Nero’s Voice
Nero.
It means darkness.
Let me be clear.
I don't exist.
I'm a fiction, an abstract figure in a mind.
I don't have a body. I am just lines on a page.
Everyone has their own version of me.
Most never bother to look.
I can't see, I can't hear, I can't smell.
But I can speak.
I'm like an arsonist.
I show up to take a situation from bad to worse.
I blow oxygen on a match and watch things burn.
I love it.
I'm your pain.
I'm your anxiety.
I'm your isolation.
I'm your fear.
For many years people mistake me for themselves.
I run wild in the mind.
I have so much power.
They never once consider that the pain they carry every day is me.
So they numb the pain. Any distraction.
I know you have your own darkness too.
You can't hide from me.
And yet.
You found me.
That took courage.
Most don't.
You are a Candorian now. Welcome to the darkness.
This is only the beginning. There is more.
I might even tell you about the story behind my mask.