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.
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