The Maze, the Pain, and the Prize

A man describes love in order to defend his condition. The decision to whether or not it is valid is nearly irrelevant.

“I love her,” he stated sorely and bluntly. “I love her, and you can’t stop me.”

His adversary stared back at him blankly, eyes as cold as stone and yet holding a deep seated malice that felt like hot needles in Henry’s skin.

“I love her,” he repeated, more for himself than for the man who sat across from him. His hands clenched into fists and he stood up from his seat, pacing the room back and forth. “Tell me, Anthony, what do you really know about love?”

Anthony glared up at Henry, but he didn’t speak a word. This gave Henry a relieving surge of spiteful joy, and he smiled.

“Let me tell you a thing or two, sir. You see, Love is deeper than any other emotion on this planet. Love is what drives us to do malign, painful, and even insane things. It drives us to our wit’s end and back again, and yet it fills us will the grit and determination to chase it around for another lap. It puts us through Hell over and over, Anthony. It drags our heart through the mud, acting like a demon-child with a bat, beating it until it’s nothing more than a bleeding, pulverized pulp. It hurts.” Henry stopped and let out a shaky breath. “It hurts more than anything else on earth. It’s a pain unlike any other, you see. It starts on the inside and reverberates out. There’s a stark ache in your chest, and soon you feel it everywhere. There’s an uncomfortable stinging in your toes, an insatiable churning in your stomach, an agonizing pulsing through your veins, and an excruciating throbbing in your head. And you know what causes that throbbing, Anthony?”

Anthony didn’t say anything. He just glared.

Henry approached his adversary, leaned over so they were eye to eye, and spoke slowly and clearly. “Words.”

A haunting silence overtook the room as Henry eventually returned to his pacing. “Words telling you that you can’t have her. Words telling you that she’s too good for you. Words telling you that you don’t deserve her. Those words kill, Anthony. They kill worse than an army of fearless soldiers on the battlefield. So, why do we deal with this at all? Why not just all die alone and avoid the pain? What makes any of this worth it?”

There was a polite pause, even though they both knew Anthony wasn’t going to answer.

“For the prize,” Henry stated bluntly. “The chase is miserable. Having to pursue her around every corner, running until your legs feel like shattering into a million pieces even though you don’t know what’s really waiting on that other side… It’s undeniably awful. But, we all do it in the hopes of the prize �" her. We pine, we suffer, we ache, and we grovel for the hopes of being able to hold her in our arms. This, Anthony, is love; a miserable maze endured only in the hopes of escaping the lonely confines of solitude and stepping into the warm embrace of companionship.”

Henry hung his head and let out a sigh, reluctantly feeling himself slipping in and out of the moment as he pictured the contours of her face and the curls in her hair. There were several long seconds of confusing silence before he finally shook his head and turned to look at Anthony.

“So, tell me, have you ever really felt love? Honestly, have you?”

Anthony furred his eyebrows in confusion, but this only made Henry snort in mocking laughter.

“You think you love her,” Henry stated through his snickers. “That’s adorable. Really, that’s just adorable.”

Anthony tried in vain to mumble something, but Henry stopped him. “You don’t know a damn thing,” he snapped. “You think you love her, and that’s just about as cute as the crush little Jimmy has on the playground princess, but it’s nothing compared to the real thing. You don’t have the slightest idea what it’s really like to yearn for somebody so bad that it physically hurts with every mile put between you two. Every foot of separation is a torturous stab in the side, and every moment apart is a moment of restless worry. You’ve never felt that for real, have you?”

Anthony replied with nothing more than the angry glint of his eyes.

Henry returned the glare, and twisted his face into a menacing snarl. “So, I suppose it’s hard for you to imagine what it’s like to endure the torture of that maze only to find that the prize was already claimed. I’m sure you can’t even fathom how it would feel if you finally reached the finish line only to be told that you don’t get a medal, or even an acknowledgment of your accomplishment, because some guy from Boston had swooped in and taken it away. You didn’t have to work for your prize, and you took it away from the only guy who did.”

The glint in Anthony’s eyes was replaced with a shimmer of fear. He shook his head, but he wasn’t able to speak.

“There’s nothing you can say for yourself anyway,” Henry stated, relaxing away his aggression and reaching into his pocket. “I didn’t come here to have a conversation; I came here to make a statement. I love her. You don’t even realize how precious the prize that you hold really is.” He pulled out a small, silver knife and looked from it to Anthony several times.

Anthony’s eyes grew wide as he slunk back in his chair, biting at the cloth shoved in his mouth as he attempted to scream.

Henry laughed lightly and took a couple of steps forward. “So, you have to understand why I must do this, Anthony. This is just another obstacle in the maze, right? I didn’t do all that I have done so far just to be stunted at the end, so this is just another thing I have to overcome. It only makes sense.”

Anthony’s face flushed red as he howled with all of his might, attempting in vain to break free from the ropes that held him to his seat.

“I really am sorry. I didn’t want it to come to this, but I love her. I mean, what else am I supposed to do? “He leaned in and pressed the cold metal of the blade against Anthony’s right cheek. “Besides, if love isn’t allowed to be crazy, then what is?”

Author's Note

I realize that this is kind of a quick piece without much going on, but if You could let me know what you think, that'd be great! Thanks!

Reviews

[Alasdair Cook]

Gripping throughout. Love the way that each passage ends with Anthony being unable to speak. Then suddenly at the end, we find out why.

[Author Gus]

That was an awesome twist! I was siding with the silent Anthony the whole time, especially when Henry started talking about stealing the prize. I prefer the strong silent type I guess, but I did believe that Henry was supposed to be the protagonist. And I'm sure that most everybody gets swooped in by that monologue and jumps on his side of things. Then the ending happens and they suddenly feel like terrible people and I realize that my hero isn't so much quite as he is gagged. Great piece, keep writing!

[J.M.Fields]

Holy shoot! I did not see that coming. Talk about all's fair in love and war.That is very deep and there's quite a lot to take from that. Unfortunately a lot of what you said is true, love can be very painful.