"Why do you exist?" he asked them.
"We exist because YOU exist. You are our reason for being, just as our reason will be yours. We have watched you since your life began, and we will watch until you are passed on. Your entire life has been filled by us." The demons each taking a part, multitonal and of different projections, saturated in a sense of loving and dread.
The man, ragged breaths labored in pain and struggle, were drawn into his frail existence.
"So when I tried to ask Sarah Dermon out back in the 5th Grade..."
The demons tilted there heads in the same angle, at the same time. Shadows covering their faces, except for the same blank white eyes, no pupils, and seemingly separate from their heads entirely.
"You had no need for her. We were all you needed. We are your mother and your father. We are your lover and your child. As we have told you, your entire life has been filled by us."
The man saw the deep affection the demons had for him, tears beginning to well up in his eyes. Did these things truly love him? Were these things toying with him? Why, out of all of these years of loneliness, desperation, separation and agony, did these things finally come to him, and tell him all this? He didn't know, and as his eyes and body began to grow heavy, didn't care.
"I had no children because of you? I had no real LIFE because of you? I couldn't BE SOMEONE because of YOU?! WHY?! WHY TELL ME THIS NOW?! IF YOU LOVED ME, THEN I WOULD HAVE BEEN MARRIED! BEEN A FATHER!BEEN LOVED!"
"But you were loved. We love you. We have, and always will, love you. You are growing tired. Rest now. And let our love put you at ease."
The machines to monitor the man's vitals were beginning to go haywire, beeping and buzzing loudly. The man trained his eyes on the things by his bed, fighting the urge to be drug into an uneasy slumber. The things closed their seemingly lidless eyes, one being at a time, until only one remained. This one, darkest shadows with the brightest white eyes, stared at him so deeply, that he could not help but feel that it was looking directly into his soul. Disturbing, but with a sense of peace in knowing that it cared for him.
The man knew at that moment that this thing truly cared for him. He knew this thing, whatever it was, wanted him to know that it loved him. And all it wanted was for him to be at peace. So, with one last release, the man closed his eyes, and slept.
Then the man woke up.
He was in a room full of children, freshly born, swathed and cared for. He looked at all the demons before him, and saw that they stared back at him. And slowly they turned towards a child, laying in her place. They all made room for their newest and urged him to look at her. The man did not know why they wanted him to look. He thought he should get someone, a nurse, a doctor, a parent, ANY ONE. He knew that these things had an intention that was alien to know. But he knew he had to find it, and he knew it laid with the child.
So, with care and trepidation, he took the spot he was urged, looking at the others around him, and carefully turned his head towards the child.
All at once, he realized why they wanted him to look at her. She was small, so delicate, so hopeful. She was all potential that was ever available. She was to be loved, admired, adored. She was to be something to someone, and everything to everyone. She was to be, and that was what her purpose in life was. The man, looked at the child, smiled, and knew that his love was the only thing she was going to know.
The child stared up at the shadowed figures as their obscured faces seem to contort into what passed for a smile, their eyes bright white and deeply turned on her. They all tilted their heads at the exact same time, in the exact same angle.
They all knew, in the same exact thought, what their purpose was. To have her know their love. To be her love. And to have her grow in their grace, and share their love with another. For that is what love is truly about. And it's what they wanted. For they were her companions.
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