“You can’t tell me who to be with!” Ciara cried! 

Kirk looked at her sardonically. “Oh, but I can, my dear. Though I could not make you choose me, I now want you to find the worst of the worst, to have exactly what you want, since you don’t learn. You see, all I have to do is be honest. All I have to do is note what they, themselves, plaster all over for all to see, what’s right out in the open. And the more I out them for what they surely are … the more assured it is that you will choose them out of spite. Hence, I have made your choice.” 

“You are always wrong. You think you know things you don’t know!”

“Keep telling yourself that, my dear. For one thing I know, which you do not, is what it is to be a man and what men do, how they think, and what pretenses they use to make themselves seem like catches. Yes, they will lull you in, at first, be exactly what you want, but the end game was already written by them and they told you what it was already, without words. You just refuse to see it for what it is, and, by the time you realize it, you, incapable of asserting yourself, will be stuck with it. Give it time. Whomever you choose will morph into exactly what I’ve said. It’s a given. It’s precisely, in your shallowness, what you choose yourself, and I want nothing more than for you to have it, as you deserve it. Always remember, I put on no pretenses for you. I came to you as me, with none of the baggage they think entitles them. I offered you true love, untainted by usury, but you spat at it.” 

“You just judge everyone. That’s why people don’t like you.” 

“As do you, little one. As you did me, knowing nothing.. You hear nothing I say. You refuse to listen, in pure belligerence, because you are guilty. The difference is that I have no qualms with alienating people who are full of shit, and I only judge critically when I’m given reason to. You know this well, for I did not judge you as you did me. I overlooked your overt issues, which I should not have. I have no desire to be around the lying, using, and selfish, no matter how it might advantage me. That is your game. And, my dear, it was only you and your gaggle of haters who have ever disliked me so quickly and for no reason. It was tribal bullshit, and you were secretly the tribe leader, pulling the strings, giving them impetus to invent distortions. You were their Svengali. Karma will pay you back for that and will do so through your own choices. I will merely nudge you in the right direction. You are now the puppet of degenerates, which, in your instilled delusions, you believe to be virtuous. It is self-destruction.” 

“Just leave me alone.” 

“If I could erase the damage you created for no reason, initiated it all, then I surely would. I would burn your effigy. But that is not a possibility. You have ensured that. And you do not want to be left alone, as much as you declare it so. You have not let go. You reach out in your own way and cannot deny it. You can tell yourself whatever you wish to excuse it, but it is the truth either way. You long for something. I am in you, for good or ill. You did not have to make things progress as you did, and, yes, you made them. You were intent upon drama the entire time. You have robbed me of my ability to love, to trust anyone. You must give it back.”

“I owe you nothing.” Ciara hissed. 

“But you do. If you do not see even that, then you are a base creature, slithering around in muck, with no saving grace. I care not for your company any longer, but you must give back what you stole, what you went out of your way to take, when you go out of your way for no one. You did it for revenge, and you had no right to revenge. The least you could do, to save your own soul no less!, presuming you have any left, is to concede something to me. You will not help me against your law-breaking abettors, which makes you irredeemable. So give me something else.” 

“What? I don’t have to give you anything!” 

“You do not, but then your soul is damned. It may be too late for you as it is, you, in your false faith, using it to excuse yourself without ever atoning and burying yourself in sleaze. It is heresy my dear, and if you really believed, you would fear the consequences. I ask only for what should have been mine … compassion. I ask for nothing that the idea of did not truly bother you then, though you feigned that it did later. Give me a parting piece of yourself. Then you will know you have at least tried to atone. Give me a night, no prohibitions. One. Let me show you what you gave up. Or give me that which you knew I wanted. That which you joked about yourself. You’ve surely done it before, though you will protest. Used against you by that sludge you bound yourself to for convenience … for money? It cannot be used against you now, for it would open me up to more destruction if I were to do so, and I have no cause. I simply want part of your soul, willingly given, to keep. In a few more years, none but the lowest of vermin, desperate for someone to control, will want either thing from you anyway. Your charms fade, my dear. You debase yourself worse with with them already, putting yourself on sale. I would have wanted you forever. Give in to me once. Give it now, while it still matters, as denial will mean that you will never be allowed to crawl back later, once you’ve realized your mistakes, once they’ve devoured your heart. Save your soul and bare it to me. Then I can let you go, peaceful in the knowledge that you confessed with it.” 

“I don’t know what you mean, but no. I refuse everything.” 

“You claimed not to be stupid. You know exactly what is meant, and it is nothing for you to give it to me. You do worse with those devils you choose, who are not owed anything. It is owed to me. You are a petulant brat. And that is all you ever will be. But suit yourself. You have condemned yourself as a serpent, not worthy of any heaven. Your mind is a liar and your heart is dead. My revenge will be your own choices, and you have proven to me and to yourself that you deserve the fate you have chosen, deserve falsity and emotional turmoil, a lie of a life. And you will have it with them. Come not to me with pity, once they’ve torn you apart. You refuse to give me anything to secure that harbor? Drown yourself in your shallowness and spite, my dear.”