16 Why are you here?

"Answer me. Why are you here?" Asked John

The shadow responded in a predictable manner.

"Because I am."

John ran his hands down his face irritation was waving through his eyes.

"That's not an answer!"

"That's the only answer I can give you. Also, watch out."

John squatted down and brought his car above his head.

It grew a bit hotter.

It would survive only a few cycles until John would have to find a new one.

"Can you at least tell me what you are?" Said John while gesturing vaguely to the shadow's body.

"I am me. I don't know anything more than that."

"Haaaaa. Okay."

John squatted down and brought his car above his head.

Again. It grew a bit hotter.

After enough cycles the car grew too hot and John had to throw it to the side and search for another one.

And so things continued on as they had.

Fire. Rise. Peace. Fall. Fire.

Over and over this iterated on itself.

Until again the cycle broke.

...

John was on his knees. Playing in the back of his mind was a flickering whisp of an idea that should have been trapped in an envelope.

It was oppressive and depressive. Hellish and eternal.

The envelope's sealing was iron-tight. The strongest of all proverbial glues held it together.

But despite this whisps could still escape. They would always escape. At every possible opportunity.

Usually, the pressure of the noise kept them sealed. But right now that was not possible. There could be no noise in the cycle.

~Why do I persist?~ John couldn't help but ask himself.

It's not as if there would be any grand reward for surviving. Things would just continue on as usual. Nothing would change.

Yet despite this John persisted.

~It's not like things will change if I survive.~

If John persisted to the point where he could continue his life. Things would only persist.

There would be no change.

There was no reason persist for the persistence of [THE]?

So what was there to strive for?

John looked up at the dragon as it descended through the sky.

Someway. Somehow.

The dragon had lost its face.

Instead, it had the face of an old man. A man John knew. A man John loathed with everything from his eyelashes to his pinky toe.

"Doesn't he deserve to die? For what he did to you. Doesn't he deserve to suffer?" Asked the shadow.

John could only nod in agreement with the shadow's words.

"Yes. I'll kill him for what he did."

The dragon…. No, the man fell.

John raised his car above his head. A gust of fire fell toward John. The heat covered his car.

It grew hot.

~I'll outlast you bitch!~

...…

Travel log. Day ???????.

Where's the light? I forgot where the light was. I can't see it anymore.

I only see the monster with its shield and the dark rat above me.

Everything hurts.

I'm scared.

End of log.

.....

The sun rose. The sun fell.

Fire. Rise. Peace. Fall. Fire.

It just wouldn't stop. No matter how many times the sun turned.

By now most of John's skin had been lost. All that remained was the layer of thick white fat that surrounded him.

If it weren't for that fat John would have already died from the flames.

But as it was now the fat was absorbing and disbursing the heat before it could reach his vital organs.

But that didn't mean all of his was spared though.

The most damaged part of his body was his hands and feet. His hands would be singed every cycle.

Meaning now they were a charred mess that was so damaged that they were more burn than hand.

His feet were equally damaged.

He had once had shones. But the constant turning of the cycles had ground them away.

Now his feet burned.

The residual heat left by the flames would touch the soles of his feet and singe them until they were unusable.

It didn't need to be said that John was in constant agony.

Burns upon burns upon burns. The pain was severe.

Yet despite this John persisted.

He HAD to hurt the face in the sky.

The shadow at John's side grinned that same old simile.

Like John, it was also covered in burns. Its pigtails had fallen off and its arms had fallen with it.

In the fire, it melted like a popsicle. Which John found quite funny to watch.

But despite the agony it should be in. It smiled.

"Teach it a lesson. It had to pay for what it did to YOU. Make it pay."

John was simply nodding along as the shadow spoke. He would make it pay. It would pay.

.....

[Travel log day ????????]

Where there's dark there's skeletons.

What is up? What is down?

What is a town?

What is a crown?

Why am I?

I flutter through this space. This place which I cannot bear to love nor hate. It's terrifying.

I flutter with air and flicker with fire.

There is something that my eyes can see but my mind can't.

I want to burn it.

Have burned it.

Yet no matter how many times I burn it…. It is never fully burnt.

Behind me is a legacy and in front of me is a future I fly towards.

I flap forwards yet I'm moving backwards.

The comforting blue is gone. Instead, there is a red.

It's like blood.

Help me. I'm scared.

Where there's dark there's dark there's skeletons

[End of | ???????]

.....

In a brief moment of the cycle which was defined as peace. John looked at the shadow that followed him.

Most of it had melted.

It continued to float in the air. And its skull and grin remained.

Yet despite this, it was still absolutely melted.

It's arms and legs had vanished.

As well as most of the lower half of its torso.

Its ribs were now exposed and in those ribs, John could see the shadow's beating heart and constantly flexing lungs.

Despite this, it still grinned.

"Kill it. Kill it for what it did to you. Kill it." The shadow repeated.

It had become the perpetrator of a new cycle parallel to the first one.

"Kill it" first. "Kill it for what it did to you." Second. Then "Kill it."

An endless chain of words which matched the rise and fall of the cycle above.

~Funny how things are.~

How things have always been.

End of chapter.

HEHEHEHE Poopey. Stinky!

I see a man with a face and nine noses.

Once upon a time, there was a rat that ascended to godhood. The end.

:)