Chapter Two: Descent into Madness

He will do what he can to leave today, as he has others. He will think the unthinkable. Attempt the impossible. He will try; he will fail. It was his pride that wouldn't let him leave this God-forsaken place.

A vague voice came from Lucifer's side as he whispered in the dark and asked. "Why are you telling me all of this?"

It was the traveler.

The man was noticed by his mind's eye. Lucifer couldn't get a good look; he only captured the silhouette of his being and could comprehend a portion of him. From the perspective, the traveler was an apparition devoid of features, a simple sketch like the outlines of a person.

He plopped a hunk of poorly fused bedrock coals, iron, and soil pike out of the metamorphic grade.

Lucifer asked in return, "How much did you hear?"

The traveler replied. "Most of it is gibberish, some nonsense. Have you been drinking in this cave? Were you even speaking to me? Do you believe me to be a fake?" He had many questions and sounded awfully confused. He said, "You called me here, Lucifer. Do you not remember?"

He did not recall. He said, "Yes," anyway.

The traveler lowered his head briefly, bringing it back up, as to suggest he was listening to the nonsense Lucifer was spewing, whatever it may have been attentively, and had a fondness that derived from woes.

He explained. "I've tried to help. You've lied constantly about the smallest of things, tricked me, said foul words, and now this completely uttered nonsense." From what could be made out, his head began to dot around the room. He couldn't look at dead people; it made him feel sad. "Your psychic mind is saying every word in your head out loud. A soliloquy sung for anyone who dares get close."

Lucifer was not psychic but telekinetic, and there was a metaphorical hole through which his thoughts could be heard. Words leaked out of his mind; the filter had sadly been removed.

"When you came, you were a broken man. You were once someone who stood for wonder and change. Now look at you." The traveler mentioned. "You had a story to tell me, if you recall? A sort of truth."

"A confession."

"Yes!" He exclaimed excitedly, batting his head.

Lucifer said to himself, Why does he keep nodding?

The man repeated what was said earlier: "You are saying everything in your head out loud; do you not understand that?"

He was getting frustrated. He's explained this many times before, hasn't he? When did he start doing that? Dementia? No, psychosis. He's passed to the other side, where only lower quality and disillusionment reside.

Chapter Three: Willits

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"There are no secrets now."

The traveler got up from the rock he was sitting on and spoke. "Your solution is an absent mind? Foolish."

You could see the gunk move away from the ground he walked upon. These sorts of things didn't affect him—the filth, the dark—no, he was a light bringer. His name, unbeknownst to the Tree of Knowledge, was usurped from records, and people like it. Lucifer does not know or bother to ask his name. There is no need when things fade into the snapping of obscurity.

It was like holding a rope that had something important knotted to the other end of it. Tied to its integrity was the indulgence in life itself. You lose the rope in search of two integral sums. You start to notice the trees around you and how big this world really is. Overall, a loss should be considered. He wished he would've known, been told this information sooner, and thus stayed more grounded. Instead, the sheep and sheep herder searched unequivocally for idle beliefs.

"The man approached my body from the view of dreg."

The traveler replied, "That's not what I think about you, Lucifer."

"Shame! He stared at me shamefully! It felt like some sort of resentment, but it wasn't. There must have been dismay and true hatred somewhere within that heart of his."

"Stop Lucifer, you're doing this to yourself!" He added, and Lucifer stopped. He continued on, "These conversations are getting pointless. They get nowhere, and there is no reason to be with you anymore. Like your environment, you have become 'The Silent Pandemonium.' I need you to know my empathy runs wearily thin for these backs and forths."

.....

He walked away. "Enough is enough."

Lucifer asked himself: He didn't have to be here, so why? He could've been anywhere, yet he insists on lecturing me. Call me foolish. Pity me!

The man hesitated to take the last steps. He took the step, then was to be out of the cave.

Lucifer: You're stuck here the same as I am; we're not going anywhere anytime soon.

Another voice chimed in Lucifer's head: He was getting out of reach.

Lucifer rebutted: What! He can go with all his philosophy of

"Come back," someone called out. Stopping Lucifer from finishing his last thought. And then he forgot all for no apparent reason.

The traveler reappeared; he wanted to be here. Lucifer figures out now how things have played out. He had the reins on the man as much as the man did him. Which gave considerable amounts of slack to play with, seeing that the traveler wouldn't let Lucifer be, and Lucifer could not be convinced. The game of tug-of-war was being played with only two participants.

"Tell me!" The traveler yelled out what residual oxygen was left in his lungs. His voices carried them in, throughout, and beyond the cave they were settled in. He took a breath back and speedily said, trying to fit in as many words as possible in just a few seconds, "I know you want to. You, your innermost self, don't understand. This will never be a conscious decision for you, will it?" He was pouring his heart out. That much was obvious. He finished with one final release. "You've gone all your life pretending, and where has that gotten you?"

Lucifer opens his eyes. Empty space is to be expected, but it helps with introspection. "Say it how it is. I'm the Devil. What do you expect?"

The apparition's void was filled with a bright, heavy white light. He was the personification of glory, not his Morningstar. A rage built within Lucifer's growing entropy. Another sickening display of beauty brought forth by the light of God sparked something deep within his mind.

Lucifer exclaimed. "Finally, a memory worth reliving! I'm almost glad he came." His psyche displayed these varied instances to the traveler.

Projections of the most tragic of events.