Speech

I never really pay attention to what I wear when I show up, but I'm certain I never dress in nice suits like I was this time. I was sitting in a chair of a theater, with red velvet chairs covering the floor, facing a large red curtain. The walls were a dark gold and the supporting pillars were marbled gray. All of the others sat in seats around me. Good and Bad were seated together, respectively, wearing white and red suits. Would sat in a suit a few rows in front of me, occasionally pulling a flask out of his jacket. I could see the ears of Could next to him. But none of them so much as looked at me when I turned around in my seat to look at them. They all began to clap when Love walked onto the stage. She wore a blue dress that contrasted her from the curtains. She stood at the podium and peered around the room.

"I am here to deliver a message to all of you; a message with regards to our own definitions." She spoke into the microphone. "I had a thought the other day about a life question. We all wonder who we are meant to spend the rest of our lives with. But some of us spend more time disillusioning the situation in which we meet this person in the first place. This is what I am here to speak about."

Would rolled his head backwards, and I could hear the King behind me scoff. Love gave both of them a glare, and then continued.

"We may think that we will meet this person in a bar late at night, as you both whisper sweet nothings into the empty glass, posed for another. We may think that we will bond with this person at a club, through blue-teeth and batted eyes in the black-light dotted room. We won't. The person that we are meant to be with will seldom ever spend time in these places in the first place."

Host mumbled underneath his breath to my right.

"There is a new light in the early morning hours, where the people that are meant to carry the power of the world find their inner self. They create the next masterpiece, devise the greatest plot, find the solution to their biggest problems. These people do not waste that precious time in a bar or club being sedated by a stream of empty glasses and thumping music. They will be at home, taking advantage of this light. So if you ever wonder who you are meant to be with, look our your window in the early hours of the morning. Look for the lights of the garage, where inside, a person spends the night banging their fingers and swearing at a car, trying to build their dream. Look for the lights of an office window, where inside, an artist is toiling over a piano or an easel or a laptop, criticizing their own work to the point of immolation in the hope that one day, it will earn them a career.

"You can look in the windows of the bar, where inside the person behind the counter spends their nights working a second or third or fourth job, hoping that it will one day open the opportunity for a single, great, occupation. Look in the windows of the library, where inside is the college student, tearing through the pages of an ancient textbook to study for their exam, pleading that an 'A' grade will stack into a degree, and eventually a better future. Look in the dining room windows, where a single parent buries their head in their hands, looking between the stack of bills in front of them, and their child sleeping in the other room; all they wish for is for someone else to be there, not for them, but so that they may help the parent set up a better future for their innocent child."

I thought I heard Hope quietly sobbing to my left.

"These are the people that we are meant to be with. They will not drunkenly scribble their number on our arm after a night of booze. They will not be the ones who stay after a night in the hotel after you met on the dance floor. You will not set fire to the matches you make in those places; matches don't burn forever. True love will be the fire that burns for a lifetime. You can't bring a match and expect it to last.

"I know that each and every one of us in this room as been hurt. And I am fully aware that that may be my own fault. And I know that to those of you who believe that, this is nothing more than a conciliatory appeal. But I urge you to believe that we are not irredeemably alone in this world. We may think that, and we may be told that, and whether or not it is true is up for us to decide; but I'd rather us say that it is wrong. We will find the person we are meant to be with, and we will spend our lives with that person."

A silence hung in the room. I could see small tears welling up in Love's eyes. She glanced quickly at me, and then closed her eyes. The room started falling away. The red velvet morphed into wooden stools, and the dress clothes gave way to loosened ties and button ups with the sleeves pushed up to the elbows. The ornate theater had transformed into a bar.

Everyone was there. Good and Bad sat at the bar arguing over a glass of stout. Host was behind the bar, smiling as he spun glasses and bottle in his hands, jumping back and forth between the customers. Soul and Love gossiped while pouring wine for each other in the corner of the room. Hollow and Misery sympathized with each other over a crowd of empty shot glasses in the opposite corner. Youth and Anger played billiards, and Monk sat at the side, silently watching every move.

But one figure sitting at the bar drew my attention. It was her. My heart thumped to a stop, and everything slowed to a halt. The distant rock music faded away, and everyone turned towards me, anticipating me to do something. She still sat facing the collection of bottles that rested behind the bar; she was oblivious to the ceased commotion. I stood up, and shivered as I exhaled. My legs tensed and the fog in my head began to clear.

I'll do it this time. I thought to myself. This is where it starts.

But just as quickly as the bar came to be, the white void came to take it's place; taking away everything except for a table with three folding chairs. Good and Bad were standing behind two of them, looking at me and laughing quietly to themselves. The shook their heads, and turned and began to walk out into the void.

The light grew brighter. I knew what was coming. It always has. It always will.

I could hear her laugh echoing through vacuum.