The Bad Man

You create him.

You conjure him up from the very depths of your imagination, breathe life into his dark mouth, give him a name, set him free on the page, and watch what happens as he cuts his bloody path through your story-world.

 The others of your creation have no idea who he really is, what he truly represents for you, they just know there's another monster to deal with, someone who has to be challenged, gotten the better of, captured, even killed.

But first they must understand him, and for them to understand him, so must you.  Plumbing the depths of his depraved mind, to see what makes him tick, what turns him on, the images inside his head, of the things he has done, the things he wants to do, needs to do, would do to you.

Given half a chance.

The thought of it repels you, makes you back away from the page and send in your most fearless warrior to challenge him.  But just as you sought to understand the monster within the man, your warrior begins to see the man behind the monster, the world from his point of view.

The darkness inside them both.

As they journey into the depths together, allowing you to tag along, do you stop to look around at where they are taking you, or do you race to keep up, running as fast as you can, desperate to stay with them in case they leave you behind.

Were you meant to go this way?

When your fearless warrior seems lost to the darkness, to the man behind the monster, you send a team in to fetch her out.  But were you both so caught up in the journey that you let them get too far, go too deep, beyond the reach even of those who could have brought them back.

If you let them.

You catch up with them at the end of their path, in the dark warmth of their own night-time, giving in to their desires, encouraging each other to take what they want from anyone around them, including each other.

Have you have only just come to know this man, to see him for who he really is?

Or did you know him all along?

The darkness is not bottomless, you have just never been deep enough before.  Is it only in the blackest depths that a light can truly shine?

When your warrior shows you just how true she always was, and takes the life of the monster you have both come to love, do you feel the tears that she cries as she kills him, or is it just the release of your own shared darkness?

As you carry each other upwards to the surface, a piece of you is left down there, in the cold, in the black, in the darkness that is as it always was; a place for no-one to dwell.

One day you will return to retrieve that piece of yourself, when the loss has been blunted by time and you are ready to make yourself whole again.

When you can accept the true identity of your creation.

The Bad Man.