In the grip of Judge...

There is a funny feel in the atmosphere, I do not know whether it is the pure emerald green grass that blankets the ground or the flawlessly blue that coats sky which it to blame for the uneasiness instilled into my being. At a second glance I seam to be standing in a clearing of moderate size and the area outside this protective and vibrant world is pure white.

Another area comes into view and walking in the middle of it, is a young boy. From my observations he seams lost, so I attempt to call out to him...My voice fails me for reasons unknown. He wanders aimlessly around the empty space, the colourful area around him acting like some kind of protective shielding...no matter how far he walks, he will all ways remain in the centre.

Our protective area's merge as he approaches me, and he gasps as I assume due to the shock of finding another abandoned and wandering in the centre of their own guardian. The boy's eyes are wide and his breath is coming in sharp short bursts, I am afraid he might collapse at any moment and I smile. I smile to try and calm the boy down. He pants for a second before his fear subsides, and he smiles back. Again, I try to speak and unfortunately my voice fails once more.

He is trembling upon even closer inspection, “A-Are you...all right?” he asks me with a quiet tone, I had to strain my normally exceptional hearing to notice he was speaking. I didn't want to have a third attempt at speaking so I nodded once more with the biggest grin I could.

We talked for what felt like years. Well, he spoke and I listened...I nodded. Each word that came from his mouth encompassed so much feeling that -as a listener- my ears would have burst from the exposure. What the boy told me, was a great many things...things I cannot even begin to recall how to explain them. And then...He left.

I let him go. He stood up away from me and said, “I'm going home now.” and then he left. At that point my whole physical, mental and maybe even my spiritual body cried out for him to stay...My entire existence wanting to thank the boy for what he had given me. Yet I remained silent, I allowed the best thing that happened to me walk away.

And that was when it arrived.

I recall seeing it for the first time. A beast of hellish nature; a long thin body covering in rippling blackish blue fur, two large bat-like wing sprouting from the shoulder blades above a pair of long narrow arms. He had talons for fingers and a thumb to match along with a huge bushy tail that swayed to and fro as if to induce a hypnotic trance.

What had worried me was the head of the beast. A wide mouth full of razor sharp fangs ready to tear my soul apart. The creature had two eyes yet while the left eye remained normal, with a red iris...the other -the right sided one- was sown shut. I almost instinctively growled at the monster, I backed away from its horrific majesty...and yet it spoke to me.

“For some time the blade of doubt,
Has been fading in and out,
Of mind,
Of time,
Of space,
Can I see your pretty face?
Let me take you by the wrist,
As we begin the shopping list,
To see what goodies I may find,
By delving into your tasteless mind.

Can you see it getting closer?
Past this emotional roller-coaster,
Of fear,
Of anger,
Of hate,
Yet I know my offer is coming late,
How about I stop it dead?
That's what I said,
I can stop everything dead.

Nothing is ever on the mend,
Anger to drive you round the bend,
Your heart is one yet your mind is two,
Can't you see what it's doing to you?
Trust in me and all will see,
I can stop everything dead...”
I was astounded, at this creature...How it knew of my inner sufferings and pain...It's form wasn't so monstrous at that point, in fact...It was as if an angel had come to guide me to a better future. I could not have been more wrong.

This creature was called 'Judge'. I waited for another life-time until the boy came back, I wanted to introduce him to my new friend Judge and that is when it happened...

Chains drove from the ground and bound me in place. I could not speak, I could not scream. My warning fell short of the boy. Judge grabbed him and ploughed him into the ground...the monster screaming victoriously almost in sync with my own attempts. Judge began to bite and scratch at the boys skin, allowing his blood to flow freely as if it meant nothing, I wanted Judge to stop but the more I pleaded the more intense the attack became! That poor boy, Judge stared at him...and some how it caused a smaller version of the boy to tear it's way out of it's host – Ripping the boy's rib cage apart to do so- and then dropping to the floor. Judge discarded the body as if it were garbage never to be seen again, and the chains holding me down evaporated into the nothingness from which they came.

The small doll like replica that had come from the boy had no mouth and no eyes in which to see. It did not gesture, it did nothing but look at me with an empty soul-less stare. Judge had done what it had promised, he had stopped the cause of my heartache. I broke down there and then...I had lost the only thing that mattered, when Judge grabbed me...As his stare bore into mine and I felt something that was beating beneath my chest, that I knew was not my heart; I remembered the last two lines of the poem Judge's silver tongue had spun into my mind, and for the first time something the terrible demon had said rang truth...

“...Nothing more can be said,
You are already dead.”