Die the Lie

I saw awfully little of him in the shadows. It appeared as if a ray of light had spliced him through the middle and engulfed half his body, leaving the rest in the unsullied darkness. His face showed the torment of the procedure, for his one eye stared at me with pain and anguish. “Step forward so I can see you,” I said. He took one step into the light, and it spat him out in his entirety. His red curls bended it into shiny fingernails, and now that I could see both his eyes, I saw millions of other emotions bubbling in his face. He was a very handsome man, and if I too were that light, I would ensconce him for as much and as long as possible.  Spitting was a misplaced verb.

“I know you’re going to kill me,” he said, “but before you do, I must tell you that I had nothing to do with your sister’s murder.” I smiled. “Of course you’d say that.” “I wouldn’t. I am an honest man. I have killed and sinned a hundred times but I do not wish to die for a crime I did not commit.” “Fine,” I said, “Die for the ones you did.” I took out my gun.

He looked at me. “I’m not going to lie and tell you I’m not scared of death because I am.  It’s not because I’m scared of the pain. It’s because that is that one thing in this world that eludes me. No one knows what comes after. In fact, knowledge is meaningless in matters of death, because death embezzles life of it.”

“Why are you telling me all this?” I asked.

“Because,” he said, “I need you to know that life encompasses death. Like light encompasses shadows. Life is that truth which readies us for the end, and death is that which rejoices in that consciousness life had by its mere ability to make us unaware. In a way, death is a lie, for it relies upon snatching the truth that life embossed into us. Just like darkness is only the absence of light.”

I gaped at him as he took a step back. “Don’t move further!” I said to half his body.

“I meant to explain to you that death and darkness are accomplices. You see half of me now, for half of me is already dead.”

Well, I’m sure as hell going to kill the other half,” I said.

I shot.

“You forget that darkness is a lie, my friend,” said a voice.

And a single hand strangled me to death.