Stumbling upon what couldn't be there
She hesitated
Not knowing what was perceived.
She should have fled
If only she had fled.
She cursed herself
Knowing that
In her final moment
She had damned herself.
For nothing could be more cruel
Than to gaze upon the last rue.
It was over
But she could still make it
With her last strength
She could escape it.
"Turn!" she screamed
"Run." she pleaded
But the body was deaf
A doll without its strings
A mind that could only scream.
Her world had shifted
Turning over on itself
Like a vessel
Riding the many tides of a vast sea.
She was inside then
A place that couldn't be there.
Knowing that nothing could be done
That she could not simply run
She gazed at it
Fascinated by its impossibilities.
Everything that made it
Everything that maintained it
Were far beyond impossible
And completely inconceivable.
As it spoke
The air shifted
Becoming heavier
As if to crush her.
And the voice
It was the husk of a storm
Wielding so much power
The very earth would perish in its fury.
Its words were clear
Though she did not know their origins
She knew them as she knew her own.
It would not harm her
And with this knowledge she finally drew breath
It knew her
And with this knowledge she felt unease
It knew them all
And with this knowledge she felt fright.
It had been here
Long before they
It had existed
Long before they.
It had been hunted
Time and time again
It had grown tired
Time and time again.
It had slayed
Everyone who came
It had slaughtered
Legions
It had destroyed
Great cities.
It had played its hand
In countless lives
It had altered their fate
As a cliff alters a river's path.
It cared naught
For their lives
It cared little
For their feuds.
It simply existed
As it pleased
When it pleased
And how it pleased.
It would even cease
When it pleased.
Until then
It would exist
Time and time again.
With this
She knew
The time had come
There was no choice
She had no voice.
It would decide
In her stead
What would become.
Her fate
Would cease
Her future
Would cease.
She was now his
A doll
To do with
As it pleased.
She knew not
What would become of her
She cared not
What would happen to her.
It was time
As it always had been
Time and time again.
For what choice
Does a river have
When it stumbles
Upon a cliff.