This was the first time that the world held all of its colors in its hands. The sky was blue, and the clouds were dove white. The gray asphalt streets were lined with colored houses, but the figures that populated the world were still silhouettes. Good and Bad's house was tan on the outside, and a small flower garden sat below the window.
"It's time," Good said from the front door, "isn't it?"
"What do you mean?" I asked him.
He shrugged while grinning. He turned, and Monk came through the doorway.
"You're not up in the monastery?"
"No," he replied, "not today."
I looked between them. Good was smiling while he leaned against the doorway, and Monk looked in my direction with his hands folded in front of him.
"Am I missing something?" I asked them.
"It will be bittersweet for you." Monk stated. "But it is truly a good day for us."
"I still don't quite follow."
"When you came here," Good continued, "months ago, you came here with a purpose. You delved into your own mind to confront yourself."
"And to another extent," Monk added, "to realign who you are everyday, with who you truly are."
"I mean," I stumbled, "I guess? I really just started talking to you and Bad because it was a way to rationalize my own emotions."
"And why did that fail?" Another voice from behind me asked. I turned, and Bad glared at me in a bright red suit.
"Come again?"
"Your intent was to talk with Good and I; just us two. And yet, here we are."
We held out his hands to the world. The world that I had created when I separated Good and Bad.
"You failed." He continued. "You meant for it to be just the two of us. But our voices over-encumbered you. The only way for you to make sense of them was to break them down into our core."
"And what's the problem with that?" I asked him; Good and Monk remained silent behind me.
"You failed in keeping an algorithmic separation between Good and Bad."
"I don't see that as a problem."
"Why not?"
"Because if I never did that, I wouldn't have been able to come to grips with who I truly am."
There was a silence in the driveway. Bad was taken aback. He didn't anticipate me saying that.
"This is what this whole journey was from the moment I met the two of you; to come back into alignment with who I truly am. And that's what I did. And I wouldn't have been able to do it unless I had gotten fed up with you two and split you apart!"
Bad held a hand to his chest, and Good shrugged with a grin. Monk remained still.
"Does this mean what I think it means?" I asked Monk.
"I believe so, yes."
"I'm done here?"
"You are indeed." Good beamed.
"Wait I thought this would just be a place for me to come back to whenever I needed to. Whenever I feel things that I can't rationalize, I come back here."
"While you were still learning about yourself," Monk answered, "that is exactly what you did. But as for what happens now, there's nothing more that you need to learn."
"There's always more for me to learn."
"Of course." Good replied. "Go read a book. Learn a new language. There's always new things to learn."
"But as for learning about yourself," Monk finished, "there is nothing more that needs to be learned."
"Okay," I hesitated, "but pity me for a second here."
"Gladly." Bad chortled.
"What if," I asked, ignoring him, "something happens in the future and I don't know how to deal with it? What do I do?"
"Do you remember what I told you on our first lesson?"
"I'll be honest," I sighed, "if it was the orientation lesson, I don't remember a damn thing."
"All of the decisions that you make are sounded out and tested by the voices in your own head; that being the broader Good and Bad, but also considering the more specific Love, Hollow, Host, and so on. All of these voices carry a different weight, within different situations. And all of our lessons—."
"Were to tell me how much credit to give to each voice." I finished.
"Exactly." He held out his hands. "And you have done exactly that. If you meet trouble in the future, you need simply listen to the voices, discredit and credit certain ones, and you will be fine."
As he spoke, Misery and Hollow shuffled into the house, without even turning to face me.
"Why are they going in there?" I asked.
"You probably know." Good answered.
Host walked up next. He was wearing his gray three piece suit. The jacket missing, the sleeves rolled up, and a red paisley tie. He held a beer bottle up in the air as he passed me, half-smiling. He took a swig as he walked in. Would walked in next, ignoring me. But Could stopped so I could pat him on the head, before trotting inside. Youth stopped at the foot of the porch to examine a bug crawling on the stoop. Soul came up behind him, and gently nudged him up the steps. He turned and waved goodbye, I returned. Soul stopped momentarily, and her light faded from gold to a pure white. Anger stormed past, stopping in the doorway to shake his head.
"Why are you doing this?!" He muttered. "You're not done! You're not ready for this!"
"He is." Monk assured him. "He is as ready as he will ever be."
Anger exasperated, and turned to go into the house. The King stopped next to me, bowing. As I bowed in return, he spoke.
"I wish you the best."
"As to you." I replied on my way back up. Lastly, Love skipped up to the crowd.
"So now what?" I asked her.
"You've reinvented yourself." She answered. "That takes a lot."
"So what do I do with my new self?"
"Go forth with this newfound sense of self, and use it for good. Help yourself. Help your family. Help your friends. Help your acquaintances. Help total strangers. This new view of yourself comes with a sense of love and appreciation. The world always has and always will need more of that. Love and compassion are the things that drive you forward. Keep it that way, and open your arms to the souls of others."
She hugged me before I could respond, and then skipped into the house.
"I believe it is now my turn." Monk smiled.
"Thank you." I told him.
"For what?"
"For helping reinvent myself."
"I did not do that." He held up a finger. "For I merely pointed you in the correct direction."
He patted me on the shoulder, and then slowly walked into the house. I was left with Good and Bad.
"Any parting words?"
"Go fuck yourself." Bad mumbled, walking into the house.
"Try again!" Good shouted back. He stopped, and then sighed in the doorway.
"You did good." Bad nodded. "You'll be fine."
He dissipated into the shadowed interior.
There were a few moments of silence between Good and I. The world seemed quieter than usual.
"What about you then?" I asked him. "Any parting thoughts?"
"Yes, actually." He smiled. "There's been something that I've been thinking about while you were up in the monastery."
"What's that?"
"There is a singular thing that never changes, and it is the catalyst in which we, as humans, bond and grow with each other."
"What?"
"Our smiles." He exclaimed. "We have the same smiles from the day we are born until the day we die. And those smiles are the catalyst in which we laugh; an element that makes humans bond and grow."
"Laughter doesn't have a language." I added.
"Nor does Love. Or Peace for that matter."
"What am I supposed to do with that?"
He stopped for a moment before turning around. He looked up into the sky. A bird chirped in the distance, and wind rustled through the leaves of the tall oak trees that lined the street.
"Be a movement for change." He said, a tear in his eye. "You are full of life, and hope, and justice, and love. Especially love. Take those aspects of you, and be an advocate for change. Live life well. Hope for a better tomorrow. Bring justice for those in need. And more importantly than anything else, love; love as often and as intensely as you can."
He wiped the tear away from his eye, and then walked into the house. The door shut behind him, and the ground upon which I stood, shook. I looked off into the horizon; the mountains were growing closer. The clouds in the sky were beginning to spiral above me in a vortex. As the land encroached on houses and streets, they turned into clouds of flower pedals and leaves. Bright rainbows of floral elements spiraled around me. I was not at war with myself. I was at peace. A hole opened up in front of me, and the remnants of the world fell into it. I breathed. The house collapsed into an orchestra of sound and light, before falling into the hole. I jumped in after it, as the rest of the world did the same, into the Holy dark.
