Equally Skilled

After so long absent of feeling, Adelaide awoke, breathing heavily thick air. She tried to stretch from her small curled position, but was restrained. She thought for a moment. Then tried again. Hard resounding wood met her knuckles. Her feet sought freedom as well, but were met with the same reply. Hard dense wood. Panic sheathed her white. She gradually felt along her surroundings. There was perhaps seven inches above her, and two on either side of her. She was boxed. Caged, like an animal. Incredulously, she remained calm despite herself. However, ever so faintly she could recognize the distant humming sound similar to the previous one in her mind. Believing herself to be, of course, delusional, she closed her eyes and expected to wake up in another atmosphere or some nonsense. But the humming remained, and her surroundings remained, and that hard wood remained. Rather, now, it was coming from outside of her. Staining to hear more, she forced her ear against the box's presumed top. Hymns.
Hymns!?
With an uninvited abrupt crash, she realized her true state.
She was in the process of her own funeral.
She was being buried alive.


Outside the box was a well acted scene. All the mourners donned in black, though none were sure exactly why that garb was chosen. They did not even know the girl, but this was their job. To find those who had run from accepted society to find their own way to higher knowing. The children who decided that, rather than paying taxes to formality and pseudo smiles, to break down the walls of the surface. Children who see the rotting flesh beneath the mask. The mask not fit but one he learns to wear. These were the sparks that lit society afire. These were the ones who started wars against corrupt government and held signs to all the selfish rich, screaming at them to do something about the children dying only hours away. These were the ones who wrote despite themselves, immortalizing their words to generations to come. And most of these reformist did not even understand what a dangerous position they hold. Their dreams to “change the world” are only met with loneliness and animosity. So they run away, hoping somehow to raise attention to more than themselves....to their cause. And so, time and time again, they are taken captive by these fellows and ladies dressed in black, drugged, and buried. No wonder they feel lonely. No wonder they feel there is none to fight the common cause. We kill them. Oh, not only with physical death, but we kill them with insults in our beauty magazines, and static on our televisions. We kill the fire. Proper burial for those dead inside. And they never seem to mind. It is a mass cleansing. Hitler really knew what was best for the community. For the world. To run properly, we must have rule and order. These misfits should not be tolerated. So one by one, into the coffin you go. Do not fear the black box. Soon you will have all you wanted. All that does not exist here. Shh. Shhh. Sleep.


Adelaide wanted nothing other than sleep. For one moment she wished she never would have fled. It is better to be accepted and complimentary than one never satisfied and alone. Oh, she was never satisfied. No good nor bad could satiated her thirst for reality uncensored. What a barbarous ideal. She LIVED in uncensored reality, and despised it. But perhaps she wondered if there was more to life than what they would like her to believe. Well look where that got her.
Somewhere, in the back hollows of her head, she could remember some good that had come since her departure. It was....a massive animal. An animal, she scoffed at the irony, an animal is the only one good here. An animal. A lion. And Deirdre. Her heart cracked when she thought of her almost-forgotten friend. Her nose burned as salty tears threatened their way out of her eye. Dear Deirdre. With your art you sought recognition of the world's darkness and filth. But thee darkness is so strong....it could captivate you. It could beat you senseless or allure you. You cannot fight it on your own. But look at me, so wretched, I am caught in mine own darkness. Because I resisted it, and thought myself strong, it drove me here. Is this our sad fate? Two kindreds fighting what should be battled against, only to be muzzled? Like the lion. The good lion, who never meant to hurt a soul alive, had forsaken her.
This is surely it then, there's nothing here at all. Nothing at all here that could placate my hunger. We're all murderers and thieves setting traps here for even our brothers. The Godly people are all gone, there's not one honest soul left alive here on the planet.
With that, she came to grips with her fate. No one would come for her, she was a useless addition to a pseudo-cause. And no one even knew what they were fighting.