“Who or what am I really?”, Old Richard suddenly inquired of the night.
“Am I a good man who’s done terrible things to deserve such a plight?”
“Or was I always profoundly wicked only now in hell trying to atone?”
The void answered nothing, quite content to let Richard ponder alone.
“Why did she have to leave me? Was I not good enough for her touch?”
“Was I not good enough to keep her? Did I not love enough or too much?”
To this, the darkness answered, for it would not abide the truth to sway.
“You lie Old Richard, it was not her who left but you that pushed her away.”
Richard cried “Why won’t this night end? Why won’t this suffering cease?”
“Why does her lingering shadow still haunt me? When will I find peace?”
“Why do you, fiend, find such satisfaction in torturing me with the past?”
“When will this Endless Night end? When will the day break at long last?”
Richard roared and ranted. His sound of fury filled the dark and starless sky.
The darkness replied with laughter, “This night ends finally when you die”
“She was your Sun, your warmth, and you sent her away, far from sight.”
“What’s left without the Sun, dear Richard, is the place of Endless Night.”
“My purpose in this place you created is to force you to keep truth in view.”
“Because you’d like to paint yourself as the victim no matter how untrue”
“Oh Poor righteous Richard!”, the darkness mocked him in earnest glee.
“The truth in your black heart is that the darkness is you and you are me.”
