.

“Take the ashes of the deceased and place it by the rivers and lakes of lava. Let it pile up and harden in the flames. We will use their burned flesh as a sacrifice for our dreams and build our empire.”