Psychopathy

3 - Serpent

Wake up.

I don't remember what happened after that, I think I might have just fallen asleep, but I feel so stuck in this shapeless darkness. I think I need to wake up, but my eyes refuse to budge. The darkness begins to take shape as two hands which cup my face, that's when I realized my consciousness was stirring with this touch. My eyes slowly open.

How did I get here?

The blaring light make my pupils constrict, the strain too great for my mind which was just shook awake, but as soon as I refocused my eyes... there she was, pulling my face where our eyes meet for the very first time. I tried to move my arms, but they were tied to keep me in place.

I wonder what kind of expression I was making?

She opened her mouth first, "Finally awake? Dearest?" She spoke in a lulling tone, as if none of this bothered her. "I..." I trailed off, my voice dry as if I was left in the desert for days without water. "I won't even try to justify myself," I told her with a straight face, yet her expression did little to change. However, she brought a chair in front of me, and took a seat, crossing her legs. "I know you think you did nothing wrong, then how about this, let me get to know you, then I'll pass my judgement," she asked as if this was a normal situation. She continued, "Well, you know everything about me, but I know nothing about you," she smiled, a different smile.

I hesitated for a moment. Just a moment. "Well... My name is Agnes, and I am a runaway I suppose, I ran away from home because of religion and just do odd jobs around the area," I told her, a little disgusted about my imperfect past. But she didn't say anything, she wanted me to continue and confess. "...I stalked you because I have never seen someone so perfect in my life, so detailed, so... human," I confessed with a slight blush, turning away from her.

Again, she cupped my face, but this time at eye level, her gaze so intense I have never seen such an intense gaze before, her deep onyx-eyes just barely shimmer in this center light within this blanket of darkness. "Perfect?" She laughs as she rolled her sleeves up, her arms showing deep gashes, scars that seemed to only just recover. I... could only assume that she did them herself.

"I did them myself, because I am the only who can lay hands on me," She replied. A part of me was relieved, I couldn't help it, it wasn't because I wanted her to be scarred, but I wanted to be the only person to paint on her. She was still pure.

She stands up, hopefully satisfied with my answer, and turns around pacing around the room. "You know, you intrigue me Agnes, when I first read your letter, I was slightly glad, that there was another outlier like me," she said with an unknown expression.

"You might be wondering what outlier? I should be normal, I should be. But I'm not. I'm a passive outsider, who simply wants to watch. Some kill people for that dopamine rush, to commit such a taboo against their own kind; I'm not like that you see, I get that rush from observing the true essence of humanity," she hummed. I was a little confused, but she was in her own world.

"You know, the true essence of humanity is quite disgusting, we use religion to separate ourselves from animals, yet we still act like them. We are plagued by religious morality that builds so much of our societal norms. And now with science disproving so much religion, will we return to our primate forms? This would prove that we have no moral forms, we simply use god to comprehend the incomprehensible," She spoke as if she were trying to tempt me into this spell, a trance of sorts. Then I was starting to get it, the message behind her words. The fatal flaw of society and humanity's destruction.

"Humans have free will, yet they sell it for so little, leaving it up in the hands of god. Then do we define god or does he define us? Then why do we feel the need to twist his word to fit ours? Is that human nature?" she sneered, she was now focused on me, her words, and even her actions. Her hands grabbed my shoulders from behind, and she softly whispered into my ear.

"Then what will become of society when, at last, God is found?"

I froze. This was an intimate question from one outsider to another. It's an inevitability. God cannot remain undefined, if civilization continues. Maybe that is why civilizations fall. To protect god. Or is that simply the folly of mankind?

She saw the gears in my head turning and let's out a small laugh, I could feel her expression changing, her breath heavy on my shoulder. 

She was right. We do use God to comprehend the incomprehensible. However, she will always be beyond my reach, like the syzygy of the moon and earth. She was not a canvas, but the mirror to mankind. To me.