Insanity Game

By: Starlight – x1

I am immortal, the spirit of Methuselah, dying only to be reborn again and again. My one aim and goal is mass genocide. I want everything to end. Why? The answer is simple; I want my own existence to end.

Some would call me crazy; some think I'm evil. Am I evil? I don't know. Is it evil to wish to rest from a life that offers you no hope? I have lived over and over, seeing those I cared about die. Little by little my heart died as well until I'd had enough. It was then I decided I would destroy it, this world already so intent on its own destruction. I would just speed the process up, help it along.

Am I crazy? Part of me, that little corner of myself that has resisted the crushing of my spirit, thinks so. To think of killing off the entire human populace, that is insanity. I don't care though. Insanity doesn't bother me. It's a cushion against reality. At least, it was until I met him. Rain Jewlett. The man everyone now calls Methuselah. He was so different from everyone else. So I wanted him to become like me.

Funny isn't it, after I'd distanced myself from humanity I became trapped once again, attached to someone. I made him like he is now because I couldn't stand to lose him like everyone else I'd know lifetimes before. He was dying when I met him. I knew it immediately. Death had become an intimate friend to me, flaunting itself before me. Taunting me with the fact it would embrace everyone but me. I saw its touch on Rain and I knew I wouldn't allow it to have him. I would cheat Death of one of its victims.

I saw Rain's future; it would be the same as mine. I would make it so. I wanted him to understand the despair that drove my actions, the years of pain that had crushed my reason. So, I killed everyone he cared about, everyone he loved. The children became angels, their small bodies twisted grotesquely in death, suffering plain on their small, stark features. Then I shot Freya as she stood next to him and watched as the joy in his face at seeing me changed to unbelief and shock. I relished the change.

Freya. She was beautiful and she loved me too. She felt the despair that hovered about me and she wanted to fix me, help me. Dear Freya.

I used her heart, placing it within Rain's chest. Then I waited for him to wake up. He looked so peaceful laying there. I could hear the twin heartbeats.

Once he woke the game would begin. I would crush him as I had been crushed. I would force him down the path I'd walked. He would know it intimately. Then in the ultimate irony he would destroy the world with the hands of kindness. Then I would be at peace.

When he finally woke up I saw the betrayal in his eyes. "Why?" His question tore across the silence. I smiled at him and informed him of my choice. I laid his path before him. If he wished to save the world he would have to stay alive forever, killing me each time I was reborn. But if he wished to die he would just have to destroy all life. Don't forget me, I said and shot myself.

Six hundred years passed in the blink of an eye for me. I woke in what was a place of security for most people, a mother's womb. The first thing I sensed was her fear, the woman who carried me was afraid of me. She knew something was wrong. I couldn't blame her. My rebirths had grown more and more unnatural the longer I lived.

I waited, patiently as the date of my birth drew closer. I knew he was still alive, I could feel him just as he could feel me. Finally it was time. I emerged from my mother's pain wracked body like a butterfly from a chrysalis. The first thing I saw was a blood soaked sky.

There was a fuss surrounding my birth of course. Newborns aren't supposed to be born in grade school bodies. No one was sure what to do with me. Sharem came. She knelt behind me and tried to coax me out from where I had concealed myself behind some curtains.

Sharem had already fallen into her own type of insanity so it was easy enough to manipulate her into believing I was her dead child, Ys, restored again to her. I easily slipped into the role of her son. I have been many people during my long life. A dead child was no challenge and it brought me face to face with him. Rain, my eternal friend. I looked him in the eye and was met with rage. The past six hundred years hadn't broken him. I hadn't broken him. He had found someone else to protect and love. A girl with a boyish figure and eyes as blue as the sky.

"I came to kill you, Yuca."

I looked at him. The game would continue and I would win. There could be no other outcome. I would allow no other outcome. He would understand me and become like me. I would no longer be alone. The world would be destroyed.

"You can't protect her, that girl." I said calmly. "All life is fragile. A breath of wind can disperse it.

He stood rock solid even as I ordered Sharem's children to fire their guns at him. When they stopped he shuddered slightly but still refused to move from in front of the door he was guarding. I mocked and taunted him, bringing out a transformed angel to fight him. It was unfair I know, but I was determined to win. The more pressure I brought to bear on him, the more likely he was to crumble under it and submit to the path I forced him towards.

Finally he was beaten, impaled through the chest, his heart pulsing in the angel's hand. The door he'd guarded so diligently suddenly broke apart and the girl rushed into the room. Her eyes zeroed in on Rain and she let out a scream. "Noooo! Rain!"

Rain reached out a hand feebly towards her and whispered something.

I'd seen enough. "Crush it." I ordered the angel. Its large hand closed around Rain's heart and clenched, blood spurting from between its claw-like fingers.

Rain went limp and the girl let out an anguished cry as she rushed forward to attack the angel. With one sweep the angel knocked her out cold

Confusion reigned all around. I ignored it as I made my way to where Rain lay sprawled on the ground. I touched his blood smeared face and smiled. Let the insanity game continue.