2 Before I Met You...

I have never known a time before I had entered this cage of mine. Perhaps I had been born imprisoned. That would explain my lack of memories.

But... it is far more likely that I have forgotten. Those memories of mine are nonexistent and perhaps my memories of you will also...

Already my memories of you are growing fainter. Already the warmth of your hands is fading from memory.

I am growing old... right? What else can explain my forgetfulness? How else could I ever forget you?

I have lived for hundreds, no, thousands of years all without change. Before I met you, time was unremitting for all but me.

In this prison, in this cage, time stops. Everyone, everything, is affected by time...

Before it could be said that nothing can withstand the ravages of time but I...

For under the influences of time, I am unchanging. I am unfeeling. I am nothing.

But you....

You changed this never-changing me. I, who was never once influenced by the changes that time brings, am starting to feel it's affects.

Time is unforgiving. Time wears down these emotions of mine. It steals these memories of you.

But even as these memories of you fade from mind, I can still remember how we came to meet.

How injured you were, but how even more injured I was.

I will never forget...

I can never forget. You are my sunshine, my sun, and without you I do not live.

Live...

Yes, without you I do not live. My heart does not beat, my lungs do not breath and my eyes do not see.

I hear nothing. I...

I am nothing without you.

In that time without you, in that time before I met you, I did not live.

My heart did not beat before I met you. You are my sunshine, my light in this darkness.

I can not live without you, but I...

I am merely a memory.

In that time before we met, I stayed within my cage never wishing to escape.

For what was there for me to escape? Where was I to ever go?

I was nothing but a fragment. A piece of a forgotten memory.

In that time before we met, I had grown used to this ever present chill. I had grown used to the all encompassing darkness.

I had learned to see without opening my eyes. I was in a world without light, in a world without others.

The trees, the sunlight, the birds and animals...

Humans and elves...

Dragons and dwarves...

All this that you spoke of never existed in my world before I met you.

In this cage of mine, I am alone. I have never seen nor heard of such beautiful fantasies before I met you.

Such fantasies do not exist in this world of mine.

But you are the light in this dark, dark world. You taught me to see, to listen to my surroundings.

You are my sun and without you I can not live. I can not see without your presence.

You have left me blind, you have left me cold, unfeeling.

I can not breath, I can not hear.

Why did you have to leave me?

I am alone in this cage of mine.

These metal bars are cold. They keep me captive. I am a prisoner, yet I have never once thought to escape before you came.

I could not see them. I could not feel them. Before I met you I was unknowing.

No, I was uncaring. I could be held captive for a hundred more years. A thousand more and I would have never cared.

If only we had never met, then this feeling of mine, this coldness in my heart would never had come to awareness.

If we had never met then I would have never known what I did not have. I would have never wanted for what I can never have.

I would have never known the feeling of warmth, I would have never learned to wish.

If we had never met, you would have never feel that sadness because of me.

I still remember how red your eyes would get, how watery they would appear.

You would say that you were sad. That you were in pain.

In pain because of me. You would say that you would free me.

You would bring me to a place far, far away from here.

You would rescue me. You would save me.

Before I met you, I had never needed to be rescued, but if it was you...

You would rescue me. Wouldn't you?

But now...

I can only ask,

Where did you go?

Who will rescue me now that you are gone?

I can only hope and believe.

I can only wish and imagine.

I can only....

I can...

I can only forget and blame you.

Why did we have to meet?

Why did you have to leave me?

You have left me alone in this darkness. You have left me cold and unfeeling.

I have returned to that time before I met you, but why...

Why is it so unbearable?

Before I met you I was always alone, so what is this pain that I feel now that you are gone?

I was but a mere fragment of a long-forgotten memory.

I was the forgotten child. The lost one.

Only something as evil as I can exist in this cage of mine.

I am a child of darkness, of evil.

You can not rescue me. You can not save me.

I have been locked up for a reason, the same reason I have not escaped this cage of mine.

There is a reason I am here.

There is a reason that I allow myself to be chained down, a reason that I have never left.

You, the you that has always lived under the sun, will never comprehend the purpose of this cage.

You will never understand why I stayed here.

Even I can barely remember why I stayed, but I know...

I am a prisoner to my own emotions.

I am a prisoner to my own memories.

That is why you, the you who brought light to this dark world of mine, were never supposed to have met me.

We were never supposed to have met.

Before I met you...

I was happy.