(Scars do not appear to be cause of death –shock ... - Bad Request

"Pride! Pride and ego! We keep telling ourselves that we can be something,
that we mean something, that there's a reason we're here, but in the end...
in the end it's all just blackness. I've seen that final blackness and there's no
reason to deny it. Yet we keep pushing on out of foolish pride. There's no
reason to it."
It was like balancing a glass globe on the tip of a spear, trying to be delicate
yet not patronizing, firm yet not scolding. Any moment he could hang
himself, and I needed to keep him talking, "Look, I'm here to help. I'm here
to listen."
"I see... send a concerned stranger to talk me out of it, eh? Ha!" The voice
dropped to a conspiratorial tone. "Did they tell you could join 'em if you just
came to talk to me? Did they think it would make you care more? If you had
seen half the things I'd seen... just half the things I'd seen..."
"What have you seen?"
"I have seen horrors beyond imagining. I have seen a twisted, tortured god,
bound by laughing fiends. I have seen a layer of the Abyss distill itself into
the essence of a single individual... I have seen all the laws of nature
perverted and I have seen all the truths of man turned upside-down. None
of it makes sense to me anymore, and I cannot bear it any longer! What's
the point, I ask you, what's the point?"
I tried to smooth my voice, make it softer than the normal low, guttural
growl, "You have no idea what I have seen, Sandoz. I've lain in the sands of
the Silent Shore, felt the icy waves of the River Styx lapping at my cold flesh.
I've seen the darkness at the end of every nightmare, felt the hollow where
a man's essence should rest. You don't see me threatening to kill myself."
There is a short, sharp breath from behind the door, and then a low,
unamused chuckle. "You're not much on tact, are you? What if I told you I
had my head in a noose right this instant?"
"I'd tell you that if it's done wrong, it's a particularly uncomfortable way to
go. Trust me, I know from experience," granted, I hadn't quite died by
hanging yet, but I've had my neck snapped enough times to know, "So why
don't we just talk?"
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