Ulyetus: I used to be a good man. I cared about the world around me. I cared about people. I cared about animals. I wanted to liberate exotic animals and give them a good life. For a time, I did. I could hear these voices in my head. Good and evil. I could tell the good side was winning. They said about me, “Call him Lord of the Lions and Tigers and the Ligers!” I began to believe that I was. Did things I hadn’t done before. Started breeding Ligers myself – for show, for money for fame, for power, for fun.
…Liger cub bit at one of my zookeepers. I was going to have to be the one to put him down. Louder than ever, the voices in my head were screaming at me. I could feel them pressing on the inside of my ears. Even after I shot the baby cub, voices raging inside of my body.
I picked the cadaver up, and as it slid down from my hands into the hole in the dirt I made for it, the voices went totally silent. I looked down and realized my hands are stained with dry blood. I scrubbed my hands for hours but it never washed off.
That night, I had a dream I was a slave running away from my master’s plantation. Twigs, rocks, and weeds pierced my feet. I kept running. I hear a howling behind me get closer. I run into a black person on a horse and beg them to help me. They just kind of stared at me expressionless. I looked down and realized my hands had been cut off.
I woke up and the dried blood on my hands was wet. But it was my blood. And ever since then, anytime I stand too still, my hands bleed. And every time I go to sleep, I have that dream. 10 years this has gone on. I started building the business and investing in the tech that birthed the Hologram Zoo App so I wouldn’t get too still. So I wouldn’t have to sleep. So I wouldn’t have to hear the silence. And I figured if I could bring the cub back, it’d all stop. But nothing’s worked. And the worst part is how quiet it is.”
The Ghost: “You’re afraid you’ll never be a good man again.”
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