A Grim Epiphany

As I walked through the darkened halls of the decaying wood, a disturbing howl that screeched in my ears haunted my every step. Approaching ever closer as I walked forward, it became louder and louder until it unbearably pierced every thought and intention. 

At last, in the dusky hollow of withered trees, I came upon a dark figure robed in black, holding a sickle. 

 

This dark being, this murderous creature, from whom I averted my eyes in life now met me here in my final hour. 

“I have come to relieve the earth of you,” he said. His voice was that of the horrible sound that filled the wood and had caused what once flourished to die.

I answered, “I have made my plans for the future. I have not yet taken all the world could offer me. What foul thing would take a man from his happiness? Truly, you are a hateful creature to be loathed by all who would live on if they were but permitted.”

“Approach,” he commanded. And so I did, and when I looked into his face, to my horror, I saw that it was my own. Upon his sickle were written all of my sins, the kind committed by all men from Adam down that have brought the world to ruin, pleasures taken at its expense, evils that creation could no longer endure. 

It was not some dark angel or even God Himself that all my life I had dreaded to meet in this despairing place after all, for I was the only murderer here. 

I bowed my head, the sickle fell, and the rotted wood turned green and silent.