Lies

The room is spinning and I can’t see straight. What is happening to me? The world no longer makes sense and everything I thought was right is a mistake.
Left is right
Up is down
Dark is good
Light is bad

Was it true? Was everything this man wanted me to believe a truth? Or was he just another in a long list of liars? But why would he sacrifice himself for a lie? Are those I believed to be good actually the ones in the wrong?

These questions run around in my head as I run. Where I am going I have no clue. But I need to leave. The one thing that I know is right is this place is no longer safe for me. So I keep running. From my village, from my family, from my past. Away from everything I knew to be true and right in the world.

The road gets thinner and windier. My feet start to cut and bleed and I curse my decision to abandon my shoes. But there’s no time to dwell. I need to get going. Under, over, through the meadow, over the brook and into the cave. Navigating the tunnels are easier now. I can feel my way through in the dark and manage to dodge the hundreds of stalagmites that line the floor.

A lie. My entire history is a lie. This is the mantra that keeps going through my head as I continue to run through the shadows. Whatever my clan believed, and what they lived by has been disproved and thrown into the sea. And I am awash with it.

Two more lefts and I’m back onto the open road. Deserts of grass pass in front of me as far as the eye can see. I should be safe now. At least for a while. Sitting under a solitary tree, I let myself rest for the first time in hours. I look up at the stars and feel like I’m seeing them anew with fresh eyes. The stars have been watching over me this whole time and I’ve been ignoring them like they were distant fireflies. They were not ignorant Gods but sentient spirits lining the sky, guiding us from beyond the veil. Ancestors trying to keep us on the straight and narrow but not having a loud enough voice. And so they weep.

My clan. They betrayed the stars. Turned their back and destroyed their trust. Dark rituals and false truths spread like wildfire and become the backbone of so many routines and common beliefs. They were written in history books. These callous celestials that did not care for mortals like us were cut down in favour of their own version of gods. But those they worshipped, that I had worshipped, were not gods. They were demons. Creatures born from darkness who thrived on chaos. And I had been set up as their next sacrifice. I would be dead if not for him.

The investigator. He had come to the town on rumours of demon worshippers. Weeks of research proved the rumours to be true but by then it was too late for him. Realising what was happening, he saved me from the ritual by the skin of my teeth. But then they took him instead. I could do nothing for him. All I could do to honour him was run. To survive would be my rebellion.
And as soon as the sun rises in the sky the next morning I stand and run into the horizon, to safety, to sanity. And maybe to answers. Why had my village become like this, what had turned them from the stars? What tragedy caused them to twist their faith in such a way? I want to know. And I will find out as soon as I outrun the darkness that was on my trail. And running is something I have become accustomed to.