Which will you choose?

3. Madness

World war 1 was probably the reason the world was the mess that it currently was, it had ended three years before Ikarus descended to the mortal realm but the after-effects still plagued them.

People found comfort in petting animals, that and the morphine made the body parts they lost to artillery shots feel pointless. Sheet covers blanketed the burned and disfigured human bodies that couldn't fit in the morgue and couldn't be buried due to a lack of personnel.

Still with the world in tatters people still gossiped, women, men. They gossiped about matters that involved the state of the country, the leaders of the country and sometimes even just people entering the country. Today's traveler being gossiped about was a wealthy man coming from Spain. "Maybe I could get married to him and-" "Trust me girl, he's not gonna marry you."

Ikarus was broken or at least he felt like he was, three years ago he had given punishments equivalent to the sins of the man but now. Even though still equivalent, he was enjoying their torment. He wasn't the devil and he knew the devil didn't exist that was a sham created by a certain group of people to try and lessen the amount of wrongs in the society.

A visitor would come today, he knew why the person was coming because he had come before however, he left the last time before a question was issued. Wilbur Ansel was a retired soldier that fought and survived world war 1, he had complained to multiple therapists about his inability to sleep and the itchy sensation he feels whenever he grabs something in his arm. Ikarus knew this information because he could hear it, his hearing was easily able to pick up chatter within the entire city.

However what Ikarus wanted last time the man visited wasn't what he wasn't what he wanted now, he wanted to know the man's thoughts and opinions on subjects. Ikarus felt like he was broken so he wanted to talk to someone that would feel the same as he did.

September 16th, 1921.

It seemed like a storm always started immediately a customer approached Ikarus, it was bright and sunny for hours but immediately Wilbur stepped out of his house. The flurry began.

Wilbur was thirty-eight and was on a strict diet of triazolam and morphine. He had PTSD that made him dream about the war and it was anyone's guess what he wanted from the choosing god.

Ikarus never sought a conversation, he believed conversations darken the mind. When hearing another person's opinion your thought becomes clouded, is he right? am I wrong? an influx of ideas that change your perspective on things and he was the last person in the world that needed to have his outlook altered.

However, he had a conversation once with a man named Philip Van Gogh. They spent six hours talking before the man ultimately made his wish and from that day onwards, he never saw him again.

"Human what is it you wish." Ikarus looked at the retired soldier, he had bruises all over his body and his hair was unkempt.

"The blessed ones... they say, you tell me my questions first." Wilbur spoke to the best of his ability, the morphine he took clouded his thoughts and he lacked his sense of feeling.

"Choose one, every time you blink for two hours you will see the events of the war. Your friends will die, the artillery shots will hit. Blood will spill, over and over and over. The second choice is almost the same, but instead of seeing glimpses. I'll put you in an illusion of the war, you'll forget it's an illusion but you'll retain the memory of the fact that you know the events have occurred before."

"....." Wilbur didn't say a word. He was in thought, or at least that's what it seemed like.

"Which will you pick mortal."