I slowly opened my eyes. The vast expanse of this cathedral greeted me. Elder — whose name I had yet to know, I just realized — stood near me. His expressions were of repressed curiosity and worry. The gears continued to shift, and my heart continued to beat. Time hadn’t stopped. Many memories were still forgotten. Where would we go from here? This thought roamed around my mind.

”Young man? Are you okay?” He spoke. How much time had passed, I did not know. I wondered how I could reply to his question. Talk about my dreams? The origin of my fears? Or about the me from those memories? Or should I just fake it? In the end, I chose to tell everything.

The elder listened on, slowly nodding, and sometimes expressing shock. He pondered over my words for a while. I stay put in my chair. I would rather enjoy the ambiance of this place than strain my poor legs. Some time passed. Water splashed as the elder paced back and forth. A habit of his, I presumed.

A few minutes more went by. He soon came to a halt and looked at me. Hesitant. I could see from his expression.

”Young man…” How many times has he called me by these words I wonder? I do have a name you know? Though, I wonder whether the name is truly mine.

”I—” sigh. “ I find it difficult to say this.” He stopped meeting my eyes. “Young man. You might be cursed.”

”…”

The silence was deafening.

The elder could not take it. “ What I mean is, you might be cursed by madness, or misfortune. Or both. That might be true too. The moments before you were tackled down are the deciding factor here.”

Deciding factor huh. “ Is that why you keep on saying might?” He nodded. “We still don’t know whether the “me” from that time..” He was startled from the way I addressed myself. I frankly could not care less right now. I continued.

”We still don’t know whether he had eaten before being tackled. Right?” I shot my question. These rules that we had, the 12 Commandments. They felt somewhat suffocating at this moment. Many questions related to them still remained unanswered. We could do this later. My memory issue came first.

”To generalize it, yes.” Generalize. Seems it’s going to be more complicated than I took it for.

”The 12 Commandments, they don’t work they way they seem to. Do you know how they came to be?” He started talking once again. I shook my head.

I can’t believe it. The question that I wanted answered, it’s right in front of me. Now how will it play out?

”These commandments, they are a generalization of the human tongue. Let’s take an example.

Never leave food remaining on your plate.

This statement. How much can we gain from it?” He asked, his hands slowly enunciating.

”We know that it is related to food. And, well plates. From the sentence alone, we can conclude that it talks about not leaving anything that was put on the plate.” I gave my observations. He nodded, and waited for me to continue.

”There are many many things that are left unfulfilled or unconcluded. Does not leaving food on the plate count as eating whatever is placed there? Is the commandment still followed if the food has been put on the plate, then removed and put into a separate container? Is this commandment a strict representation of the terms and objects involved, or is it a generalization? Do glasses and bowls count? If the Commandment is strict in its terms, then anything that is removed from the plate, in any manner, will be accounted for. As long as nothing is left on the plate itself. If it is strict with it’s terms, but also refers specifically to eating; then any other external influence that is used aside from eating to fulfill the term of not leaving anything on the plate invalidates the Commandment. Hence, “Misfortune” occurs.”

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The elder seemed a little surprised by my words; he probably assumed I did not think much of these commandments, except to follow it. Like everyone else. He composed himself a bit, then answered my questions.

”These many questions that you have, they all stem from different forms of interpretation do they not?” I nodded. I could see where this was going.

”The Commandments themselves are the same. They are an interpretation.”

”…”

”…”

sigh. “I wish you would show some reactions for that as well.” He chuckled. Well sorry for not reacting to something that I already deduced.

”The Commandments are an interpretation of events.”

Chills went down my spine.

I sucked in a deep breath. This— This, I did not expect.

I would understand if they were just a human interpretation of some cosmic entity’s ramblings, or an interpretation of some codex that the world followed. Events however? That was mortifying, to the say the least. It simply meant that this entire world of ours; it’s history. It was a trial and error to finalize the 12 Commandments. And so far, it still wasn’t perfect. All the words used, they were far too ambiguous.

My dad’s words came to mind.

”This is why we follow these words son. They are the basis of our existence.”

The basis of our existence. If the Commandments were nothing more than an interpretation of our history, then the actions that we followed, and the effects that came along. Everything that occurred to make the events itself, they were taken as the basis. Our nature, our nature was the basis for these words.

Just looking at the 9 sins was enough to give an idea. There is a reason why they are called “Sins” after all.

Even after all these questions, some stuff remains unexplained.

To take one instance. How does me not finishing my food correlate with getting a periodic Amnesia?

I put forth my findings, thoughts. and questions to the elder. He listened patiently. A minute or two went by, and after I was done, “There is reason why I said ‘might’.” He said. With somewhat of a mischievous grin on his face.

Might. I find myself not liking this word one bit. Everything is far too ambiguous. Nothing concrete. The basis of of our existence huh. If that itself is blurry, then what do we say about of our lives?

The elder looked on for a bit. He chuckled, presumably from having seen my expressions. Funny eh? Try losing your memories too old man.

”Young man, we will continue this conversation at a later date. Your parents must be worried sick right now. No one stays in this space for so long you know? You should go.” He said as he took farewell. He made his way to the giant gear on the wall, the largest that I had seen. It was larger than the one in front of the little girl’s statue. “Oh, and young man?” He stopped his steps, calling out to me once more. "I forgot to mention some stuff." His voice was a little firm this time.

I took a look back myself. He remained in his position for a bit, his smile nowhere to be seen. With a solemn voice, he spoke.

”When a rule is broken, madness ensues. The misfortune that we talked about? It is simply a representation for the direction of madness. A representation for who is to suffer from it. Most of the times, both are the same. The one who is corrupted with madness is also the one to experience grief. Yet, there are times. There are times, when two or more people are pulled into this oblivion. One becomes the corrupted, the one infused with madness. The other? A simple collateral of the madness’s rampage. A “Misfortune”, If you will. Keep these words in mind, young man.”

He took a step into the gear’s center, and soon vanished. His words, they sounded as if they were specifically targeting that forsaken memory of mine. The memory where "I” produced fear. The “I” where madness ensued.

I took a long breath. “Madness and Misfortune.” These two words occupied my headspace. With more questions than before, I made my way out of these gates. I wondered how my life would play out from here. Or rather, how would the events happen before my Amnesia kicked in once again. I suppose making a diary could help. Keeping everything in line for the next turn.