Circeling

Luca Rosner

by Luca Rosner

Story

Hold my gaze and question my rights to live, but I won’t let you drown, never will.

Back then, I could’ve killed you with ease, as my kind did for as long as it can remember and to the edge of your extinction. But I want to let the world burn for you instead and with it everything that ever hated you. 

My kind, your kind… neither do I see much of a difference, nor an importance in doing so.

I wish I had learned that earlier.

And acted accordingly.

Do you think the environment will get back to health?

Generations might have destroyed it, but it’s strong. 

Nature is always accused of being brutal, acting in pure cruel power, while no one considers their own wasting behavior to be the main cause for nature’s reaction to that.

Do you still fear the water?

Fear? No. I despised it. It was a reminder of my own limits.

Perhaps what you despised was the mirror it held up to your soul, but you know what? So what if you lose a few feathers about it. If I ever learned something from you, then that they are worthless without you anyway.

I know nothing… Nothing and… nothing about worth.

What… is it? You seem to be in pain.

It’s just… I can’t hold my breath any longer. It’s really hard to… to concentrate.

After all this time, everything we went through together, I really thought you changed only for you to kill me nonetheless.

I can’t bare another minute. You’re the mirror of everything I did wrong when I still had the chance to make a difference, while I lose consciousness.

Another excuse that isn’t one. You lost it long ago.

I hunted to escape. But I am not a hunter.

I hate the actions, not the actors.

And now, as I drown, do I see that we are all prey of the same cruel fate? As I sink, do I feel the weight of my own mortality?

Mortality binds us all. In the end, we are not so different.

Perhaps it is time to accept that my beliefs were the true cage all along.

Belief can be a prison or a sanctuary. Perhaps now, I understand the true nature of freedom.

© Luca Rosner 2024-08-15

Genres
Novels & Stories
Moods
Challenging
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