A lone man runs.
Can’t you see him?
Of course you can’t. Nobody can.
What’s he running form?
The End.
He’s very lonely, but you would never know that looking at him. After all, he’s the only one that can see The End, and so he runs.
But don’t worry about him, he’s alright, I asked him a little bit ago.
I continue to run.
The End follows, always follows, never stopping, never slowing down, never speeding up.
I can see it, every time I close my eyes to sleep. The End likes to keep me awake at night. It reminds me it’s always there.
I see it every time I look in a mirror, It likes to show up in the place of my smiling reflection, but still no one else can see it.
Sometimes people ask me how I am.
I’m scared, I always think to myself, I’m running from The End and I’m getting tired, I’m scared The End will catch up with me.
Can’t you see it?
I can, I can always see it, It’s always there, sometimes it speaks to me.
Can’t you hear it?
“Of course they can’t, nobody can.” The End tells me.
Maybe I should ask for help. Maybe they would. I’ve seen others, I’ve seen them run, maybe we’re all running from the same thing. Maybe I can finally stop running by myself.
“Nobody else can see me.” The End tells me “It’s just you, alone, as it has always been. What if you did call for help. What then? They wouldn’t understand, they couldn’t understand, how could they?”
What if they did?
“They wouldn’t, they might say they do, but they don’t, you already know that. What if they pretend they do. Just to try to make you feel better, send you to a ‘professional’ just for them to pretend to understand. Maybe they’ll put you on a medication to try and chase me away but it wouldn’t work, you might not see me for a while but I’ll still be there, always. But even worse, what if they worry about you? Even just a little bit. You wouldn’t want that right? You’re already gone, you can’t save a corpse, walking or not. You’re beyond saving, there will always be others worse off. Why make others waste their time trying to save someone not worth saving? And worst of all what if someone goes out of their way for you? All that wasted energy trying to make a ghost fake a smile and tell them their all better. You wouldn’t want to push your problems on someone else now would you?
As always The End is right
“I’m alright, how about you?” I always end up responding
Sometimes I think someday I’ll break if enough people ask me how I am but that’s too far and few in between. Kind of like a wall, where each “How are you?” creates a crack, but The End is really good at making sure that wall stays built, so I guess The End isn’t all bad.
The End is mean sometimes, and sometimes his words make me cry, but never where somebody else could see or hear.
The End is mean, but he’s honest.
The End goes away around friends, and he’s the first one to greet me when they leave.
Sometimes The End goes away when I’m on the computer as well, so that’s where most of my time goes.
Sometimes I worry I won’t go anywhere in life like that but I’d rather try to keep The End away, and sometime The End tells me he’ll catch up to me before I get the chance so I’m not too worried about it.
I met someone I really liked once.
The End didn’t care for them at all
In a moment of weakness I tried to explain what I was running from.
I was pretty surprised when they told me that not only did they understand but they had ran from The End before as well.
That night The End was quick to remind me that he’s only ever chased me and they were just pretending to try and cheer me up
The next morning they asked me how I was.
I need help
I told them I was alright
They said that was good, and told me they would be there If I ever needed to to talk.
As always The End was right
I haven’t talked to them since.
I hadn’t seen The End in a couple days.
I should check in the mirror. He’s always there after all.
Maybe he’s gone?
I look in the mirror to see if The End is still there.
Sure enough he is.
He’s always there.
I stare at The End
My reflection stares back.
