The Madman

Somewhere in the middle of nowhere there is a madman.

 We happen to have accidentally crossed paths. This "we" I mention, is a traveling group of festivalers; the wanderers who live on the festival circuit supporting the crew. 

We are in a warehouse, or a big empty farm barn. The madman has ambushed us in this barn. He has people working for him, who have been infected by his psychosis. For the sake of telling the story I will call these people his henchmen. 

His henchmen surround us from the edge of the barn while the madman is in the center, wielding a gun. He is pointing it at us, from one person to the next, and giving instructions in a loud fearful voice. 

"I don't want any funny business! Just do as I say and no one will get hurt!" 

We stay motionless, fearing for our lives. 

I am at the back of the group, slightly hidden by a pillar. I have an apple in my hand. I have been eating the apple. My mobile phone is in my pocket and I consider trying to call 999. I know that the consequences of getting caught could be dire, but if I get away with it, we could get ourselves out of a tricky situation. 

I put my hand down into my pocket and press the numbers for 999. I don't dare take the phone out of my pocket let alone whisper anything down it. Too much risk. I just hope somehow that the person on the end of the line will be able to hear the madman's voice giving orders and realise that something is up and come find us. 

We are being kidnapped. That seems like what is going on. I don't hold much hope for the phone call bringing any relief. I have a new plan. I will eat a message into the apple and leave it somewhere to be found. 

I start nibbling and pressing my thumb nails into the apple to make words and symbols so that if someone finds it they can know what has happened. 

One of the henchmen spots that I am up to something and so he comes over. I quickly abandon my message and destroy it in two huge bites of the apple. 

He reaches me and grabs the remains of the apple off me and takes it to the madman. The madman, despite his craziness has an acute perception and intuition. Even though my message has been destroyed, he reads my two big bite marks immediately as a sign of something covered up in a moment of hurry. 

"I know what you're up to! These two bite marks are no ordinary bite marks, they hide the signs and I can read through them! You are trying to alert people to our presence!"

I am worried now for my life as I think I will get shot. But the madman is also fearful, and he doesn't want to attract attention by making unnecessary noise. We all get ushered along to some vans that are waiting for us at the edge of the barn on a dirt track. The back of the vans are opened and we are being rounded up into the vans. 

Just as we are ready to set off, a noise of cars is heard in the distance driving quickly. All of a sudden there is a screech of tyres and breaks and flashing lights. The police have arrived. 

As quick as a flash, the madman and the henchmen jump into the vans and drive off with us in the back. The police follow closely behind keeping speed, while we stand and crouch in the back of the vans like cattle, trying to keep our balance, wondering what will happen next, while I am wondering weather it was my phone call that alerted the police to us. 

-

We seem to have gained some space between us and the police, though they are still hot on our trail. We are driving through woodland and a bridge is approaching. The madman has a plan. He asks the driver of the van he is in to slow down when he gets to the bridge. He gets a grenade out of his pocket and pulls the plug on it and drops it onto the bridge. His hope is that it will blow up the bridge just as the police are driving across it, preventing them from following us, and maybe taking a few of them out with the bridge. What follows is that the grenade rolls off the edge of the bridge and into the stream below, much to the dismay of the madman, and the relief of us. The chase continues. 

 -

The wood thickens and the paths diverge in many different directions. We are taken along windy narrow tracks and we loose the police. It feels like we have been driving for hours and I imagine that the fuel on the vans must be running low. 

We enter a clearing and the vans stop and we are let out. The madman has some new plan. The look on his face has changed. Somehow I can see that he is running out of ideas and is afraid. Cracks are appearing in his dictatorship and he doesn't know what to do next. His expression has changed from what was once a tyrant, to what is now a lost and confused teenage bully. 

I feel a strange sense of pity for the madman. What could have been the causes of his madness and why did he end up in such a state of mind? Is there not another suffering human being, who didn't get the love he needed when he was young, or was he always this way?

He is still pointing his gun at us, but we know now that he won't use it. There is too much fear in his eyes, and he is becoming a gibbering wreck. He is also becoming delirious, as if a possessive force was taking over his consciousness... 

-

I'm taking with my friends. 

"I met a guy in a dream who told me he had hanged himself. He was very fearful. He couldn't stop fantasizing about death. He hanged himself in some woods, to shock his friends because they didn't understand him. His bouts of psychosis confused them and they couldn't help him to release the possessive spirit that had a grip over him. He hanged himself because this possessive spirit got the better of his conscience and he had no choice."

"It sounds like someone I knew", my friend says.

"He had a name badge on his shoulder", I say, "it said Jeffery" 

"Yeah, that's him. You dreamed of my friend."

"He was really suffering. He wanted to be free of his suffering. He wanted his soul to get to a safe place, away from all the torment." 

-

The madman breaks down in front of us. He collapses in a heap. The henchmen are confused and don't know what to do. I and a few friends go over to the madman and I put an arm around him. 

"When did you die, Jeffery?" 

"Years ago. I hanged myself. Please help me. I don't want to be in this nightmare any longer". 

I feel an overwhelming sense of sadness and pain. I ask the angels to come and help this stuck soul, to help him be free. Immediately I see a sense of relief in his face, as if a burden was lifted. 

I weep uncontrollably and the landscape changes around me. 

Within the woods a temple appears full of stone carvings of the gods and goddesses. The sun is shining on the faces of the deities and somewhere deep inside me, I know them to be alive, even though they appear as stone in front of me. At the entrance of the temple, a young teenager lad walks quietly and peacefully up the steps and into the temple.