The Life Of A Lone Traveler

Others

It was many steps later when he met the other. He had been terrified out of his mind when he had seen their shapes, for he now knew to trust his eyes in this place. As they neared one another he saw it was a man and a child, this man was obviously not the father of the child, but looked at it with love akin to that of one. As they neared each other the boy cried out, "Hey, HEY! Are you real!?" The man appeared not to have heard the boy for a time, but then he replied, "Boy, if you don't shut your damn trap I'll leave the kid here and throw you into the darkness of Oblivion."

"Is that what you call it?" The boy questioned

"What?"

"The dark place, Oblivion, I call it The Outside."

"Humph, good enough name as any. Now get away from us and walk, do your best to forget us if you can, and if you can't don't look for us."

"But.." As they walked away the boy noticed that their footsteps glowed a different color than his, and stored that information away for later use.

After a few steps the boy broke down sobbing. He had no warning it was coming, but at the same time he knew it must, for how could one not cry after all he had been through? The pure injustice of what had happened to one so young burned through his veins. The tears he cried burned like acid. His throat hitched, trying to force up the pain that had encompassed him. He almost wished for his father's beatings, anything would be preferable to the solitude of this place. He lost what he thought what was all of his innocence while he sobbed. He was wrong of course, there is always a little more innocence left to lose.