Epilogue
God is quiet. But make no mistake...he does not sleep.
He has a time and place for everything. Right now, it appears that some of us are meant to suffer here. By his hand or the creatures left here, I do not know. What I do know is that he did not leave us unprotected.
No one was here when I arrived. I have questioned many things in my years alone here. Was I chosen? Was it luck? No matter. Someone had to be first after the stones were created by his hands. As I searched the immaculate fortress and land of plenty, all hidden, there was only one conclusion I could draw. It was me. There was no evidence of humans here before.
I once had a traveling companion. He was not so lucky. The stones passed judgment, and he did not pass through.
I have been alone ever since.
The sun rose and set on so many days that I began to wonder if I had actually been the one the stones passed judgment on. Maybe this life was the hell left to endure. Maybe the weapons, poison, and twisted possessions hidden in his pockets were someone else's. He was nice enough to me in the months we traveled without another person in sight.
But things aren't destroyed by the stones...just the people. No one in their right fucking mind keeps those things left behind, hidden inside of his things.
My thoughts could only conclude that I was his protection. Nothing more. Our size difference relaxed my guard. I believed I had nothing to fear from him. But after discovering his possessions, I realized my error. The vilest among us hide under their innocent exterior. Their warm smiles. Lies now make up all that they are while they gleefully spin more webs in the dark recesses of their darker souls. And I want, no I need to believe he/it wasn't human, some byproduct of what this world produced. Wrong. A thing.
People can't do what this thing had done.
I may be all there is to compare him with, but I am nothing like this thing I once shared stories with around a campfire. That is my only evidence, slim as it is, that the stones chose correctly. It's all I have right now.
Then loneliness took me from the safety of the stones for months. It wasn't a choice I made lightly...my sanity was consulted first. But that was in jeopardy so I passed through the black stones, those too large to see over, until I was through again.
And I scanned the forest for life. One step led to another and I fought one dark creature after another, wondering if at times I even wanted to survive at all. That's when the dark thoughts entered. The ones that whispered that maybe I had been found unworthy. Maybe the stones weren't what I thought.
But that was until I returned and found her...through the stones.
