My Name Is Id

On an ocean of shimmering blue, the sun is blazing high in the sky pelting the denizens below with shards of heat. Do you see that guy in that boat off into the distance? Do you see the kettle of vultures hovering above? That's me in that rickety dinghy. My name is Id. My story begins just short of six hours ago.

My feet are on fire, literally. When I'm on the ground, all you see of me are two bleeding streaks of fire as I speed away. I'm running, always running, always trying to escape, never stopping. In my eyes, all you are is a blur. Entire forests fly by in seconds. Ocean water becomes solid underneath me. Mountain ranges become ramps that launch me high into the stratosphere. The people of ancient times thought of me as one of the angels. That's kinda insulting to the angels. People nowadays mistake me for a rocket ship or an airplane. I'm really chill with that idea. Being able to direct where I go is a really fascinating idea.

When the creator created me, he didn't give me the gift of free will like he did with you humans. All he gave me was my speed, my ability to get what I want and run away from the things I fear. So here I am and there I go running around the whole expanse of creation. Usually when I pass by something I want, I'm moving to fast to stop. I just run around hoping it's there until the next time I pass by. Then I grab it.

But it was different with her. I couldn't just keep running. What if she was gone by the time I got back? What if she died and turned to dust by the time I got back? What if the carbon atoms in the dust became a cow soon to be eaten by some fat American? Frikkin' Americans... The creator's worst idea ever. She confused me. As I ran approaching her, time seemed to slow down. I wanted her but... she scared me. She gave me feelings I wasn't used to and I didn't like those feelings.

So I stopped running.

She had just walked out of her home. She shrieked and nearly jumped out of her skin when she saw me. She saw a ghost of a man who was on fire but couldn't burn; that image soon faded away. Wind from my wake blew past the both of us and snuffed the fire like a child that blows out candles.

"Hi," I said to her. She broke off into a mad dash. I started to chuckle to myself and then I gave her a head start of about five minutes. After that I rushed to her and picked her up. She screamed again.

"Is that all you know how to do?" I asked. She screamed again. As we blew by, I saw crowds of people whipped their heads around as they heard the shriek of a girl.

"Can you stop yelling? We can hear each other just fine despite the air rushing past our ears," I asked.

She screamed and flailed her legs, "No!"

I looked at her stoically and deadpanned. "What's your name?"

This time, she tried to speak like a reasonable human being but the wind caused her long, brown hair to keep getting caught in her mouth.

"Hold on second," I said to her. I snatched a hair band out of a random girl's hand and gave it to the girl I was holding. "I don't even know your name and I'm already giving you things," I said.

After a couple minutes of unsuccessfully braiding her hair while moving at legendary speeds, the girl tied her hair off into a ponytail. "I didn't ask you to get me a hair scrunch, you creep. Who are you anyways?"

"I asked you first. You answer me first."

"Carly Ballard. My turn," she said. Carly practically sang when she spoke. Her voice was melodious and rich when she wasn't screaming at me.

"My name is Id," I said.

"What, no last name?"

"Not really, no. Does it matter?"

"Eh," she said. Her eyes narrowed from nonchalant to questioning and suspicious in an instant. "Why did you kidnap me?" Each word came out of her mouth clipped and tense.

"That," I said, "is an excellent question although I'm not kidnapping you. I'll answer that later. Ask a different question."

"So how is this even possible? I can't even take one step out of my house without some flaming guy trying to pick me up."

"Haw haw, you are so funny. You should be a comedian."

"Shut up turd. So how are you running so fast?"

"I got the runs... because I'm a turd." It evoked a smile from her. "Seriously though. The creator created me with this gift. Or curse. It really just depends on how you view it."

"There's a creator?"

"Sure there is. How could an ape evolve into something as beautiful as you?"

Carly's gaze shifted to the down while her cheeks flushed. "Aww, well thank you," she said as she turned back and smiled cheekily at me. "What's the creator's name?"

"I dunno. My boy does though."

"Your boy?" she looked at me quizzically.

"Mhm, my boy. Do you know what an 'Id' is?"

"No."

"An 'Id' is the primal desire of a person. I am my boy's 'Id'. You got an 'Id' running around somewhere. We 'Ids' are told not to ever meet with our persons by the creator. We are supposed to stay in our person's subconcious because if an 'Id' and the person ever meet, stuff hits the fan. Bad things happen. People die or get scarred for life."

I saw her head churning as she processed this information. "So out there somewhere is a boy that has a primal desire for me?"

"Yup. Clever girl."

"That's weird yet endearing."

"Indeed so. That's also why I came to 'kidnap' you."

Carly's mind peaked with curiosity. "Why?"

"What?" I said.

She sighed as if I should know what she ment. "Why does your 'boy' or person or whatever like me? Why does he have some sort of primal desire for me? Why me?"

My head fought trying to come up with a response that didn't freak her out. I needed to arrange my words carefully. "He likes you because you are different. This may sound cheesy but he's been broken before. He built walls. But then you came along. You showed him kindness and that kindness wasn't obligatory in his eyes. By the way you treated him, it told him that you wanted to be kind to him. You wanted to be near him. In turn, my boy let down those walls and let himself lo- like you."

"Oh..." she said, eyebrows furrowed and lips tucked with concentration. "Who is your boy?"

That was where I drew the line with my answers. My boy was not yet ready or brave enough to tell her. If he didn't want that then I couldn't tell that.

"I will not tell you," I said.

"And why not?" Carly said.

"That information is not mine to tell." Carly saw the resoluteness in my eyes.

So for a couple hours, Carly and I had long conversations. Most of the time, I was listening to her talk; at other times, I told her about the deep things in life. All the time, I was looking at her, only my peripheral vision keeping me from running into things. Carrying another person for hours was taking its toll. I was slowing down.

Exemplar didn't.

Unknowingly, Exemplar was catching up, gaining on me. Carly noticed him on the horizon. "Why isn't that guy passing by us like everything else is?" she asked me. I turned around and cursed under my breath.

"What's wrong? Tell me," she demanded.

"That's Exemplar. He's my brother and he's getting closer. He shares my boy with me."

"And why is that a bad thing?"

"If he catches me, I'm dead."

"Oh... Why?"

"Exemplar is everything that my boy should be. Exemplar is my boy's expectations. Just like how you have an 'Id' running around, you also have an 'Exemplar'. Most of the time, Exemplar and I get along but when we conflict then things become dangerous. But only for me. It isn't fair."

So there I was running with Carly in my arms. Exemplar was inching closer and closer. I could feel his icy tendrils reaching out to ensnare me and the coldness reaching into my bones. I could escape Exemplar if I let go of Carly. But would I see her again? Probably not. I kept her close to me and kept running.

But it was in vain. All Exemplar had to was touch me and I started to die. I had to let her go now. If I died running with her still in my arms I might stumble and accidentally throw her off of me and get her hurt. I set her down about 150 miles from where I met her. Then I continued running: stopping at a rickety, crotchety boat floating in the Pacific Ocean.

I laid down in the boat feeling the warmth of the sun on my face, the gentle undulating of the ocean waves, and the vultures pecking out my insides.

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