The Monks of Nothingness

Drumming beings, as the cycle starts again for the countless time. The monks file out of their sleeping area and sit in the same place they sit everyday. Hard at work. Leaving their small mat only to go back to sleep on a hard rock bed.

Working hard to serve the monks. Working so hard for the monks that are meditating. Working so hard for the monks that are medicating. Pills flow from the feeding tube, as Grayson beings to collect them. He collects them as he always does. Day in and day out. The same pills. The same monks. Pity defined and created. Pity formed and made. Pity filled into a pill.

I am happy in my place. I am happy for my work. An affirmation that Grayson repeats day after day. Hour after hour. I pity the monks before me. I pity them from they want to be nothing. I pity them for I am their everything. Without me they could not live. So blind they are to the world. That they would starve themselves  before noticing that I have left. So blind they are to the world. That if the monetary were to burn to the ground. They would sit in their place. Never moving, and only pitying themselves.

Grayson moves to the grove of meditation. These monks have chosen to follow the path of their god. To become so pitiful that they vanish into nothingness. These monks believe that  their own minds hold the power that they seek. The power to vanish into nothingness. To embody pity, and to become nothing. Grayson moves from monk to monk shoving the food pill down each and everyone of their throats. There are 30 monks in this grove. Each sitting on a mat. Each have a tube coming out of them filled with bodily waste. Grayson picks up the chamber pot, and carries it over to the refuse pile. The monks of meditation fed their only pill of the day are left alone until tomorrow where the process starts again.

Grayson travels over to the other area. The area he fear most. Tubes line the ceiling and run into the arms and legs of the monks in this area. So many tubes, and so little veins. These monks never leave their spot on the floor. Never eat. Never feel. Never care for anything. Still their minds are active, yet quite limitied. Still they try to push away all thought. As if they could lock themselves in a cage of nothingness. As if they could become their god. Grayson still feels fear for these monks of the medication, but he pities them. Which is what they want most. The pity of the last soul still at work.

For all of the monks have lost their soul. No longer do they seek to exist. No longer to they seek to love, or to even hate. No longer do they seek to learn. To feel the air rush over their face. To smell a summer's due. To see a setting sun. To ponder the great questions in life. No the only thing that is worth their time is the only thing that doesn't exist. Nothing. For it is their hope. Nay their conviction. One statement that so absorbs them. That as children they were exposed to. The affirmation. Nothing lasts forever. Become nothing and last forever. How does one shed their mortal body, and how does one lock away ones own soul?

Some monks think that meditation is the one way. That the answers are locked within. That as we started as nothing. We can become nothing again. Through use of our own mind. Still other monks, some would say lesser, some would say more devout. For they realized that the only true way to become nothing is to examine the self scientifically. The mind is but flesh floating in chemical. Alter the chemicals, and become nothing. Still a body, but nothing inside. Pure and simple.

Grayson moves over to the chemical tanks and tosses in a new batch of material. To keep the monks flooded with chemical bliss. The green and purplish tank bubbles with pleasure as more is added. So much is needed to make nothing. So costly is it to make nothing. All of Grayson's work. Day in and day out literally is for nothing. Not even his nothing. The nothing of others. A bell rings and breaks the sweet sound of the monasteries purpose.

A boy stands at the entrance. Much like Grayson did before him. The boy appears to be around the age of 17. Grayson approaches the boy a look of nothingness on his face.

"Hello" greets the boy.
"Why have you come here?" responds Grayson.
"I feel nothing, and my soul is dead. I wish to follow the path of nothingness"
"To feel nothing in quite an achievement" Grayson says slyly "What is your true emotion"
The boy is obviously uncomfortable with this question.
Grayson smiles inwardly, as a monk never shows emotion. "This is about a girl is it not?"
The boys eyes widen, but he manages a quick nod.
"Come with me, as we have much to discuss."

Grayson leads the boy into the monastery. Past the painted black walls of the entrance hall.  Past the open fields of stone and sand. Finally into the small kitchen. Grayson starts the stove and prepares some water for tea. As the water heats to a boil he asks the boy his name.

"Robert" he answers.
"So Robert tell me about her"

The boy looks to the boiling pot of water. The lid shaking and jumping from the energy that it keeps within. The pot can barely contain its contents. The pot is often used on this type of boy.

"She is my love! She is my desire! She was mine, but I have lost her. I have lost her to nothing. For no reason other then who I am. Who I am; I hate! I am a being filled with hate! I have no room for anything. No room for who I am. No room left. Only the burning hate."

The water boils over the sides of the pot. Grayson begins to make the tea. He pours only one glass, and passes it to Robert.

"She is your love" responds Grayson "She will be with another, and she will move on. You should as well"

The boys hands tighten into fists, as white knuckles are bared.

"I would rather her die then be with another" he passionately responds.

Silence. Nothing. Is Grayson's response.

The boy takes a sip from his tea.

"Oh how could I say such a thing. Oh how could I think such a thing. I wish to be nothing. I wish only to serve, to be with the monks. To learn nothing. To feel nothing. My emotions get away from me. My emotions push me into a person I do not recognize."

"So you wish to be nothing because you are human?" Grayson asks. "You are young you will love again"

"I do not wish to love again!" He yells spilling tea onto the table.

"I pity you." Grayson moves for the door. Robert follows quickly at his side like ash's pikachu. Silently hating yet somewhat intrigued by the power of this man. The potential, and the love emanating from him. Grayson walks silently to the monks of medication. He throws open the door, and declares.

"This could be you!"

Tubes of red, yellow, blue, and purple wrap around pillars and drape down the ceiling. Into the arms of the monks. Liquid pity flowing into their being. Coursing in their veins. Eliminating themselves, as they are filled with pity for themselves.

"I pity you for this is you Robert." Grayson says calmly "You are so pitiful that you do not have the mind or wherewithal to love again. This is your future Robert. This is your self hatred"

Robert is taken aback by the sheer scope. Hundreds nay thousands of monks line these corridors. Never to move again. Never to feel anything but the pity that is pumped into their veins.

"I... I... I am not this weak minded fool you take me for. I choose not to love again, as my love was the purest love that ever was. A love where we did not need for anything. A love that only Love can describe. Nay I pity you Grayson for never knowing such a love!"

Grayson replies "Love has been dead for many years boy. Driven into obsoleteness by Father Light. The one true God. But you have passed this test, and you can now come with me for your reward."

The two walk silently in the awkward moment to the grove of the monks of meditation. Here only 30 monks stay. Here only 30 monks focus themselves into nothingness.

Grayson declares "You are worthy, and yes you have a strong enough of a mind to pursue the nobler of the methods take your seat and become what you wish."

Grayson extends his arm towards Robert. His hand opening to reveal the pill.

"That is it? Just take the pill and meditate for the rest of time?"
"You could always go back to the simpler way" responds Grayson.

Not wanting to be one of the many monks that line these monastery walls. The proud, and pitiful boy takes the pill. He sits on the ground, and loses himself in himself.

Grayson looks at his newest power source. The voice booms in his head.

"My priest. My Grayson. My most favorite of all humans. Another sheep falls into our flock."

Grayson smiles, and he beings to chuckle. Robert now completely gone. A mere robot. A mere husk. Grayson's laughter spreading into his still so very existing soul. Laughing and laughing a might roar of a laugh.

"I am Grayson, the only. The one priest of God."