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The First Example of Man
It was in some twisted rage that I killed my brother. I did not intend it from the start, I did not plan in darkness or go about finding the exact tools. I simply struck him down in a sudden affront of anger. In a flurry of hatred that soon fleeted my limbs once his body lay cold in front of me. The despair! How I feeling nothing now. How I feel empty and without purpose, though minutes ago my chest burned with forests of fire; my eyes carried one singular focus. But I did not expect this denouement! This resolution that his left me timorous, that has made my heart teeter in fear of some great punishment. He is truly gone! I see it before me, how I wish it was a dream, and how I would believe anything to make it so. Yet, I stand here with no greater proof of my situation—his blood runs from his open throat—his eyes are turned back in surrender—his arms are limp upon the earth. How they were once so strong and full of life! How they toiled honestly throughout the day. But his face! How I cannot escape his face! A smile. A smile rests upon it. He has had the last laugh—he is on to a higher place. And perhaps he knows that in this wicked act of mine, I have sealed my fate eternally! What a sight…To have seen all of his life run before me, congealing in the little cracks of the soil—the earth drinking him in. And now his blood cries out to me at night. It says, “Brother, what I did I do! I, who only loved you, and did my share in what was right while I breathed on this earth. What did I do, brother? What was my sin? My great fault that justified this bleak fate? You have murdered me—in cold blood, you slew me! Your brother, who ran with you through the gardens of paradise, who would lay in the fields with you at night, as we gazed upon an infinitude of stars. Who spoke to you in kindness; who offered my hand and strength to you in times of despondency. Your brother! Your only brother! How you have left a mar upon our kind, and set precedent and demonstration of things to come. O’ Cain, O’ Cain, how you are a fine example of the nature of man.”
