We rode into town the other day

Just me and my Daddy

He said I'd finally reached that age

And I could ride next to him on a horse

That of course was not quite as wide

We heard a crowd of people shouting

And so we stopped to find out why

And there was that man

That my dad said he loved

But today there was fear in his eyes

So I said "Daddy, why are they screaming?

Why are the faces of some of them beaming?

Why is He dressed in that bright purple robe?

I'll bet that crown hurts Him more than He shows

Daddy, please can't you do something?

He looks as though He's gonna cry

you said he was stronger than all of those guys

Daddy, please tell me why

Why does everyone want him to die?"

Later that day the sky grew cloudy

And Daddy said I should go inside

Somehow he knew things would get stormy

Boy was he right

But I could not keep from wondering

If there was something he had to hide

So after he left I had to find out

I was not afraid of getting lost

So I followed the crowds

To a hill where I knew men had been killed

And I heard a voice come from the cross

And it said, "Father, why are they screaming?

Why are the faces of some of them beaming?

Why are they casting their lots for My robe?

This crown of thorns hurts Me more than it shows

Father, please can't You do something?

I know that You must hear My cry

I thought I could handle the cross of this size

Father, remind Me why

Why does everyone want Me to die?

When will I understand why?"

"My precious Son, I hear them screaming

I'm watching the face of the enemy beaming

But soon I will clothe You in robes of My own

Jesus, this hurts Me much more than You know

But this dark hour I must do nothing

Though I've heard Your unbearable cry

The power in Your blood destroys all of the lies

Soon You'll see past their unmerciful eyes

Look there below, see the child

Trembling by her father's side

Now I can tell You why

She is why You must die"

"I see a mountain at my gates." - FOALS

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_EIE5f2t6M)

Headlights cut through the morning mist as Ben left his home at the usual time. He reached the regular turn, only to head left towards the freeway instead of right towards the office.

It was still a workday, and the steady stream of traffic crawled along as he drove past in the other direction. Away from the city and its sleepy, coffee-fueled ants beginning their daily grind. Ben knew their lot well. He pushed down on the gas, not bothering to look back.

A soft voice echoed in the seat to his right as his phone navigated the route to his destination. He hadn't been there before, despite it only being thirty miles away. Today though that would change. The freeway sprawled ahead of him as he sped towards it - the mountain.

Ben saw the mountain everyday from his cubicle. It loomed larger than life in the distance, blocking out the sunlight that heated half the building like the surface of Venus while the other half froze in over-cranked air conditioning. He rarely took breaks during his wordays, but every so often he would look out and gaze at the misty peaks so far from his reach.

At night, when he had worked another twelve or fourteen hour shift, the mountain seemed to grow in the moonlight. Its dark peaks towered over him as he trudged out to the parking lot, and he sometimes imagined a giant demon sitting on top watching him and laughing at his mediocre life.

Not today, though.

Today, he would make that demon eat its own laughter.

The navigator pointed out his upcoming exit and Ben slowed slightly, heading off the freeway onto the side streets of a bedroom city. The overpriced condos and apartments stood empty in the morning dew, their drones out earning more money to feed their insatiable rents and HOA dues. He drove past, stopping every now and then at a light, until the city gradually fell away and the road narrowed to one lane. The navigator directed him right, and he headed east towards into the treeline.

The mist grew thicker, and he flipped on his highbeams as the narrow road wound slowly upwards. He took the turns faster than he should, his foot feeding the gas and avoiding the brake. He passed small houses with white picket fences and stone paved lanes. A small cemetery, with its silent rows of granite tombstones, watched as he sped by. The buildings grew farther and farther apart until the faded wood sign announced his entry into the park.

Shifting into a lower gear, he took the turn past the signpost and up the side of the mountain. The turns hugged the steep curves and cliffs, with only a small concrete burm between him and oblivion. As he rose he saw the black, burned out stumps of the trees which had suffered through the last rash of wildfires. They huddled by the roadside, charred and broken, yet still standing somehow. In the distance behind them he saw the lake and its clear ripples moving in the wind. The morning sun lit its waters, its reflection turning it a warm orange that glimmered as if the fires had somehow spread from its banks. Ben kept it in the corner of his eye, still speeding up the mountain. He couldn't stop here.

As he reached the second signpost, his gas light lit up. He had forgotten to fill his tank before his journey, and the incline had drained his quarter tank. Urging his small commuter forward, he continued ever upwards, driving another seven miles until he finally reached the top.

The small ranger shack and solar-powered pay station took some of the intimidation factor out of the mountain top. He pulled into a dimly lined parking spot and let his gas-starved ride rest. Fishing his credit card out of his wallet, he paid his dues and headed out towards the trail markers past the ranger station.

Besides a handful of dedicated joggers, the mountain stood deserted as Ben approached it. He had no backpack or water, just his earbuds which he pulled from his pocket and plugged into his phone. A pre-set playlist set the background for his ascent as he walked, slow and determined, towards the apex. He breathed deep, his weary lungs gasping for breath in the thin air. Yet he pressed on, ignoring his aching gut and hamstrings.

The mountain had challenged him, and he wouldn't back down now.

After about half a mile, a side trail split off from the main loop. Ben considered it, either the dusty deer trail or the paved main path. The trail seemed to head out towards an outcropping of rocks, which looked halfway climable. He made his choice.

After another half mile, he had reached the outcropping and realized it was easily climable, even for him. Carefully, he crept out over the top and stopped. The craggy rocks formed a mound that seemed to fill the sky, gradually giving way to the clouds and earth below. A hawk rose from the mist and flew past him on the right, gliding over the green edges of the mountain as it soared downwards towards the base. He watched in awe, feeling no vertigo or fear as he had imagined. Just a heavy sense of wonder.

Below he saw the bedroom city, the freeway, the tiny office buildings - even his own, somewhere - small and insignificant beneath his feet. The green and blackened patchwork of trees and hillside surrounded them, engulfing them with their natural beauty. All Ben's daily cares - his job, his car, his house - seemed so tiny now.

So this is what you were laughing at, he thought.

He smiled.

Then he and the mountain sat together for awhile.

Based on A Sadness runs Through Him by The Hoosiers

There are two kinds of twins in the world. Best friends, and mortal enemies. He was once one, now he has become the other. From childhood he has been in the shadows. They were as close as siblings could be, but one was always better. He was a shadow, the other was light. Light never has to fight for anything. Shadows struggle to survive.

One day, the shadow gave up on the light. He let himself drown in darkness. Now he hunts. He does not run in fear. He has become better. And he will make sure the light knows it.

I am the light. I took something he thought was his, and he let the cracks in his heart turn to veins of poison. He ran, and when he finally stopped, he had nowhere to go. Until the serpent came, and offered him redemption. He went with them, and his mind lost all concept of empathy. He was gone.

He is no longer my brother.

Impatient to be better, now lost to oblivion.

He became a puppet, but his strings led elsewhere.

He has tried to get revenge for so long. Now he is here. I step back, aware that there is a wall behind me that will prevent me from going further. I am trapped. This is it.

"Don't look at me with those eyes," he sings softly, something in his gaze softening for a moment. But only for a moment...

Then it is gone, and the bullet fires.

He couldn't be saved.

And now I am gone.

I go through city after city, town after town.

Like water chasing whiskey it still burns to drown her out

I am a Stranger to no one but love is never found

I wish Melissa was around

I hide my pain and I fake a smile

Inside im Knowing all the while

That I'll run back a million miles

For Melissa

Sitting in this old boxcar I stick to myself.

I dont have to say it but others sense I need some help

No one lends an ear so I don't let out a yelp

About Melissa.

My clothes are all tattered and I have no blanket to sleep

You in my dreams are the memories I keep

The gypsy I long for is waiting on me

Poor Melissa

Another lonely morning where im just basking in the sun

Lord, I have to keep my face on but I still know Im on the run

What happened to the days when I had all the fun

With Melissa

Another lonely ride I can't seem to ever leave

Never made it back but now it's getting hard to breath

Will I die and be left inbetween or will my spirit be released

I miss you, Sweet.

I love you, Sweet.

Sweet, sweet, Melissa.

Based off: I'm Ready by Niykee Heaton

Love is dead, and I was on my way to dying. My eyes blurred as my head hit the ground, the energy almost completely drained out of me. Through my fading vision I could see the silhouette of my boyfriend walking away from me, probably to get something sharp to finish the job with. I don’t know how it had happened, he had never been violent before; it was like he just snapped. I thought we were having a light hearted argument, and then he started screaming. He was so loud, screaming and yelling and spit flying, veins popping, face going red.

My head felt like it was filled with cement and the kitchen was water. My throat burned, and the bruises everywhere on me burned and stung. I couldn’t even gather enough energy to cry out in pain. The only thing that seemed to work was my mind. I was thinking a mile a minute, how he was going to kill me, how he was going to end it, how he was going to get rid of me.

I prayed. I was never a religious person, I couldn’t believe a god was out there and allowed all the hatred and this destruction. But in my final moments, I decided to pray. Pray that I didn’t become a number, a statistic. Pray that I would be remembered, that I would be missed. Pray that maybe, just maybe, I don’t die tonight.

And someone heard.

She came like moonlight, cold light shining almost outwards of her. A small girl, maybe 10 years old, was standing in the doorway of our apartment. She looked at me, broken and bleeding on the floor, tears seeping from my puffed up eyes. Then she looked at Aaron. Standing three feet away, bruised and bloodied knuckles wrapped tightly around the handle of a knife. My parents had given us that knife set, where we told them we had bought an apartment.

“Who the hell are you?” Aaron asked. He looked at the girl threateningly and for some reason a chilling sense of foreboding washed over me. I didn’t know how, but I know that he shouldn’t have talked to her that way.

“You do not know me, boy,” she bit out scathingly, “and I pity all who know such a poisonous person; if you can even be called that.”

I was losing consciousness, and I didn’t want to. I was scared. Scared the little girl wouldn’t be able to help me, scared Aaron would kill me and then her. Scared that Aaron might kill some other innocent woman.

“Who the fuck do you think you are little girl,” Aaron growled, wobbling closer to her. His four beers were getting to him, and he was starting to waver as much as me.

“Don’t you dare,” she hissed standing up taller. “Ever talk to a woman like that. Don’t you dare,” she reminded me of the cat I had found was I was a kid, hissing and spitting, defending her young. “Ever touch a woman again. You do not deserve anything but death, and I shall give it to you.” Her words started to leave her mouth, echoing around the room, swimming all around me, lulling me to sleep.

___

I woke up in what looked like a room. Except the walls were cloth, and the ground felt like grass. And I could move. I could see, and I could hear, and my body no longer felt covered in aches and scratches and bruises. I lifted my head, looking around. I was in a tent, but it was the fanciest tent I had ever seen. There were thick rugs covering the floor, comfortable chairs placed around the large space. There was also a fireplace, somehow.

And the girl. The girl from my apartment. I was in a tent, with a strange girl who found me while my boyfriend was about to kill me. I had so many questions and yet I did not know how to phrase any of them. I don’t think I’d even be able to say thank you.

She glanced at me, eyes searching for something, scanning my face. Her eyes I then realized were silver, like the glow of a star. That’s an odd thing to compare it to but it

seemed appropriate.

“Don’t try to talk, my child,” the girl said. She didn’t sound like a girl. She sounded old, like she had seen civilizations rise and fall and rise again. “I know what you want to say, I know you have much to ask, but there are some things you must understand before I can answer your questions. May I continue?” I nodded my head. “I am Artemis, goddess of the hunt, of chastity, of the moon. I find girls, just like you, who have been wronged by men, and I make them my companions. I give them eternal life in exchange for a vow of chastity, a vow to never be intimate with a man. Do you understand?”

I nodded numbly. I had learned about Artemis in school, in one of my history classes. It was a brief lesson of all the gods, and if she was real then all the others were real. And I believed her. She somehow got me away from Aaron, healed me, and has a fireplace in her tent. I can buy her being an immortal millenia old goddess of the hunt.

“Do you pledge to follow me, from hunt to hunt, day to day?” I nodded. “Do you pledge to uphold your vow of abstinence?” I nodded. “It is done,” she finished. At first I didn’t feel any different, but then it was like my senses sharpened. Like I was watching a 1080p video. Like I could see movements before they came. I could smell everything so much better. The tent smelt like the forest, and hot chocolate. I could hear feathers rustling outside, a swish of a tail and people walking around, quietly murmuring to each other.

And I could see. Oh, I could see the different shades of silver in Artemis’ eyes, the coldness and the warmth buried deep underneath.

“Rise child, there is much for you to learn.”

I was born for this, as I later discovered over the years. Everything that made me me had been repressed, by Aaron, by my parents, by the people I thought loved me. There was only the Hunters, and Artemis. They were my real family, they cherished me. They valued me. And I valued them. We travelled everywhere together, hunting monsters. Both myth and real. We killed monsters who prayed on humans, mostly on females. We saved them, As I had been saved.

This is what I was born for. Feet pounding into the ground, my breath coming out in short pants. Wind ripping through my hair, pulling at any loose strands. My hands on my bow, feeling the feathers on the arrows. This is what it was to be free, to be fully you, with nobody there to censor any part of you they didn’t like.

Sometimes I missed love, romantic love, but then I remembered. I remembered Aaron, and the one before that, and all the others we stumbled upon. Angie’s Mike. Penny’s Jared. Sasha, David. He was the worst. Because he did not value Sasha. He did not uphold his promise, to love her, to care for her, and only her. Because he was fucking other girls behind her back, while she worked hard all day so they could spend their days together.

Artemis turned him into a jackalope. We hunted him down, and I could see the fear in his eyes. He did not understand what was happening. He died not knowing why he died.

I was born for this. The wind, the freedom, the truth, the hunt.