“Do you hereby swear to uphold the values of The Third Eye?”
Decisions we make alter the scope of our very existence. Our lives are a sum of these decisions, for better or for worse. But some are so life altering, that the memory of them is forever etched into our minds.
Burned into our memory.
I will never forget those words, the very last uttered before they took my sight from me. An oath that there was never any coming back from.
“And do you agree to cede use of your mortal eyes in order to be granted access to your Third Eye? In doing so you agree that you will use this sight as intended for the good of The Third Eye?”
It is not an oath that I have had to memorise, for it is the very same oath spoken to me all those years ago. A desperate man, lost and searching for a better way to live. A better life. I found it, but that doesn’t make it easy to say those two words that they long to hear.
‘I do.’
That pause. That moment of hesitation. I know it all to well.
For I know what hides behind those eyes, they give your emotions away all too well.
Fear.
Terror and desperation.
The same feelings I felt all those years ago. I can sense it in you now. That catch in your throat, that inability to say the words, for you know the finality of your decision.
There’s no turning back now.
The Third Eye recruits those that are desperate enough to take their oath seriously. Those that have lost all hope, those that never had any to begin with. It makes no secret about that. If you can crawl out of your circumstances under your own strength, you will find a way.
The Third Eye seeks the broken. The condemned. That is why you’re here.
Only because you see no other way.
Neither did I. The Third Eye gave me the hope I so desired, hope that you need so desperately. Embrace the fear, swallow the pain, for behind those eyes lies the secret to unlocking that hope.
I’m simply here to extract it.
V1sion raises the ceremonious poker, red hot and sizzling. He holds it in front of a petrified young man’s face.
“So… Do you hereby swear to uphold the values of The Third Eye?”
The terrified man trembles, shaking uncontrollably. But he is being restrained by two Third Eye brothers and cannot escape. He shakes his head violently. V1sion smiles.
“You’ll have to speak up. The Third Eye needs all the recruits it can get in this war.”
The young man, still trembling, cries heaving sobs. He is shaking his head, eyes filled with horror.
“P-p-p-please… St-sto….”
V1ision’s smile widens as he presses the iron poker into the eyes of his newest recruit. Blood curdling screams fill the void of The Altar, cutting off the rest of the man’s protests.
“Welcome to the Third Eye.”