TRENCH

A Letter From Clancy

I am trapped,
stuck in a cycle I've never been able to Break.

I want to say I will escape,
but I don't know how high the walls are, or how deep undground they go.

I'll start with what I do know.

I am a citizen of an old city, well, they say it's old, but there's just no proof.

I am a citizen of Dema,
a circler, cement city in the lower portion of what is otherwise a wild and green continent, trench.

We are not allowed to go out there. Most haven't even seen it.
But I have.
I rembember.

At least, I think they are my memories.
Every night, wihtout fail, I dream, so vidivly I could call it real.

I dream of trench,
of the trees,
the mountains,
the rivers,
the rain,
the leaves,
the earth,
the birds,
and smell of cold air in my nostrils.

I want to belive it's real, I can't let go of the hope that it is.

I've tried to escape but they always stop me... well... HE does...
Nicolas Bourbaki, Leader of the nine bishops who govern this city.

Their authority comes from two things, a miraculous power, and a high-jacked religion.

One feeds the other, a cycle.
It's called violism, and all you really need to know is that it teaches that self destruction, is the only way to paradise.

It also conveniently allowes you to become an avaliable vessel for the bishops to use.

And that's where the miracle comes in.

We call it seizing,
the rules are that you can only "seize" or control, a dead body, and only for a short few houres.
And also, the bishops are the only ones that can do it.

I am a citizen, an attempted escapee, and I am an exception to the rule.

I hold the power of the Banditos.

Legends, stories of a group that live outside the walls.
They have the power to become an illusion, to Morph into somthing they are not.
The Banditos have the power to hide inside the body of a wolf.

In this state, they can control the wild creatures that inhabit their land, mysterious monsters that I only dream of in flashes.

I have never dreamt of the Banditos. Only read about them, In books that the bishops have long since burned.
But I know I hold a power that is similar to theirs.

I don't rembember anything from before the age of Fifteen,
when I was held inside the walls of the bishops Towers.

I was tortured for information.
Information I never gave them.
Information that I must have forced myself to forget, as some kind of defense mechanism.

I think i might have been a bandito, but I'm not sure.

At the age of Sixteen, I was allowed to become a citizen, I blended in to the crowds.

Here in Dema, we do not have names. Instead we have numbers.
My number is 11011000
It's tattooed on to my left forearm.

I don't know what these numbers mean,
but the only ones who have names are the Bishops.

When I was in the bishops towers they told me that if I ever morphed, or used any mysterious power while inside the walls of Dema,
I would be killed.

I can become an illusion,
I can Morph,
I can hide inside the body of a small, grey, fox.

I don't know if I can control animals, they don't have any here, nor do they have plants.

I don't know what the food we eat is made from, or where it comes from.

But I don't know a lot of things.

Only the bishops know of my illusion. I am not known in Dema at all,
I have no freinds or family,
and live alone.

That's how it's always been.

I am a citizen,
I am an exception,
I have a name.

I am Clancy.