The Omnipotent Window

The outside world was unknown to her, but she could see a glimpse of it through the window in his room. The room was his but it was her that never left. Bound by fear of not knowing what there was to fear, her addiction was the stories told to her by the window’s visitors behind the glass. They came to speak to her about the monsters and terrors that lurked beyond the walls. She sat all day and all night soaking in all the stories the visitors had to offer. They spoke in a language of us and them. “We the good, all the others the evil.”

Bound to her chair by fear, she dared not move or avert her gaze for fear of not knowing what there was to fear was the scariest thing of all. The glass in front of her and the people who visited from beyond carried with them all the knowledge she would ever need to have. The visitors told her about the world and the state of the decay it was in. They reported on who was in it and who deserved her hate. Fear and anger danced together in her mind creating around a fire of desire to see all of them lay to waste.

She was dedicated to the window and her friends that spoke from behind the glass. The people in the window knew all. They reported the truth. When they were angry, she became angry. When they told her to fear, she was afraid. And when they told her what to believe, she believed without question. For her life and country depended on it. They spoke with such passion and certitude of the impending doom. She knew that the perfect world she had grown up in was crumbling to ruins. These others had come to change perfection into destruction.

He was not so lucky. Every morning he had to make the perilous venture into the dark world to bring back food and supplies they needed to survive—a sacrifice he made that she thought he was almost too eager to complete. Although she tried to warn him, he could never truly comprehend the war that was going on in the world between us and them. He did not listen to the stories directly from the window’s visitors as religiously as she did. She knew if or when that day were to come, she would need to protect herself. It is why she always kept her protection loaded with silver right by her side.

The protection was necessary to protect her from them. They were out to get her, the visitors told her. They were coming for her very way of life and all that she had built. Her house and her family would be lost forever if they were to win. They were after her protection for it was used to stop evil. She would be victorious, her diligence would be rewarded.

Then came the day when he had the nerve to question a visitor’s report. How would he know? He has not done the research that she has done. He does not watch the window’s visitors without fail. He doesn’t understand. She is the one that listens to the window’s visitors everyday. She knew that her worst fears had come to fruition—that he had been compromised and was now one of them. The “others” the visitors had warned her about. She grabbed her protection from her side and protected herself. His corpse fell to the ground as she turned back to the window, safe from all harm. The visitor’s report continued…”be careful who you trust.”