Something I Ate

You ate it.

You had watched other people eat it.

You had put it in other people's mouths for them to eat.

But you hadn't eaten it yourself.

Until you did.

When you tasted it, you instantly knew something was wrong.

In fact, the taste of it was so powerful that it made you question calling it "it" at all.

"Wait a minute, is that a soul?" you asked yourself. "Is it alive?"

"What did I just do?" You thought.

What happened afterward encouraged the idea that you had committed some grave sacrilege.

A plague was declared.

"Did I do that?" you wondered.

The people around you began to cover their mouths in public, and most of them demanded that you do the same.

The zealous devotion to covering your mouth in public was eerie. People who you remembered forgetting homework or meals always remembered their mask.

And the plague didn't claim anyone that you knew, which made the whole thing seem like some sort of supernatural spanking, instead of a proper plague.

You were kicked out of certain stores for not covering your mouth.

You were kicked out of the hospital soon after your son was born, for not wearing a mask. The futility of covering your mouth for your son's birth made you furious. You lived with her, and she was unmasked, so how was the room made safer by forcing you to wear a mask?

You talked about this with other people, and none of them seemed to defend you.

Your friends and career opportunities slowly left you for more obedient men.

"Boundaries, Aidan!" he shouted, as if the right to breathe fresh air isn't a boundary.

You isolated, and tried to self-improve. You could only guess at what the hell had actually happened.

"It is considered Atlantean territory?" you asked yourself. "But it's in my body...how can another realm own something in my body?"

You thought.

You waited.

"Did I curse God and go to Hell?" you asked yourself. "Was that against the rules?"

You thought.

You waited.

Eventually you found some people protesting mask requirements in stores.

Then you found some people protesting forced vaccinations.

Slowly, your network grew again.

You found businesses that let their customers breathe fresh air.

You found jobs that didn't require the vaccine.

And you found your toughness, as you learned to rely on only yourself, if necessary.