I awoke with a start.
"Greetings." A voice called out.
"Who are you?" I asked.
"Who are we all?" The voice replied. "Does it matter who I am?"
"Yes. For I fear the unknown, and so I shall fear you."
"I am what you call the Darkness." The voice replied. "That which you do not know. That which you do not understand."
"I do not understand." I spoke.
"Then it seems you know of me. Do you still fear me?" The Darkness asked.
"I fear you."
"Why?"
I paused for thought. "Because I cannot see you. I do not understand you."
"But you know me." The Darkness replied.
"It is difficult to explain. Perhaps because I cannot see you." I admitted.
The Darkness replied, "But I am the Darkness. I am the Unseen. I am the Unknown. Do you fear the tree for being the tree?"
"I do not. I fear what lies within you. I fear what lies in the deep forest."
The Darkness pondered. "So you do not fear the Dark for being the Dark?"
"I do not."
"Shall I show you what lies within?"
Trembling, I answered. "Yes. I wish to understand you. But how can you show me?"
"I cannot. I can only hide things. Things which your kind willingly allow to be hidden."
"Then how can I see?"
"By opening your Eyes."
"My eyes are already open."
"A hypocrisy often spoken by your kind. Your kind who will still look away when they see the Truth."
Suddenly, a tremor spread through the realm, knocking me down to the ground. And looking straight up into the empty eye hole of a skull.
"Ah!" I yelled, crawling away. "What is this?"
"This? It is the Truth." The Darkness explained. "Death has always been with you ever since the birth of Life. Why do you still fear It?"
"I fear the unknown. I do not know what Death holds for me."
"But has not your kind already answered many times what Death holds?"
"Yes. Many times." I admitted.
"Peer into the skull." The Darkness urged. So I did.
Within the skull I saw another skull. And another, and another; like an empty abyss stretching into infinity.
"What does this mean?" I asked the Darkness.
"It is the Legacy of your kind. Many Truths breed Disagreement, thus conflict arises within all of you. And so, Death follows suit."
"I do not understand. I do not wish to see." I began to look away, but I was met with a grotesquely deformes skull, staring, as if it was expecting me. The cranium abhorrently large and its various features were disembodied unnaturally.
"The Ignorant and The Willingly Blind suffer the most." The Darkness said. "For they accept their own Truth as the Truth - never undertaking the quest to know if their Truth is a Lie."
"Such a cruel fate." I mutterred, caressing the cracked bone of the skull; offering whatever comfort I could.
"You are different from most of your kind. You do not look away from the Truth." The Darkness spoke.
