Fate Shaken

I stare at the personification of death. It’s cold and horrible in the quiet night. The blood has stopped flowing from what once was a neck, but I can still see it in my mind’s clear sight. And I whisper to myself, you’re next.

Eyes avert as I stroll the streets. No friendly gazes meet. We know what’s coming before it does but there’s nothing we can possibly do. I saw my ending when I was five, the following days the townspeople did too. Once a future is set, it’s not long before everyone knows what’s coming. But there’s nothing to do, no running.

Comfort comes from all sides. It always does to the doomed. It eases the fear and the coldness inside but unheeded my destiny looms.

There are those who sneer as I pass, knowing just makes them laugh. But when they see their fate, they won’t be so quick to judge, and may even regret their hate. Knowing they’ll be sorry makes me sad that they can’t see past their own view. I would defend my dignity, but when you’ll die tomorrow, there’s nothing of it left to lose.

So I stroll away from the faces, leaving the prospect of a fight. If I don’t go to my death then I’ll be drawn to it by fate, and that’s more frightening than the empty night. Flight only accomplishes fright. If I stay I will cause pain and suffering, or I can go and make my vision come true. There’s no question as to what I should do.

My friends’ words comfort, the sneering words hate, and all of these words drive me closer to my fate. I will be strong like the comforting word say. And I won’t cause the sneering people more pain. Their words drive me along and I sing the fate song, hoping it won’t begin to rain.

Into the woods I stumble, up to the telltale cliff. I wait until midnight but still no one comes; I start to leave, confused and miffed. But as I take a step, the huntsman appears, seeing not that I stand on the edge. He aims at a deer with a bow made of wood, peering past a tangled hedge.

I know to move but comforting words hold me still, this is what I am born to do. The deer leaps, the hunter shoots, and my body the arrow passes through.

I gasp at the rough, cold wood. It settles by my heart, doesn’t kill me but I know it could. I shudder with a breath and fall from the edge of the rock. My body tumbles through the air as the sneering voices mock. But I’m doing this for them, I’m dying for their sake. To save them from pain, I knowingly came to the cliff over the lake.

I would scream for fear, yell for pain. But the comfort-words crowd into my mind, whispering my name. My last breath fades and a light my eyes see. Just as I saved the deer, these words now save me.