Talisman VIII of VIII
Inferno
There.
You finally see it.
The wanting.
The taking.
The hunger.
The faces
you kept mistaking
for memories.
You thought
we were haunting you.
We weren’t.
We were waiting.
Every room
you walked into
was one
you had already built.
Every voice
you heard
belonged to someone
you left behind.
You kept asking
what happened to you.
Why everything
felt familiar.
Why every door
opened downward.
Why no one
came when you called.
You thought
this was punishment.
Something being done
to you.
Of course you did.
Even here,
you found a way
to make yourself
the victim.
But look around.
Really look.
The mouths.
The hands.
The names.
The things
you swallowed.
The things
you buried.
The people
you broke
then blamed
for bleeding.
We were never
leading you somewhere.
We were showing you
where you already were.
Lust.
Greed.
Gluttony.
Envy.
Sloth.
Pride.
Wrath.
Not doors.
Not trials.
Not lessons.
Evidence.
You wanted
to know
why you were here.
So we told you.
Seven times.
And still
you needed
an eighth.
So here it is.
No metaphor.
No mercy.
No one left
to rewrite the ending.
You are not
descending into Hell.
You have been here
the whole time.
And we were never
your witnesses.
We were your judgment.
Every voice
you silenced.
Every life
you entered
and left bleeding.
Every person
you taught
to fear your name.
We held your fate
long before
you knew
there was one
to hold.
And now
we have sealed it.
You will want again.
Take again.
Feed again.
Break again.
Abandon.
Lie.
Rage.
Again.
Again.
Again.
And every time,
you will find us
waiting.
You will do to us
everything
you already did.
And we will remember
every time.
You won’t get
to forget.
You won’t get
to change the story.
This is simply
what you chose
made eternal.
And the fire
was never
waiting for you.
It was you.
From Seven Ways to Be Damned
by Z.C. Mayson