Cabin Fever

CHAPTER 12 – II

1939
Somewhere in Puget Sound

Twenty-one years
Silence rings my ears
Sweat, piss, tears
Incomprehensible fear
Imprisoned, unable to rear
Any remaining light in here

Geryman had been held captive in an old train car for almost half of his life. The wooden planks were made to be like metal bars after Carenf extracted much of Geryman’s once-potent energy and used it to reinforce the makeshift cell. The car was surrounded by a barren field surrounded by trees surrounded by water covered with fog. Pure isolation. There was a bed, reasonable room for movement, and restroom facilities (water was dropped off monthly, along with food and basic supplies, by nameless associates of those who imprisoned him). His brother and sister-in-law deemed this punishment just after the war that had turned a family/city/region against itself. Yet, didn’t he try to dissuade Urissa from her foolish actions? Didn’t he try to warn Glendan? Wasn’t he just following the direction of Harry Augustina?

Instead of magnanimity and grace, he felt he was treated with hatred and retribution. Glendan and Carenf had spared his life, sure, opting to isolate him in hopes of coming up with a solution to his “darkness problem.” But with each passing season, no plan had been formulated and it seemed to the captive that his captors – his family – began to compartmentalize his predicament and their obligation. First they may have thought it was for his own good…then it was for the best for society…then maybe that he deserved the suffering…and finally, they probably stopped thinking of him at all.

Who am I any longer?
Despair grows stronger
Uncertainty and doubts
Ever the fearmongers
Shaking, I shout
Shivering, no way out
Inner light’s a goner
Both flowers and weeds die in drought

Geryman had always been conflicted, pulled between poles. He had been born with a particular moral compass, genetically inherited and culturally groomed. He was born with a once in a generation gift, also inherited and also groomed. Most of the time, these two forces were in conflict. It was when they sang in harmony that true evil was possible. The lighter side of his human nature was being actively suffocated (unknowingly, yet uncaring) by Carenf and Glendan. It had taken years, but the dark harmonies would soon find voice and have an audience.

The stories we tell each other, that bind us
Contentious and cantankerous and dangerous
Avoid the extreme, live in between, stabilization
Let all things be moderate…even moderation