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We stood beneath
   the bridge,
seeking shadows
to hide our faces.
He tried to smile,
but the look
was distorted and
   displaced.
No sanity left...
no humanity.
The path chosen
led us deep
   and dark
into a realm
with pleading
   voices,
with merciless
   reactions.
The day would come
when it must stop.
Where? When?
The true gods
turned away
and left us, childlike,
to face our fortune.
Left us unguarded
to witness the
unremorseful grasp
   of fate.
We stood alone,
even the shadows
could not hide us
   then...
And yet the night,
in twisted form,
offered refuge
for sadistic hands.
Breath, not even cold,
did not escape
from vacant lungs.
But the fear
never left the eyes.
Mortal agony
traced lines upon
   the face.
Somewhere a sun
shone bright
in a guiltless realm.
But this world
was dark, then dim,
never breaking dawn.
Rituals replayed
   rules;
death replaced
the once beating heart.
How strange
the scene played
   out.
But strangers
had become a
   way of life --
and strangers
offered up such
mortal sacrifice.
How could they
have known
that darkness waited?
Impenetrable and
   unforgiving.
In dawn's dim
   light
we retraced our steps
through that
dark forest --
   our fortress,
littered with malice's
shallow graves.
The day's beginning
saw the aftermath
of crimes of
soulless passion.
I looked at him:
those hollow eyes,
what did they see?
What is seen
is what is known.
The trees did not
   cast shadows,
but stood with
solemn grace,
witnesses to brutality
of senseless order.
There were no
   questions now,
no need of answers,
there was only us.
He looked at me --
I saw a bleak horizon
in his face.
I saw the world
begin and end...
Cold and heartless;
no semblance of morality.
A distant light
flickered with the brittleness
  of life,
once seen, then gone,
then seen again.
The very air seemed callous
of its treatment
   of this wan, pathetic beacon
   in the void.
We felt no humanity now --
all traces scorned as weakness,
cast off as useless weight.
There was nothing but us,
and the vacuum of our souls.
No common ground
to share with any other thing --
we had gone beyond (at first by accident,
but then and then again by choice) --
we destroyed eveything
we might have turned back upon,
becoming "more than",
instead of "once was".
Our sanity cast off
with society's rules --
a tragic dream of a different
   mother's brood.
Death meant nothing,
for we drank blood
from a different golden chalice,
and cleaned our wounds
with someone else's salty tears.
Callous handling
of a life's brief
   moments --
to say that we
could extinguish
the light in
frightened eyes.
To say that
we had become
   gods
in our own right,
with the unnatural
   rights
of vengeful dieties.
How did we come
   to this?
To take lives
from the natural
order of things.
We reigned supreme
in a world hidden
beyond tangled branches
of a very dark forest ...
the blackest place
within our souls.
No light -- sweet light --
to penetrate the
cold, blank night.
The victim's odd,
   blank stare.
Gods we were
exacting painful
   penance,
craving delirium's
   devotion,
craving death...
Bridges burned,
no turning back.
The night --
our sanctuary --
claimed its toll.
Sense or senseless?
The choice was
   ours --
risks were weighed
on whatever scale
our conscience
   held;
and so too was weighed
the value of our sin...
Rain fell hard
against a scene
black as our souls --
a lonely light
glowed: ghostly
   as our fate.
Whispers sealed
our pact in hell.
What we did
would bind us tight --
no guilt...and no
   redemption.
"In the days of the monkeys,
I ate their brains,"
he turned to me and laughed,
that hollow sound
which could never fill our void,
nor turn back time --
not even erase the mockeries
we made of feigned virtue,
   faded glory --
devout adornment of the false gods
   of fate.
No murderer can lay claim
to a moniker graced with deity,
laced with the untruths
   of the human soul,
(a condition born of
pre-ordained expediency).
The human condition
creates a killer --
defines the scope of ******,
   of murderer.

I looked at him --
my voice distant and low,
"In the days of the monkeys,
we may not have been
   the same."
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