The timeline

what was there

The man seemed well groomed. He also seemed like a well educated person knowing where to strike. And it was his particular characteristics that made Demark alert and wary about the person.

Demark looked towards the sky. The star strewn sky seemed beautiful. The patterns of the stars during the days Demark was born was used for ages. People would use and record the patterns in the scripture and give their opinion based on scripture.

At least the experts had something to refer to.

Books often gave a sense of security. Arguments could be solved on the basis of the facts written in the books.

Demark looked at the stranger. The stranger did not look dangerous. Demark was taught not to talk with strangers in the city. However this stranger had a different vibe. A feeling that you could trust the stranger.

Demark contemplated a little bit until he realised that he didn't have the time to contemplate. Alert and self aware Demark asked the bearded man. "Do you know a way back home."

The bearded man looked at him deeply and thoughtfully.

He replied "Don't you like it here? There is no pain. No hunger. Possibly a kind of paradise in comparison to where you came from."

Demark kinda agreed for a moment. But he imagined his family and his other social responsibilities. Therefore he said "It might be what all living beings persist for. But I would deeply appreciate you if you tell me a way to get back to my cousins house. Back to Lyson, sir."

The bearded man looked deeply into the boys eyes and speculated. And replied "There is a way. But certainly requires you to sacrifice the benefits that you get from here. But if you insist."

The bearded man did a flick with his hands. A portal came up. The man gestured Demark.

Demark soon after, took a deep breath and went on through the portal.

Light and fluttery, Demark landed flat on the street. The smell and odor made Demark instantly realise that he was near the cousins house.

He went inside the house and to his relief he found his aunt and uncle and brother alive. He greeted him and was very happy. Others thought his happiness was strange as they did not know what troubles Demark had gone through. So they asked him if there was any reason to celebrate.

Demark smiled back. "Nothing has changed. That itself is a reason to celebrate. By the way I am very hungry. Can we have bean soup?"

It was time to reach home. Demark missed his mother. Demark would continue to explore. He would continue to search for truth. The way things really are and the way things should be. But what ever he would do, he would do it at home first, since he believed he wanted to spend time with his own family. Service and a job would also be there. He truly believed that he would reap what you sow.

Demark would never get lost, in the village. Or it was what most people believed.

Sweet dreams and good memories are there. And they have their importance in different circumstances.

But there were some differences in the dream Demark was dreaming.

How can I see those dreams, dreams of Demark? Well inventions were made by the time in which we could see the memories of the dreams people were having. These would be stored in memory chips. Some people would have vague memories of these dreams and for some people these would be crystal clear.

Running and not knowing from what. Running as fast as a person can. Running as if chasing a goal that is supremely important or running as if being chased, to save one's own life. 

Nails everywhere, running forward would get Demark pierced. Running backwards would get him pierced. The urge to run or turn was stopped by the urge of not getting injured or even killed. Demark stopped and didn't move, paralysed by the nails that were stopping him.

What a dreadful dream! Pain and suffering for someone, who in his tribes eyes, hadn't ever done something wrong. Like a prisoner of war, punished in the process of doing his duty.

Darkness like in the depths of a volcano, like a never ending abyss. Now feeling it as if it was real. Birds finding the prey unable to move and preying on them. The eyes bloody and empty.

It would have been much less painful if he had found some meaning behind this. But the goal itself was something absurb and meaningless, without any logic associated with it.

What was worse was that he started to see the houses made up of wood in his villages start to burn.

He started to hear laughter. When he turned he realised he was in his home, he started to realise, there was the priest red eyed priest laughing crazy. If the priest could be so happy with what had happened to Demark currently, he couldn't imagine the potential of happiness of the priest when he, Demark, was completely permanently damaged. 

Happiness, what a powerful emotion. The ability to sacrifice what you want now to what you want eventually. For a normal person it might be to love and to be loved. It might be the worldly pleasures that a person receives. It might be in possessions and making a collection. It might be in achieving the difficult goals and desires.

But the priest happiness was of another kind. Something dark and sinister. Something a part of a human being has not expressed before.

Thoughts of horror. Scary thoughts. The priest, not only was powerful in summoning his hungry monstrosities but also was defended by the army as Lyson took the faith very seriously.

Demark, looking straight at the nails, felt what true horror is. He had felt a lesser extent, from time to time. The despair when you believe something is out of control and you can't do anything about it in a small scale.
Something lost in a small amount but without big consequences.

But horror,  though unreal as it might be, specially when you are believing the most important things are at stake, can truly be something that displaces the heart from the normal position in the body.