Caged

• Isabella Quek, Grade 10
• Short Story
• 2014

In the world, where we feel as if the entirety is ourselves, can our origins be traced to a more fundamental source? In our minds, can we fathom our great downfall? Can it be put down to a single thing, an undefinable nature within? This ‘x’ was hidden, or glossed over too quickly, for we did not want to believe what we were. Perhaps it tells great secrets of humanity and its dominion over the earth.
At times they looked upon it and made it seem unreal, a fantasy, of the imagination, myth and fable. The true ‘x’ was a monster, harboured by them, until it could be caged no longer. Breaking free, the monster tore open humanity. Tore out its heart and soul, created a new race, though not so very different. With the skin torn away, the façade they had come to hide behind did not matter. They could be true humans again. And they would know. They would know their monstrosity.
In stories they were hideous. The eldest had read to us, the history of men before. They were said to have stunk of rage and greed. A thick black odour which clouds my nostrils just thinking about it. Some Before humans remained free of the monsters, but the others were strong. They waited for a moment when they would emerge. Empty desolation faced them. But there were no more chemicals to poison the air and lungs. The filth left in their wake disappeared with us, the new race.
Our society is of equality, of man with earth. We know of the fires, the pollution of the seas, feuds that escalated into wars that damaged men and their owned land. Whole peoples were murdered for who they were, and persecuted for what they believed. In a world as large as this, tolerance and acceptance would have kept them alive, possibly. Though I heard, that through the skin they wore, they were incapable of true caring or any true understanding of anything or anyone else. I can’t imagine that cage, holding so much of that terrible nature that drove them. It must’ve festered and sweated out, seeping out. We were told that the Before humans were never without their monsters. From the very beginning, their monstrous interior lay dormant and unused. But their monsters were allowed to latch on to the person’s very being and draw on their energy. Their motives became the monster’s, the carrying out of these done by the body of a man, or woman alike, but fundamentally, it was the monster who orchestrated the fall of humanity. That is what we were told.
Everyone talks of the humans and the monsters being two different entities. But it is my belief that the monsters and Before humans were one. For how did the monsters become so strong if not for humanity’s weakness? Humanity may not have been aware of their demons inside, but they were feeding their hate whether they knew it or not.