Rotten Forest

Story by TonyKrZa, edited by Bentux

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"So this is the fabled place..."

Stood at the fringe of the forest was a man named Alec. A man who everyone knows and says that he "could do no wrong". He was one who always had always meticulously planned out his day, liked to keep schedules, just so he had a sense of control.

He truly was loved by everyone...though not everything.

"The fabled place that isn't actually fabled."

The voice was coming from someone who almost nobody could see or know of other than Alec himself - unless Alec reacted to it. It always comes to him as a warbled, distorted version of his own voice. And it always felt like he could sense its presence.

Like a hand touching him, or breathing down his neck, or when the light around the world ever so slightly dims like a lightbulb. It's the sense of a shadow, the void, the abyss...

Perhaps it was chaos itself ringing in Alec's ears.

Alec never knew what name to give that voice. Nevertheless, it was unnecessary concern; it called itself "Bentux".

Alec snaps back at Bentux's remark about his "fabled place".

"Will you cease, demon!?"

"I have told you many a time before, I'm not a demon. I come from you as your shadow."

"Why are you here? Got any more witty things to say? We're at journey's end; we found the damn forest, now we go home."

As Alec examined his destination - the forest that contradicts the laws of nature, he felt bewildered that he has managed to find such a place. Despite the fact that death dominated it, as pronounced by the myriad skeletons of animals, the dead cellulose husks of the trees still stand resolute, unaffected by fungi or bacteria.

"Don't you see, Alec?" Bentux spoke up. "When you're mortal, you can't always have everything as if they were perfectly in line with your silly ways. If all of the people of this world were to see only purity, wouldn't that become -"

"No, order must exist. Without it, the world would -" Alec felt a ghostly shadowed hand over his mouth before he could finish his words.

"My, my, ever the impatient one...that's not very orderly of you, is it not?"

Bentux lowers his hand down from Alex's mouth...or was that even a hand?

Bentux continues.

"Look at the forest in front of you here. See how lifeless it is, with everything dead and whatnot?"

"What are you getting at...?" Alec was confused. This was not the only time he was confused by the mad shadow's ramblings, but unlike every other time where it seemed to spew nonsense, this time felt different.

He would learn something important.

Bentux moved to the border where the grass is filled with life and where the grass has died and lost its natural color. "This, right here, is where all mortals are."

Alec saw a faint depression that spanned both dead and living grass.

"Right in the middle. You see where I'm getting at?"

"...Are you just screwing with me?" Alec reminds himself as to who he is talking to.

"You're ever the stuck-up, aren't you?" Bentux playfully retorts, though Alec could tell there was a slight hint of annoyance in there. "I say, all living beings have to live in a middle ground - right here."

Alec was worried that he would had to admit to being correct with the shadow for once, but it had a point.

"I...see where you're going...?"

"Good boy, we're on track now."

The realization slowly came over Alec, like an insistent tidal wave. It had never occurred to him that he could do harm by exclusively doing good deeds. But it was true; people would resent him for not giving more, despite having already given more than what is reasonable. Others would betray him, stab him in the back.

Despite his charity.

Could indiscriminate mercy not be the answer?

Alec stood there, not sure how to process this realization.

"I see you've finally managed to understand what I meant.

"Death can be mercy, and mercy murder.

"You temper your words for those who strayed from virtue. You stay your blade on sinners who must die, and hence they run free to deal more harm. Death to them is mercy to the common man, and mercy to them is murder of the common man."

"The only thing we are able to do is to exact our duties, and -"

"We go into the forest. I've decided."

"No point in stopping you. Shall we?" Bentux said as he extended a hand. One straight out of the shadows, yet unfazed by the bright daylight.

Alec takes his hand.

"So we shall."