The orders come one by one.
“Keep your head down, ignore your surroundings. Your focus, your attention, belongs to me, and only me.”
I look up for only a fraction of a second, praying that this is my hell and my hell alone, that I am the only one being tortured and tormented so. My eyes widen in horror as I look around me and fnd the same thing. People, tall and short, young and old, gripped by this young overlord. Their heads down, their morale in shambles.
Another order.
“Look at this. Look at me. Look at what I can ofer. Look at what I can bring to you, bring to the world. Look at me. Love me, adore me. Love me and me alone.”
We all obey in shame, in dissatisfaction, for this was our own fault, this was our own doing. We were the ones who gave this being its power. We were the people who gave this demon its crown. We willingly ofered up our lives, somehow expecting the result to be diferent.
The tyrant tightens the chains as it screams at me.
“You are not alone, everyone is with you. Your co-workers, your families, your friends today, your friends yesterday, your friends tomorrow. Everyone is here, see? Look at the smiles on their faces, they’re so happy, they love it, they love me. You could be the same; don’t you want that?”
“Don’t you want to be happy too?”
I do. I really do. I know it’s false. I know the chains that hold me, the bait that lures me in is false.
Yet I am lured in regardless. I could pretend that it isn’t. Pretend that this king does not control me.
I am deluding myself.
Look at me. I’m not better, I’m apart of the problem; my life is in the palms of the overseer already, it has always been. Since the day I frst discovered it.
There never was a way out. This is how it is now.
“This is how it is now.”
I can do nothing but join them.
“You can do nothing but join us.”
I am
You are
Hello! My name is Riley, I’m a 20-year-old college student and an aspiring Storyteller! Here’s my writing website! https://rileywrites81299780.wordpress.com/ Twitter: @HappyfacePro Enjoy!