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Once, not long ago at all, there was a world that had two halves: a mind and a body.
The mind kept the body safe, and the body entertained the mind.
No matter how the body tried to escape the mind, she held the most subconscious control and always brought him back.
Something infected the body. The infected body killed the mind, left her to drown in his thoughts. How heartless.
He regretted what he did.
There are two people one can be, Michael supposed, some strange idea breaking through the mental fog and carrying his train of thought along for the ride. You can be good, or bad.
Mia was clearly good. But it was so easy for her to be good. She was a child; it was ridiculous to mull over her morals.
Maria, perhaps? It was a reasonable logical step, from daughter to mother.
In her own silent way, she, too, was good. She could be cold, but she knew who she cared for and would protect them at any cost.
He didn’t know Maria well. She always froze him out when he tried to talk to her.
Gillian, then. His brother. Raised in the same family, by the same parents. Constant companions, for better or for worse, up until just after grade school. He was certainly good. He helped people for a living. He took care of Mia. He was recognized by neighbors and greeted kindly by everyone. Even Becky, who had no real reason to have an opinion either way about him, thought he was good.
Mike had tried so hard to be good. But it never paid off. Every time he tried to be the hero, or at least not the villain, he ended up worse off than when he started. Every damn time. Was it so evil to just want the zero sum game to not drop him further in the red for once?
Speaking of red.
He didn’t mean it. He was tired, and angry, and it was late, and he just wanted to come out on top for once, and-
His hand slipped? No, that couldn’t be right. But he couldn’t rationalize any other way it could have happened.
At first, he felt nothing. The little girl was limp and unmoving in the grass. It would be better if the shore was neat. She’d like that, wouldn’t she? He shoved her body gently into the lake.
Then came the realization. He took a step backward, as though to evade the thoughts. He had killed her. He had killed her. The little girl’s blood was on his hands, literally and metaphorically. He couldn’t walk back from this. There was no way to undo this mistake.
A whisper of a thought that was not his curled around his mind as it let go of his hands. Was it a mistake? Really?
He wanted to shout back to himself that he would never hurt her, but if he were to argue with his own thoughts, he would truly have gone mad, would he not? The seed of doubt planted itself, and the shadows in the corners of his mind watered it diligently.
It was his decision. It was his body, certainly, that did the deed. He needn’t push any more blame onto others.
He did it.
That made him evil, right? He was evil now. He killed his niece in cold blood.
The whisper swirled around his neck and clouded his vision. You’ve always been evil. Now, though, you have no good intent left to lose.
Always been evil…
Why did he ever even try to be good, really?
A laugh escaped his mouth. First, a short one, disbelieving, then a longer one, darker, beyond cartoon villainry and well into something far deeper and more unhinged.
If the universe saw through his attempts at being good despite his dark mind, then why even try to hide it anymore!? What did he ever win from the charade? What could he win now, now that he held his actions fully detached from what society always told him he should do?
The whisper slithered away, its task completed for the moment. At least, until the next time the human forgot his potential. It would never be far.
The knife was still in the grass. It was a little dull, and about as cheap and simple as they come. Maybe he should pick up something a little more elegant for next time.
If the world had it out for him, he would have it out for the world.
He regretted what he did, until he realized that he was now whole - mind and body.
There is a reason the world’s mind was not whole to begin with, but the world’s body being the whole one and the mind being dead was so, so very much worse.