At the end of town there is a cliff, and at
the end of that cliff, there is The Void. No one knows where it came from and
it’s been there as long as anyone can remember. Many people talk to The Void,
scream their voices hoarse or whisper their secrets, and it is stoic as ever,
seemingly the absence of anything where there should be something. And legend
has it, sometime The Void talks back.
Alicia Johnson stepped outside her house and
surveyed the town she called home. Downtown was empty, the sign on the small
hardware store creaked ominously and she swore she saw a tumbleweed cross the
street as she passed. The surrounding
area was as flat and unremarkable as her town. With no plans for yet another
tedious summer in what was practically a ghost town, Alicia decided to see if
the legends were true.
Alicia rode her bike to the edge of town and
stood quietly before The Void to see if it would speak. It did not. After a few
more minutes of silence, she decided it needed some prompting, and asked The
Void how it was today. For a moment, there was a silence that was accompanied
by a complete stillness. The birds ceased to chirp, the breeze stopped blowing,
and the tall grass halted in its place. After a moment, everything resumed like
nothing had happened, the birds began to chirp and the grass began to sway. And
there was a laughter carried in the breeze that seemed to come from nowhere.
“Child,” the voice seemed to whisper, sounding
amused. “I am older than time itself, I have seen galaxies formed and destroyed,
and you ask me how my day was?”
This gave Alicia pause. There were legends,
but no one knew how old it was or where it really came from. Recovering from
her momentary shock, Alicia replied, “I figured everyone deserves to have
someone ask how their day is at least once and I can’t imagine very many people
have asked you.”
“You would be right. People do not come here
to speak to me, they come here to speak at me. To use me in whatever way I
choose to let them. People whisper me their secrets because this is where
secrets come to die. They come to shed the guilt of their pathtic misdeeds. And
while you do not have something to tell, you desire something from me as well.”
“I do not,” Alicia huffed indignantly. She had
a strange desire to stomp her foot, before remembering that she did not want to
appear any more childish to this apparently timeless being/entity.
There was another bout of laughter and a voice
that drifted past on the breeze. “I am older than time itself, I know when
someone is lying to me.”
“Are there aliens out there in space?”
“Liar,” the breeze hissed.
“Fine. I want to know why you let people use
you. What do you have to gain we’re basically ants to you anyway.”
There was another pause and although The Void
did not have a face, this one seemed almost introspective.
“I suppose I can humor you. After all, a
partial truth is better than an outright lie. I enjoy feeling useful, even if
it is to a species as thankless as humanity. However, the true reason is that
this strange symbiotic relationship benefits me as well. You know just as well
as I that knowledge is power. The secrets you humans bestow upon me, the things
I have heard since the beginning of time, would make your blood curdle, but it
is an equal exchange. You leave here lighter, for some feeling absolved of all
guilt pertaining to the secrets you tell me. In return this knowledge grants me
a power that I have found nowhere else.”
“What does that even mean? How do secrets give
you power? What kind of power?”
“SILENCE,” the breeze snapped and the world
went still again. “I will answer more questions with straight answers when you
begin to tell the truth. Leave now, and try again tomorrow.”
So she did. Alicia returned to The Void every
day that week, and the next week, and the week after that. Most of their
meetings were exactly the same: Alicia would ask a question that was a partial
truth of what she wanted to know (“When you tell secrets, do you lose your
power?” ) and The Void would give nonsensical answers (“Matter cannot be
neither created or destroyed.”). However sometimes their routine would differ.
Sometimes, Alicia would talk about her life in the town and sometimes, The Void
would teach her bits of dead languages and forgotten songs. They had forged a
kinship that looked strange to an outsider, but fit them perfectly.
One day, Alicia came to The Void with an ashen
face and a trembling voice.
“You
said－” a pause. “You said secrets come here to die.”
“Yes,” The Void responded.
“So is this where things go when they die?”
“I am not a God. I cannot grant you the
assurances of salvation or damnation you humans desire from a higher power. Nor
am I Death. That is something older than even I. But I do know what you desire
and if you only ask...” The breeze trailed off.
“My
mother. She－she came to you－to tell you something－to confess－and she… she never came back.”
“Ahh,” the voice on the breeze sounded
enlightened. “I do not believe that I can provide the answers you desire. Some
believe the act of confessing to be freeing. I believe she felt that way as
well. Lighter.”
“Light enough to float right out of this town,
I guess” Alicia mumbled bitterly.
“I
am very sorry－”
“You－you do this,
you use humans for their power and don’t care what happens to them.”
“I
will not be held responsible for the actions of humanity－”
“That’s
why this whole town is a ghost town! They come here to confess their secrets
and never return the same! Don’t give me that spiel about knowledge is power!
You don't want knowledge, you want our very souls!” Alicia spits. “It’s a sick
game to you, it’s preverse－”
A deep rumbling seemed to come from within The
Void.The ground began to shake and the wind began to howl. “I AM THE NECESSARY
EVIL THAT KEEPS THE UNIVERSE IN BALANCE. I TAKE WHAT I NEED TO KEEP THIS
PATHETIC PLANET ALIVE BECAUSE I AM IT’S SOLE POWER SOURCE.”
“I HATE YOU!” Alicia screamed. “I hate you
more than I’ve ever hated anyone or anything and if I could I’d destroy you the
way you did me!”
“Ahh” the breeze whispered, sounding appeased.
“Your confession. Your soul.”
Realizing what she had done Alicia tried to
bargain with The Void, but it was too late.
