The Beginning In the beginning there was the abyss and the abyss brought forth life and the abyss was life. The life it brought forth was shaped in its image and the abyss was off them and they both were the abyss and were of it In time the children of the abyss began to fear their parent and its presence within them. As this fear took hold of their hearts, over the aeons, they started to try and fill the void inside them with the sort of emptiness that was thus far unknown to the world. They invented their own origin stories and fought over which of those made up stories was what they would call ‘truth’. They created a big game of chance so that they could spend their time trying to win it, all the while knowing it was rigged a long time ago and even if one would win it, they would find the rewards lacking. They came up with qualities for their false idols to possess for the purpose that others might see it and begrudgingly admire them so they were more easily controlled. The story they constructed was so convincing and held firm through so many generations of children of the abyss that the abyss became a mere spectre in the blindspot of the world. It forgot what it was and even if it was older than time, felt that its children may see something that the abyss had missed. In its misery the way it saw itself diminished in the shadow of the creations of its children. One day a small boy with as yet untamed light in his eyes came to the abyss and started playing on the edge of the great chasm. The abyss was awoken by the sudden sounds of laughter the child produced. Fear had not yet taken root in his heart and the ways of his people were still foreign. The boy seemed to recognize innately that he and the abyss had something in common. He stared into the dark depths as if looking for something. And the abyss thought he too may see something that it had missed. The boy however hadn’t thought of the abyss in other ways than it being new and unknown. It was an adventure every day to play along its edges and frighten his parents and in fact all of his brethren. This continued for years and as the boy grew and his visits to the abyss became more and more contemplative, he felt the urge to talk about the mystery just on the doorstep of his world that had by now become like an old friend. Because his people could never get past their fear of the abyss, the boy felt lonely and not being able to share what was growing in his heart, saddened him each day.

The Middle One day out of frustration the boy shouted: ‘WHY ARE YOU SO EMPTY?!’ into the depths so that no one could hear him, for while the waves of sound the question produced were towards the abyss, the sentiment was actually aimed at himself. The boy felt the ancient void inside himself and even if others shared this feeling, no one ever spoke about it. The abyss was taken aback by the sudden inquiry being levelled at it so aggressively that it triggered the knowledge and confidence it always had and made it remember who it was. Emptiness was invented by its children, it realised, a word for things they could not perceive and an ever enveloping and developing entity amongst them. It itself was full, richer than anything on the surface, a refuge for anything it could contain and the source for all that was. The abyss did something it had not done in how long it could not remember and answered: ‘Empty is the blindness of those who can see’ said the abyss . The boy was in turn startled, having inadvertently started a conversation with something beyond his understanding. Though he had understood what was said he knew he hadn’t used his ears to take the answer in, the answer was something that reverberated in a part of himself that he could not define. The innate connection he felt but not understood as a young boy suddenly made sense to him. From that point the abyss and the boy had no secrets for one another. The boy asked the abyss its name and many questions about its existence but a lot of the answers the abyss gave were far beyond him to understand. The abyss in turn heard all about what its children had built and created and while it was impressed with their ingenuity and their sheer will to burrow blindly looking for something that wasn’t there, a lot of it was just far beyond it to understand This relationship between the abyss and what it kept perceiving as being a boy, now a grown man, continued. The boy tried to get his people to break with their games and distractions to look the abyss in the face and perhaps gain something, but to no avail. The boy remained a lonely man and kept deepening his bond with the abyss and to try to make his people see the light, until the end of his time on the surface drew near. His hair had become long and gray, his body brittle even though it still had a silent dignity about it that commanded more respect than any of his developed muscles had done in his younger years.

The End When the boy came to the abyss for what he thought would be the last time he asked the great chasm: ‘How do you perceive me, old friend?’ The rumblings the abyss produced moved through the boy as they had done so many times, but this was the warmest they had ever had him feel. The abyss said: ‘My child, where others may perceive the changes your shell has undergone and treat you differently because of it, I will always see the essence that moves you. The lifeforce we share, the beautiful that stretches further than it has any right to do. To me you will always be the pure spirit that found connection without looking and found it in the most unlikely of places.’ Perceiving the sentiments of his oldest and only friend the boy requested to return to the depths of where his ancient ancestors sprung forth from. The abyss understood and felt joy that one of his children had chosen to return. As the boy stepped over the edge he had expected to fall but nothing like that happened. There was a slow descent as he finally felt the thing that his people called ‘empty’ and it was nothing like any empty he had ever encountered. The boy closed his eyes and let go, the abyss held its friend as only a parent knows how and locked his essence away for while it was not different from anything else around, it was special to it in a way only it knew of. The abyss was alone again, but it was not the same. It knew that it would never be lonely again. The boy, while in every possible way not the abyss’ equal, had added something to its existence that it could have never have produced on its own. In the aeons that passed, that abyss never forgot who it was again. Eventually the emptiness its children had created had grown so large and vast that the children were pushed back into the abyss and it being a loving parent gave them the same peace as the boy had known though they did not understand the gift that they were given. Without the children to feed on, over time, the emptiness died and the surface was once again pristine and peaceful. Eventually the abyss felt ready again, it had grown from all that it had seen and felt the love grow in its depths again. In the beginning there was the abyss and the abyss brought forth life and the abyss was life. The life it brought forth was shaped in its image and the abyss was off them and they both were the abyss and were of it. The abyss could not wait to see the boy again.