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// Like A Moth, To The Flame. 
// Story: Of Sound Mind. 
// by Debonair 
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When you learn to set aside your feelings you can judge others without seeming out of line. As a Criminal Psychologist I help the police catch those that leave little to no physical evidence. I delve into the minds of psychotics, serial killers, and even the occasional victim to find not only the hows of their demise, but the whys as well. I am Dr. Chase Greene, I have a deep understanding of the human... mind. My expertise today however was put to the test. 

I was walking through the streets of Albuquerque, New Mexico to visit an old friend at the hospital but an unexpected detour led me to another location entirely. Almost as if I was transported into the catacombs of the subconscious of one of the darker criminals. It seemed like a dungeon, a prison inside their own body. I had seen it many times before, in my own dreams. I find a room lit by green flaming candles. What looked like a woman laid in the bed in the room's center.

"You seem to know your way around." Her voice doubled and disembodied touched my heart for reasons unknown. 

"What is this place?" I asked keeping my wits about me. 

"This is my home but not for long... I need someone to carry on the legacy... Normally I would chose a female, but it isn't my choice."

"There is always a choice."

Yes there is, I need someone who knows how the mind works, someone who can lead others, but most of all an ability to become someone else. You have all these qualities, and more. I didn't chose you, you chose me."

"And how did I chose you?"

I do not know, but I have a feeling it is about your lack of emotion," A lack of emotion? Paranoid delusions of a woman on her death bed. As she sat up her emerald hair parted around a crooked horn about three feet long that looked as if it ripped through her charred black skin. "Go on touch it if you wish." I reached out and touched her soft smooth skin, which was most likely a skin condition. Know that I am not long for my world, for your cooperation, I can use my last strength to give you what you desire the most. Understanding." Bargaining one of the stages of grief, what would the catch be, there always is. "The only catch is that you may not return to your world, and you must take my place in my own." 

"What is in it for myself?" 

"Many untold riches, and too many to be before I die. My time is almost at an end, please grant an old woman's last wish." Her doubled voice sounded sincere as she was shedding tears. This only made it feel awkward, why would a dying woman bear her heart to a complete stranger. Didn't she have a family of her own, a husband, a mother? 

"I will do as you ask." At most she is delusional, or even under heavy medication, the horn could be broken stained glass that if removed it would kill her. It's best to play along until her life fades away. She placed what looked like hole filled stubs on the glass before ripping it out and handing it over to me. The gaping hole on her forehead stitched itself shut.  

"As long as you hold this, you will hold more power than you could imagine." She began coughing violently. "My time is up, may you learn from my mistakes." The Glass grew cold in my hand, as a ring carved itself into the floor. Green flames erupted from the ring and crept over my skin, yet I felt no heat. For the first time in my life I actually felt something. My heart raced as I sank through the ground. I awoke several hours later in a damp cave  

My throat was deathly dry, I crawled to a pool of water. and drank until my thirst was sated. The Glass shard still in my hand I stood to my feet. Where have I been taken? I am a woman on my deathbed, I need someone to carry on my legacy. My mind reflected on what she said. I have to dive into her subconscious. The time seemed to fly backward as I ran a psych eval based upon her mannerisms and sense of mortality. 





I need someone to carry on for me, I cannot chose them, but I have to make sure that the right one finds me. They need to be exactly like me. Calm, calculating, and they need to know how others think. We are separated by more walls than a labyrinth. How do I contact potential candidates. I look down to the shard and find that it's glowing. The insects seem to be mesmerized by the glow... The insects they are supreme, they are everywhere, the perfect spies. Somehow I could reach out to them, and look for the perfect heir, and lead them to me. 





The Shard, longer than my arm, now had a handle, I must not have noticed it before. A large creature came out from the shadows, it had the eyes of a Man, and wings of Dragonfly. It stood on four legs each perforated, much like the limbs of the woman. "My liege," It spoke in a raspy voice as it bowed. "It is bittersweet, to be in your presence Sire." I found this creature strange to say the least. His personality and way of holding himself stood out as an almost textbook definition of manservant. "I know you find this hard to believe, but this place is not one for explanation. It is not secured. Please follow me." 

"Alright," I followed him through the caves, using the shard as a light source. The green light was reminiscent of the candlelight from before. "What are you exactly?"

"We are a race of shape shifting warriors, called Changelings. You are our new leader, Sire." This paranoid delusion has become hallucination. I have heard of incense that stimulates this kind of reaction, but none so vivid. 

"What was the name of your previous leader?".

"Queen Chrysalis, our loving Mother and Mistress."

"A Mother and Mistress, very interesting." Normally a hallucination of this magnitude would show no signs of connection to the visions previous. It may be a dream, I've had similar ones but none so real.  

"Welcome to the Hive Kingdom." He parted a veil that hung over a large window. It was amazing, a large staircase led into a room miles wide, homes lined the walls in giant Hexagons, and an ornate castle made of black plating hung from the ceiling like a chandelier. "This will be your new home." I was sure now that this was no dream, no hallucination, this was real, all of it. Nothing in my mind could be so moving, so normal. "What shall we call you Sire?" I took a moment to think, I was drawn, like a moth to the flame. 

"From the Chrysalis Emerges the Monarch."

"Your will be done, Monarch."