You Are Free (Gracuul's Entry)

You Are Free

He did not know where to go or where to turn. He did not know what was right or what was wrong. “Anywhere, anything, any time.” The voices from the shadows urged him on. “You are not lost.” They said. “You know the way.”
     He did not know the way or at least he thought he did not know the way. Swiftly he turned about on his on reflection in the dimly lit mirror against the wall of the room. He saw himself in the candle light and he did not like what he did see.
	“Horrible!” He exclaimed. “How can this really be me.?” He intoned in question softly and in despair and disbelief. “How can my face be so….so green?” He wanted to know. He wanted to find out the answer.
	Not only was his face green but his entire body was coated with scales. He had claws. They were the type of claws one would imagine a monster would use to scrape against a chalkboard. They were claws like curved nails.
	He did not know what to do. Fear consumed him. The voices in the shadows kept crooning. “Any answer is the right answer. Any question is the right question. Any way is the right way. Any time is the right time. Do or die. Do or die.”
	The boy did not want to die but he did not want to stay here and look at what he had somehow become either. He ran. He ran from himself. He ran from the voices. He ran far away.
	Through the twists and turns of the labyrinth he tried to find a familiar path but there was not one. He breezed through the corridors, only to happen upon one dead end after the next.
	Suddenly he appeared before the mirror again. He looked ghastly in his exasperated state as his reflection peered back at him. It seemed like he was trapped in an eternal night. He wanted to get away.
He did not know why he kept running back to this same spot. No matter how far he ran he always came back to this same spot. To this same accursed mirror. He did not want to face himself. To him, in his moments of agony, he would rather die.
He screamed in terror. Suddenly though, he heard the voices again. “Any way is the right way. Any thing is the right thing. Any question is the right question. Any answer is the right answer.” He did not know what it meant. He wanted it all to stop.
    In his fury he called out to them. “How?” He screamed. “Do it. Just do it.” They called back to him. “But how can I just do it?” He scowled back at them all. He did not know where he was or what he was meant to do. He only knew that he wanted to leave it all behind.
“Face yourself.” The voices said. “You are the question. You are the answer. You are the thing. You are the way.”
	He did not understand them. Without a second thought, in his grief, he began to bash his head against the mirror that tormented him.
    Blood rushed down his forehead as pieces of shattered glass prodded at his skull. He was hurting and yowling now in pain as he continued to stubbornly beat his head against the mirror.
    With a jostle and a start he woke up in his bed. He pressed his fingers against his forehead and felt the warm sweat comingled with a few sparse drops of blood. He did not know where he was for a moment but then he remembered that he was in his room.
    He got up out of bed and went down his wall, slowly, feeling with his hand against it in search of the light switch. When he found it and flicked it on he felt an urge to go to his mirror.
    He stood there in front of his mirror remembering his nightmare. His reflection in his dream silently came back to his recollection. He remembered the voices that were all around him in that dreary labyrinth, and then suddenly he heard them speak to him clear as the day that was now dawning outside. They said to them those three now familiar words, “You are free.”