Forgotten Crimes

Incomprehensible noise attacked me from all directions as I stared into the streets from within my corroded cage. Watching the same faces scream, shout or cheer my name. Their conflicted emotions lost meaning.

The bumpy cobblestone road shook my cage as armoured guards hauled it through the streets. Rain dripping through the holes in the metal ceiling, soaking my torn clothes. Onlooker's faces began to meld into one. Faces repeated throughout the crowds, becoming indistinguishable from one another. The constant parading of my own body through the city streets of Orillion began to occur weekly, becoming a celebrated event. People from each district began to gather, increasing in size with each passing week. Watching me suffer, witnessing my shameful punishment, until it became too much. A horde of hate-driven citizens in which those who pledged to protect, could not control. They detested me, at first. People were sickened by what I did, what I had become

Tortured, beaten and berated into submission by the guards. The same guards that were tasked to shield me from those I wronged. Sent out into the cruel world as punishment for a crime I committed, an example for those who will follow. They felt that it wasn't enough to do it just once. No; not just once, twice or three times. For an eternity. I deserved it, I truly did. My crimes could never be forgiven, not in my lifetime. Not by those who don't know me.

How long have I suffered? How many days and nights have those who hate what I am, mocked? How long until the pain becomes too much?

Who knows... But I will continue to fight until I'm grey and frayed. Yet, those who cheer for me would no longer remember what I was, just who I am. What I have turned into. And what I bring to them. Sorrowful joy.

The glorious castle of Orillion lies in the horizon, my destination for each journey. The behemoth building was out of marble, obsidian, gold and diamonds. Seated within the centre of Orillion. The heart of the corrupted city, clouded by drifting sandstorms. A Corruption that seeped out of its walls, spreading throughout the capital like a plague.

I despise the place. Nothing good ever leaves its gates. The people of the western empire are corrupted by its leaders. Accepting their words as the truth, regardless of reality. Those who see through the veil of truth are lost to the void of lies that hide beneath. Branded heretics and monsters. Monsters out to throw order into chaos.

Those like me. Those who have done wrong and done no wrong.

No longer can I wonder whether I what I did was right. Because nothing changed. I made no impact. Made no difference to the world I was once a part of. A world that I helped build. Something that I would no longer be honoured for.

For my crimes can never be repaid. But instead forgotten.