I, The Cog

I sit here, on the ledge of a maze of concrete, technology and pain.

The last thing I remember is what it felt like to be praised without any purpose. Now I sit here at the ledge of a maze. Its walls filled with the memories I've made and forgotten, the path forward hidden by twists and turns.

And yet I'm told to continue, the voices of beings I'm not aware of echo within my skull. The silence I yearn for is theirs to trample.

The maze of my mind, my emotions and my dishonesty. Never did I show someone myself and yet here I am. Sat at the edge with the body of child and a mind terrified of age. Losing myself to the inevitable.

My own personal hell, no different from what came before and yet infinitely worse. Taking the leap. Accepting the maze as a part of me. I can't do it. Everything about me. A construct designed to find me pleasure, and yet all I ever find is a fleeting moment of joy. Truly a feeling I shan't wish on anyone or anything.

I look towards the stars for guidance and find a fog corrupted by my peers. A sky ruined by humanity. The sky is beautiful. Why have we hidden it from ourselves. Fawning over minerals and gems, given value by man and no one else. A doe runs past.

Its legs crooked, and yet it keeps going. A simpler being perhaps. But why should that change anything. We are animals all the same as them and yet because we've been granted the curse of intelligence were here, and they're there.

And then it goes, and yet to us it only matters, if its the piercing metal of modern society or, if its in flames. And I follow it, for as long as i care to exist within its "lesser" presence.

I watch as it turns and skips past the looming gates that drive along the roof of every corridor. I follow. It keeps going. I can't find it. It dies. I keep looking. It rots. I weep. Maggots feast. I run past a pile of bones. I give up.

The walls tremble in agony. The ground covered in dirt and grime. The closer I get to the centre the more I see it. The carelessness of society. The ruin the comes to everyone. Time.

The stars dim, and I watch as my hope fades away. Into the darkness of the night, I accept what comes. Even if I cannot understand it.

I press on, past the doorways and stench of my decisions. I find the end. A pit into the unknown. A pit into the future. And a pit into my past. I look down. Fear wells within me. I keep looking. Its telling me to run. I keep looking. I need to leave.

The pit fades into the hell of my design. I find myself back on the ledge of a maze of concrete, technology and pain.