The Twenty Virtues Book 1- The Twenty Generals

9- The Time of Being Useful Arrives.

Empty. On the outside and inside. Emptiness arises when nothing remains; it's the state when everything is gone. A shell thrown into the void, there is nothing outside, and inside, there used to be something. And it's sad. How does the shell feel? It once belonged to a tree and protected something within itself, but now it has been torn from its branch and its body shattered until its reason for existing was stripped away.

Such was Pedro, long before the universe ended, long before his group cast him out... again. How many times had it been? How many people had he seen die? How many had abandoned him? The story repeated itself over and over, and a tape that is rewound too many times eventually breaks.

Pedro had no value; he was the same as nothing after that girl. How many times had he thought about disappearing? About surrendering to the emptiness that consumed him from within? Now would be the perfect time for that, after all, he was in the middle of nothing, alone as always, with the void. On the outside and inside.

The lonely and isolated man wanted to turn 1 into 0 and end that darkness. He moved as far away from everyone as he could, literally, the further away he was from them, the better. However:

"How are you?" Helena came from nowhere, in both senses, and simply sat beside him calmly.

"Helena..." His eyes widened, he no longer understood anything. She had already cast him out; what was she doing here now? "... I swear I don't want to be a burden to you, I'm truly sorry from the bottom of my—"

The girl placed her hand over his mouth, making him silent. He then noticed that she had tears in her eyes as well.

"You talk too much, I know it wasn't your fault..." Sitting there, the warrior told the priest how the angel had used her, red and green sitting amidst the darkness. Two broken hearts struggling to beat without their pieces falling apart. The woman whose heart burned with anger and the man whose heart burned with loneliness.

"So... that's what happened?"

"Do you think you know someone until you no longer do. It's painful, you know? ALL I WANT IS TO STRANGLE THAT IDIOT!" She expressed anger, but her heart hid sadness... perhaps these feelings are not so different; we get irritated by situations we find unhappy, and anger ends up being just a defense mechanism for what we refuse to accept as real.

"I know. And the closer you think you are, the more life force you lose when reality hits. I wish I could say you get used to it or that you become stronger... but that's not true. Every time it happens, you become weaker. You lose a bit of your faith in humanity, your faith in yourself... everything loses a bit of its value."

"What's your story?" The woman asked curiously. Just as he felt the emotions emanating from her, she perceived the perseverance he had. In the midst of such a sad and fallen discourse, Helena couldn't help but notice that Pedro still seemed to have more emotional strength than he believed.

"I don't want to talk about it. It won't change anything."

"Well, it's up to you... I just wanted to know why you wander alone. You're a funny guy sometimes."

"You think?"

"That's what I said, wasn't it?"

"...." The priest continued to stare into the void. An enormous silence began between them; did it say everything? But there was so much to say, maybe it was better to start with the basics. "I was cursed."

"Hum?"

"Long before the world fell apart, someone put a curse on me. I don't know who, how, or why. I just know that it's attached to my body and my curse never leaves me in peace."