- Jericho -

It was mid monsoon and the rain had yet to wash away the stench of dirt from Malice’s hands. It was only a few months ago that he had told Talia about the unsettling thoughts that used to haunt his waking hours. How the voices had followed him ever since he saw the ditch along with the horrors it held within its dark recesses. The night had sown its seeds into his mind and wrapped its roots around his festering heart. He knew that he had resisted and ignored them for far too long and that giving up now would mean that he would not only fall into madness but also take everyone that had ever meant anything, with him. Malice had alwaysheld Talia in high regard. She was sweet and beautiful, the harbinger of glances,the subject of perverted discussions among both men and women alike; A mirror opposite to himself. Malice was the man with the lifeless smile, whose face was only as bright as Talia’s before or after tears. It seemed to Malice that shewas incapable of imperfection. Every gesture she made – a stray hair upon her flawless face, everything she did was infused with such effortless grace that he often found himself questioning why he meant so much to her. Questioning that yielded more queries than answers. It was a year ago this very month that they had decided on letting go off their innocence, to finally put an end to their 20 something years of partial existence. The night harbors innumerable terrors. The darkness between the silhouettes are portals, a gateway between the two dimensions, a bridge between the land of the living and the cavern of the deceased. Immoral creatures that once roamed the lands with beating hearts now rankle between the two planes, like butterflies with their wings ripped off and their minds experimented upon with butcher knives and sewing needles. Mindless bodies forever lost within the labyrinth of dark despair, aching for a quick sharp frost to end its disgraceful existence of perpetual anguish. As Malice emerge from their cocoon to gaze upon the light reflecting from the moon onto the clouds below it, he suddenly feels the presence of a thousand pair of eyes staring at them. The moon peers downupon a silent world; a little too silent for Malice. He walks towards the presence.Each step a fraction of a second slower than the one before. After a few minutes,he finds himself descending towards an opening on the ground. The moon, though bright, seemed like it was invulnerable to the gloom of the breach ahead of him.Once on the edge, Malice had to think twice before he finally decided to look down.The darkness was blinding, the emptiness – overwhelming. It seemed to Malicethat lives came to conclude itself here. The thought disgusted him. It was then that he realized that he had made a mistake by blindly following his curiosity.He knew that if he were to stay there any longer, he would risk going insane again. Insane like the time he witnessed Timothy getting run over by his neighbor’scar - Insane like the time he helplessly watched his father bite his mother’s arm in blind intoxicated rage as a child - Insane like the time he watched Talia stop blinking - Insane like the time he thought her veins were kite strings that could only be freed by cutting them off. It was only a month ago that he told Talia about the voices that followed him everywhere. May gave way to June and there were few complaints.