Choices

Tried the ‘get high and write flash fiction’ experiment again.

This is the result.

I have a power.

I’ve never used it, despite its simplicity.

I can take the life from one being, and give it to another.

I can’t die until I use it, but that’s not why I don’t. How could you decide? Who lives, who dies? Even if you could find someone worthy of death, how would you even begin to determine who is worthy of life? I can’t make that choice.

So I don’t.

I stopped making choices at all a long time ago. I travel through the world, watching it play out. It’s been so long that I can see the patterns forming fractals that spiral through reality. Lives begin. Lives end. There are so many. Even if I wanted to use my power, it would be like taking a single second away and giving it to another in the grand scheme.

But I’ve noticed another pattern as time goes by. Two forces, seemingly locked in eternal battle. Some call them good and evil, or light and dark, but the notions seem far too simplistic. Great cruelty is done by both sides as they grind down other lives in their seemingly eternal struggle. One would have everything be uniform, peaceful, lawful, orderly, where everyone conforms to their place. The other would have chaos, freedom, everyone struggling to find their own path, changing with their whims.

Another war. More deaths. Lights flickering in and out. Wastelands left behind.

I see the two beings, and I know they can never reconcile.

And for the first time, I reach out.

And I make a choice.