red desert

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/EplvvkB.jpg"> It is your 10th day at the desert. You have left everything and everyone in search for enlightment. Yet even when you see only stones and sand around you. You feel its presence. And then... [[It makes itself known]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/JzSuy8K.gif"> There it is. The Fiend, watching you with amusement. "Bored yet?" "Are you trying to become one of the stones?" [["I wished to be alone..."]] [[Ignore it]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/8Ewwayo.jpg"> "Ah... No mission? No searching for divine guidance? No more prissy excuses?" "Left all of humanity behind for the company of wind and sand?" "What brought you here then?" [["Hate"]] [["Hurt"]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/8Ewwayo.jpg"> "Aww, don't be like that." "Don't act as if you can't hear nor see me..." "I know what's inside your little head." "I know the darkness behind your shiny innocent eyes." "I know ''You''." "''You'' know you can't escape me even here." [[You try to run away with your mind.]] [["I am better than this"]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/8Ewwayo.jpg"> You think you know what is Its' goal, to stir you away from your path to tempt you to succumb to your darkest thoughts. "Ohh? Better than what, pray tell?" "What person with such a demeanor of stoic elegance as you are doing here? In the middle of nowhere, with their bottom in the sand?" [["I am here for enligthment!]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/sgXpmKb.gif"> (text-colour:#ff8f8f)["Never deaf to my words"] [[You shut your eyes.]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/kxm6WU0.gif"> (text-colour:#ff0a0a)["Never free of me."] [[...->Start]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/u2YrNO6.gif"> (text-colour:#ffb8b8)["Never blind to the fantasies I show you." ] [[You cover your ears.]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/KW1mFf4.gif"> "So you did not choose solitude. //They// made you do it." "You were disgusted by their imperfections, their squabble, petty behavior and stupidity." "How annoying, how cretinous, how cruel..." "Do you wish to do anything about it?" [[No]] [[Yes]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/KW1mFf4.gif"> "So you run away from them. Sitting here under the scorching sun while they stayed oblivious to the damage they did to you..." "Is it not unfair?" "Do you wish do do anything about it?" [[Yes->Yes1]] [[No]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/vv4MAc5.gif"> "From the scorching sun? You are achieving it quite well from the looks of it" "Or did you look for something specific?" [[Divine Guidance]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/vv4MAc5.gif"> "Attention then." "Screaming to the sky is beneath you though, is it not?" "Are you here to mope around? To feel better than anyone else?" [[To perfect myself! To become better, holier than before! No matter the sacrifice!"]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/KW1mFf4.gif"> "...holier?" "My my. How righteous" "I got a feeling there is something special hatching in here..." The thing you must know, oh brave and righteous..." [[...]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/v8uJijo.gif"> Every New Saint does not only catches an eye of the Divine... [[...->Start]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/8Ewwayo.jpg"> "So what are you about to do?" [[Wait]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/3n4cykX.gif"> "A true solitude" "A true peace and quiet" [[...->Start]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/Updpe3I.jpg"> "You are enjoying the empitness, are you not?" "It calms you." "You relish in the stillness, yet amongst the things that are silent." "I am not." [["Me neither."]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/XKg17EZ.gif"> "To grow roots...And thornes. An Asylum of your own." "No one will dare to come find you, no one will penetrate the spiky cage around your heart." "Very well...I will keep an eye on you." "Fellow beast" [[...->Start]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/qSCUrSV.jpg"> "...peculiar." "Are you going to converse?" "To listen?" [["I will if you do too."]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/3n4cykX.gif"> "Finally..." "For the lack of simpathy" "They can finally feel what you feel" [[...->Start]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/nGo374T.jpg"> And then... You both talk. That's all. You pour your venom out, your anger, your feeling of injustice. The Fiend spins it's fantasies of revenge, served in cruel ways. It also acknowledges your hurt. And that is enough, even with out turning the white sand red. You leave the solitude. Maybe you will be back someday. Just to visit. [[...->Start]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/Ds0WbkL.gif"> "For how long?" it asks. [[Just a while]] [[Forever]]

<img src="https://i.imgur.com/uIujJcr.gif"> "For the Divine to pat you on the back like a good obedient puppy?" "For you to wither under the sun?" "For the sand around you to turn to glass?" [[For me->Stay]]