Always Running
Originally published on September 28th, 2012 by Dimitri Bouniol. #FNADNST
The boy could no longer run.
Night had quickly approached, and he had completely run out of energy.
It seemed like it had been ages since he last took off, so he was tired beyond what he was used to; but he couldn't stop there.
If he stopped now, they would catch up with him, and it would have all been useless.
So he kept on running, under the night sky above him.
He could feel the cold sweat dripping down his legs, and knew he was at his limit.
All it took was a small rock on the pathway to make him trip.
His chest on the floor, he knew it was all over for him.
And with that thought, he lost consciousness.
That night, he had a dream.
He was down by the lake with his sister, watching the horizon as the sun began to set in front of them.
But he knew this was but a dream… for his sister would die only moments later.
But the boy was trapped in the same blissful happiness he was back then.
Unable to do anything but watch as the horror unfolded in front of him.
That's right… on that evening, his sister was shot right in front of him.
At the time, he did not know why, what research his father was doing that brought upon this catastrophe.
All he could do was watch, as her silhouette bathed in the red sunlight slowly fell into the water.
The next thing he could remember was being told to run, to run as far away as possible.
So he had been doing that.
He tried going back to his home, but before he could even enter, he noticed several black vehicles in front of his house.
At that point, he realized he no longer had a place to return to.
The only thing he knew was what his father once told him: to never be caught.
If he was, it would mean the end of everything, though the boy hardly knew the meaning behind these words.
On that thought, he woke up.
He was still on the pathway where he had collapsed, but it was already day.
Not knowing how far away his pursuers were, he promptly got up and continued to run.
After all, that was the only thing he knew he could do at that point.
He wash't so much worried about his father's research, and the reason behind being forbidden to be caught.
This was because he never spent time with his father.
It was always his sister who showed interest in the research.
She would spend days upon days watching their father work, reading his notes.
The boy had once tried to do the same, but he understood none of it, and his father simply said he was a nuisance if he couldn't understand the "truth".
So he simply ignored most of it.
His sister would sometimes tell him about what she had read.
She was always deeply interested in the topics, talking about other worlds, limitless energy, and other unimaginable things.
She simply understood what the boy had no way of understanding himself.
If those people who were after him were after that research, why did they kill his sister right away, and leave him alive?
It was all a mystery to him.
All the boy knew was that he wished to not be caught.
Not for his father, but for himself.
So he continued to run.
In his panicked state, he remembered one of the things his sister told him about.
It was something about there being another world, and it being connected to the one he lived in.
Oddly enough, the more he thought about it, the more he remembered.
The worlds were not connected by a portal or anything of that sort, but by the energy they shared.
This energy would naturally flow equally between the two worlds, but in special circumstances, it was possible to influence it in one direction rather than the other.
Essentially, from this would be derived limitless energy, energy from nothing at all, channeled in a way that was limited only by the imagination.
The boy was perplexed by what he was thinking.
Was it the lack of food and water that was just making him think he understood these things?
He didn't know, but he continued to recall these memories.
His sister told him that most individuals would be unable to read the flow of energy, and even those that could would be powerless it control it.
Only those that knew the "truth" would be able to control this divine power.
But what was this "truth"?
Suddenly, the boy heard a voice speak to him: "Do you want to know"?
Surprised, he turned around, but there was no one there.
He thought it must be his hallucinative imagination playing tricks on him.
After al, even if someone had said that, did they even know what he was thinking about?
The he heard it again: "The truth…"
He came to a stop, and looked around, checking all his surroundings.
He happened to have run all the way into an alley where little light reached, and looked frantically from left to right, but could see no one.
The voice continued: "… is something only those who have seen true despair can understand".
"That is why they killed your father, that is why they killed your sister!"
"They knew too much, but at the same time, they would be unable to understand the deeper significance of the truth"
"Similarly, those that know nothing at all all, might come to understand the truth, but would know nothing of what it could be used for!"
The boy listened to this harsh, throaty voice speak to him from the shadows.
At that moment, his heart sank.
He saw the silhouettes of a handful of men on each side of the alleyway.
He was trapped.
The voice continued: "But you, you know all there is to know about the truth."
"You never payed attention, but it stayed with you, locked in your memories until you found that moment of despair!"
"Now, draw on it! Draw on that despair and show me, show me what you are capable of!"
Wanting to stop his own mind from further torturing him, he let out a scream, but at that moment, something unexpected happened.
The men at either side of the alley way flew backwards, as if pushed by an invisible wall.
At the same time, the walls of the alley way blew apart from this omnipotent pressure.
With this, he thought, he no longer needed to run…
With this, he thought, he could fight…
And so the boy stood his ground, and for the first time in his life, wondered if this was what his father's research was truly about.
It was all for his sake all along, that his father and his sister had to die.
At the same time, if they didn't die, he would have never had to use this power, so he was thankful that their lives weren't lost in vain.
With them both by his side, he could finally stop running, and so he fought.
THE END
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