there’s no escaping

‘It’s OK,’ Carl thought to himself as he stood looking down at a wallet someone had dropped, ‘no one is around, and no one is watching.’ [From the Beyond, where no-time is non-space, an infinite set of eyes watched him, unblinking.]
He did the thing he knew he shouldn’t do, taking money out of the wallet. [The infinite set of eyes bore witness to his dishonorable act.]
‘I feel weird,’ he thought. [The souls of his ancestors - a thousand times a thousand were they in number - cried out, their fragile hearts breaking in unison.]
He pocketed the cash and tossed the wallet into a nearby shrubbery. [An Envoy of Punishment - awoken by the sound of many souls crying - moved swiftly through the Vast Crushing Nothingness, bearing down upon the foolish man.]
Carl kept walking down the darkened sidewalk, the illicitly-gained funds burning a hole in his pocket. [The Envoy of Punishment hovered over him, sucking life from his trembling bones.]
‘Maybe a drink will soothe my nerves,’ he thought, walking into a bar instead of sticking to his plans and spending time with a friend in need. [The Repository of Suffering buckled under the weight of a million gallons of tears shed in lonely silence.]
“A whisky and a beer,” he told the barkeep, paying with some of the stolen money. [The infinite set of eyes watched him, unblinking.]
‘Man, I’m bushed,’ Carl thought. ‘Must be all that walking I did tonight.’ He slumped forward onto the bar, his head drooping forward. [The Envoy of Punishment, its satchel stuffed full with all but the last remnants of Carl’s life-force, flew off into the Vast Crushing Nothingness.]

[And the infinite set of unblinking eyes kept watching.]

americanifesto / JPR / whorphan / 場黑麥