Meet Insanity

A boy sat in the darkness; on the banks of little brook which ran in the woods just outside the crooked house.

He looked at his clean hands.

He marvelled at his hands. 

To him, something have changed about them, after he had washed them in the fast flowing stream, after he had washed away the mud and blood. His hands looked firmer, as if the slight shiver and ineptness were separated from them.

The boy turned around and looked towards the crooked house, at the twinkle of lights, which were visible through the few trees. 

He looked up at the twinkle of the stars.

He closed his eyes and listened to the tinkle of the flowing water.

It never felt this peaceful here...

And the boy knew why the peace has descended like this, because the woman was dead. The burden has been lifted. She was the only one of his relations he knew of, but wasn’t devoured by any earthquakes, floods or fatal diseases. 

Oh, she did have a disease, one that was fatal, to everyone around her. 

She was enslaved by me.

The boy stood up from the brook, and walked back towards the crooked house, almost slipping on the wet fallen leaves. The drizzle before have left the night chilly and humid. The boy inhaled in the piercing air, which smelled of rotten leaves and fungus. The drizzle resumed.

The boy stomped on.

The burden has been lifted. 

The fact that he himself has lifted the burden still didn’t sink to the boy’s mind. It’s hard to believe that you have killed, that you have actually killed...; It’s hard to believe that you have killed when you are as young as this numb teen striding towards a house in which he once lived. But it was essential, she couldn’t have been left free, and the boy couldn’t stay, not anymore, he didn’t want to be sacrificed for the safety of others, he didn’t want to meet me. He wanted to be happy and sane, because he never got to be happy or sane, he had been stuck all his life, inside a swirl of terror confusion and insanity.

But now, the insanity has ended.

Have I?

The boy was nearing the crooked house, the house that made him feel trapped in his head, trapped altogether. Because of the devil who used to live inside it, the devil who now lay dead in there.

She never had to be killed; it was not her fault that she was dangerous, and unbearable, it was mine but what could I do? 

The boy had heard that she was nice and lovely, before going insane. 

The rain patted his brown hair down.

A tinge of reality slipped into his mind, what if she was nice?, the boy stopped, 

What did the absurd twinkle, which was shown in her eyes at those far, short, rare moments really mean?

The boy felt something split inside his head, he felt everything split inside his head, he shook away the feeling and resumed hurrying; he had just left the crooked house behind when his face froze in dread, he could hear something from behind him. 

He could hear someone whimpering in that crooked little hut.

Oh, why did the boy think that insanity have left him, he is so wrong, this is not the night in which I leave him, this is the night in which I cloak him. 

He had looked naive, I had hoped that it’s just the situation that have drifted me near him. He was just a teenager; I hated enslaving the ones who were this young. But I don’t have a choice, I seldom have a choice! 

Oh, when will they learn that trying to avoid me just makes me more dreadful?

■■■

My bed screeched as I sat down on it. An hectic chill of the setting sun washed in through the window. My bare feet tried to find the fissures in the rough floor. I seized my brown hair, which was stabbing my eyes, and forced it back. The smell of staleness seemed to stalk me.

How quizzical it was that I was just another pathetic teenager hoping to find peace. 

I laughed scornfully.

Orib wanted to face me.

Three years of loathing was enough. 

We both didn’t want to delay this day anymore, we have postponed it ever since I murdered his mother.

I clenched my fist. 

I want him gone!, I can’t tolerate Orib any longer! He maddens me!, I want him out of my way!

I gritted my jaw.

He is a barrier!, he is a burden!, Orib is the foe!

This duel will fix everything!; moreover, I will acquire sanity!

What’s more gratifying?...

■■■

How the boy has lived this far without getting caught, I have no idea. Usually when someone is so much under my power, they go wild, they go ravage and then the others notice. 

The boy is tiring to keep it all together, but it’s slipping from his hands now.

Does he think that the dispute can be corrected without giving in?

He is disgusting me, when will these people learn to meet me without fuzz, when will they understand me, when will they understand that I don’t want to be an enemy

or that Insanity despises enemies

■■■

Hasilt is a brazen coward, brazen, but still a coward. But he knows that I am a threat. He will come, and I will kill him!

I ripped the bark off the drenched tree I was leaning on and hauled it away.

Hasilt had agreed to come; does he think that he can overpower me? 

I trusted him, he wreaked it all, he changed everything.

I ripped more skin off the tree, my eyes burned.

And now he thinks that he can get rid of me too?

There is no point in reasoning more.

Hasilt is the one who made everything insane and now, I will correct it all, I will make it all sane.

The rain fell down. Water dripped through my brown hair and I wiped it all off. In a few seconds the staleness was eradicated from the air, a pleasant dread substituted it. I was drenched.

A crash of branches echoed through the dimness.

Hasilt? 

Yes..., the betrayer has arrived

■■■

I watched as the boy kneaded on the rough floor, clutching his head in his hands.

He was breathing his last few gasps, if I was the only one who knew about what was happening inside his head. 

The boy was shaking, frail. His eyes were bolting out. 

The duel was probably nearing the most perilous and perplexing part, the end.

I laughed, he never understood me, he just tried to neglect me. He tried to run away and then ran towards me. I am insanity; so, I can’t blame things for going insane near me.

The boy shuddered hard, breathing in rasps, and crashed down. His eyes were still wide open, his breaths were still wisps. The chances of him being found within a week?, slim. He would be dead by then. 

I sighed, I was pretty merciless with the boy, wasn’t I? But I work differently for everyone, how I see you depends on how you see me. And don’t think that you will never meet me in your journey. 

I looked over to the boy again, I took a step towards him and then turned away.

“Dear Hasilt Orib Pensteheth, you were a bit too insane, even for my liking...