Anywhere but Here

The Past

The Dark was his friend for as long as he could remember. The Cold was his bedfellow. He knew nothing of the world beyond his jail cell. He had grown up here, behind steel bars. Chains forged by nameless gods bound his hand and feet. Time was meaningless to him. His whole existence was just sleeping and waking.

"How long does God intend to keep that heretic in?"  

He lifted his head to look at the guard that had spat out those words. To them, he did NOT EXIST. The other guard's face twisted in annoyance and distaste.  

"Until he dies of course."  

"Why can't they just dispose of him like the heretic that he is?"  

Heretic. He'd heard that word repeatedly. A taboo child. An abhorrent child. A child whose very existence is an anathema to Heaven's perfection. He was a heretic. That was why he was locked up in Heaven's deepest dungeons, a place reserved especially for those who mar the pristine realm.  

"They can't." Guard number two said. "He's God's relative."  

"That woman was crazy- shacking up with a mortal man when she was a goddess. What happened to her anyway?"

The guard shrugged, "Transmigrated below as punishment for committing a taboo."  

The two guards moved away from his cell leaving him alone again. So Heaven was waiting for him to die. It didn't matter. Death was just another form of existence wasn't it? Only I'd have no awareness or consciousness at all. Yes. It was better than what I have now.  

Here, he only had this gnawing empty feeling. He didn't even know why.  

A door opened at the far end of the oppressive dungeon. A ray of light streamed into his dark cell. Sounds of distant laughter reached his ears. Laughter... such an alien sound to his deprived ears. He felt a strangely incomprehensible longing.  

What is this I am feeling? Why do I feel so hollow? Why am I feeling anything at all?  

The door closed. Blessed darkness returned. The desire to die became stronger.  

I should never have looked at the light.