DNIF FLESRUOY

Blood on the mirror reflected a message unknown to Brodie.

“DNIF FLESRUOY”

What did it mean, he wondered before wiping off. It only smeared the glass giving a ominous red tint. Brodie would clean it up later, he was tired. He laid down on his black couch instantly feeling restrained.

“What the fu.” Brodie yelled before succumbing to blackness.

“Order Order!” The commanding voice yelled. Crowds of loud voices ceased and desisted as a quiet replaced the chaos.

“Where am I?” Brodie questioned. “Who are you people”

“You know us” a familiar voice replied coldly.

“Oh oh okay that helps, I totally know who you are now.” Brodie mocked before feeling a a stinging slap across his face.

“Sarcasm will not help you boy!”

Brodie growled while trying to attack his attacker. None of his body moved, and his muscles did not contract in the least. Brodie did not understand and was starting to feel powerless.

“Okay. What do you all want”

“You know what we want and what we need.” Smoke appeared from the distance where the black figures sat up high above Brodie.

“I won’t do it.” Brodie laughed and lowered his head. “I told you I quit, I cannot, I will not do it anymore.”

“Why not! You know you want to. You have nothing! So why not. Why quit now?”

“Because I choose to.” Brodie lamented as he raised his head high. “I lost everything, I lost the best part about me.”

“They abandoned you!” “They betrayed you when you needed them the most!” Voices in the crowd yelled.

“Yes.” Brodie shook his head as a tear escaped his eyes. “ But I betrayed them. I gave into drugs. I didn’t beat it. I wasn’t strong enough for them. If I loved them, I would had beat it.”

“So what makes you think you can beat it now?” One of the high figures spoke. “Even if you do miraculously manage to quit, you understand that you will die? You understand you have no community, no country”

Silence filled the space and gravity seemed to compress against Brodie’s body. Although there was pain, now he could move, now he had some sort of strength.

“You understand they have left you alone against a evil that you cannot possibly defeat on your own.”

“I no longer care. I have been doing this since I was teenager.” Memories flooded Brodie like a broken dam. “I have no friends left. I have no desire to make friends. Am I even human.”

None of the voices replied. Brodie saw images of fangs, but he suppressed the thought. It felt like more than his imagination though, it felt as if something was releasing from within him.

“You need to rethink this.” The voices started negotiate. “How about just a little. Just a little here and there to wing yourself off. You remember what happens when you stop?”

Brodie did indeed remember the intense withdrawals that came out of nowhere when he quit using. The first time he had no idea what was going on. People, ‘experts’ said no withdrawals could occur from the substance he used. But there was no doubt about it, what was occurring. His entire body went numb, he started to feel woozy, forced to lay down. Then a strange euphoria started from his toes, fingers, and head converging to the middle of his body leaving him in a stasis of sorts.

“I remember.” Brodie bravely continued to speak. “ I remember I have no career. No money. No nothing!”

Brodie could feel energies shift all around. He could end this all right now. All the evil the world had intended for him would be avoided and he could be in eternal peace.

“But that’s what they want.” Brodie calmed himself. “ They wanted me broke, homeless, and addicted to their poison. They wanted me to kill myself and look like just another common story of a talent wasted to narcotics.”

“And I don’t doubt they have successfully ended my only shot of happiness. Of finding true love. Of getting my love back. Getting my life back.”Brodie continued. “But I chose to enter the underworld. I was the weak one. I lost myself. So it’s up to me to end this cycle.”

“What about the hate inside you Brodie.”

“I don’t hate.”

Laughter erupted from the audience until the higher ones instantly stopped it. Although it was pitch black, Brodie could sense them raising their hand.Brodie realized he was not in some deep state of consciousness, but a foreign place.

Brodie twisted and tried to shake the urges coming to his body. The pleasurous possibilities invaded his mind relentlessly. He would not succumb this time though and he was leaving his captors. His captors did not try to hold him. They spoke in unison.

“Find Yourself”