DE: A Tale of Dark Eden
D** EMENTIU ***M* ~ __est_ ~_ E** TERNITA ***E*
Dark Eden
Why... why... why...
Why?! Why... why...
WHY?! Why... why...
_Where am I? _ I woke up in this place, separated from the rest of the race. My memory is foggy, I feel groggy and heavy.
_What is this? _ To the world it bore no resemblance, I didn't even know whether I was alive. I tried to stand and found I can't. There's no air, but how am I breathing? Did this have some hidden meaning?
There's ash everywhere, wherever I look dunes of gray. What it meant I could never begin to say. All I know is I don't intend to stay. Flashing images haunt me and I don't understand - what I want to know is how I got to this surreal land.
Faces, I see thousands of featureless faces, screaming. I must be dreaming? Something's consuming them before my eyes. Here, everybody dies.
I found the energy to stand; started to wander and all the while I'd wonder. Where is this? _ No other trace of life, everything seemed like the charred phantom of some ancient strife. The sky was crimson, the clouds were obsidian, and when I saw the sun I confess I wanted to scream - _no sound came out.
The sun was a spiral of dark fire; something hell might inspire. It pulled everything from the ground and threw it around in an endless cyclone. I felt no pull; in fact I fear I felt nothing at all.
I heard a voice, it told me: you made this choice.
_ WHY?!_
My eyes shot wide, something stirring inside. The memories were coming back and could've given me a heart attack - _if I had a heartbeat; now I'm just a walking piece of meat. _ I could see a woman's face, she was crying and screaming something I couldn't hear - between us a wall of glass - and then there was a great blast!
Faces, I see thousands of featureless faces, screaming. I must be dreaming? The blast is burning through them - a hundred thousand consumed. Here, everybody dies.
I see a forest of trees, blackened trunks and branches reaching for the sky - it looked like they didn't want to die, offering an unspoken prayer for somebody to care; for some sunlight to cure them of their carbonized blight. There's nobody around and the wildlife is missing, the world is so empty and quiet. I'm alone, I want to moan and I wish I could cry - but every time I try I only end up dry. There's no noise in this place, and of life there isn't even the slightest trace.
The memories are still foggy, I'm trying to find why they involve me. I came to find a highway, half buried in the dunes of gray. It's beginning to snow, but it's not ice though. My eyes are burning, but for some reason I can't feel anything else. The voice has come back to my mind - this time it sounds like it's coming from behind: you made this choice.
Turning around, I see there's nobody abound. If I could, I'd frown. Here it seems I'm king, because I'm all who's left to wear a crown.
Another image flashes before my eyes - I can't believe it, they have to be lies! In the streets there are hundreds, rioting - I tried pounding on the glass wall but it refuses to fall. The voiceless girl is sobbing, I feel a yearning to hear and hold her. Words leave my mouth, rolling from my tongue but this loud ringing messed up my hearing. There's a box, I think I left it somewhere. The blast again - its flames found me and swallowed everything in sight.
That's me... right?
Faces, I see thousands of featureless faces, screaming. I must be dreaming? What words did I leave - what was she screaming; when fire consumed us and all those in the streets? Here, everybody dies.
That voice keeps beckoning me, it's calling me toward it. I feel rage boiling inside me - _why am I here? I want to be free! _ It urges me to break into a run and finds me bolting through the snowing ashes. Breathless and with a chest that was burning, I found the voice's owner. Something horrific, a fox made of silver fire and three darkest abyssal eyes.
I tried to scream at it, "Who are you?!" _ Somehow I think it knew what I wanted to say, even though my voice was gone. _What did I do wrong?
It just grins and flicks its head at me. Confused, I turn to see and end up dropping to my knees. Thousands of people - or maybe they once were; their bodies charred and boney as if burnt. Their faces are hidden, behind masks of reflective silver - leaving them featureless. What's the meaning of this?
They're pointing at me, and now I finally see as the last memory comes to me.
I'm bringing down this wall, even if the world has to fall, I found myself saying to the girl beyond the glass. I understand now - she's begging; beseeching me not to. What else am I going to do? There's a bomb that I built, one to challenge God and unite us - _I must! _ As the blast grows and clouds my sight, I can see my reflection on the glass and I see...
...I'm smiling.
This revelation leaves me shrieking, in shock I grab my head - but I'm watching my accusers instead. They've pulled off their masks, but rather than faces beneath their bodies crumble to ashes; pulled into the whirlwind above me. I've tried to raise my head and keep screaming, but now the fox is restraining me and whispering: you made this choice.
There's broken glass on the ground before me, it's absolutely eye-widening. A reflection again, but this time I can see. Shuddering, I've shifted my hands from the sides of my skull and reached for my face.
To remove the mask that I placed...
...but it's too late, I've burned it into my flesh with a wish so selfish.
Faces, I see thousands of faces. They're weeping and begging, screaming at me not to push the button. Here I am again, in the world I burned. The fox is showing me how I could've been free; a ghost of me putting my hand flat against the glass to match the girl's. With horror I watch how we kissed through the glass - causing it to shatter.