‘The truth doesn’t come from the raised fist of authority,’ I said bravely, ducking as I spoke. ‘And neither does it issue forth from the stultifying edicts of the bureaucrat’ I added ponderously as an afterthought, my body strobing in and out of focus as I strove to maintain a coherent physical form. In the end I gave up and became a three-dimensional array of coloured lights, the simplest solution that I could find to the problem of existing.

‘Truth doesn’t come from the raised fist of authority’ I quip glibly, but am too slow to duck and receive as a consequence of my slowness a tremendous blow right to the side of my head. To say that my head rang like a bell would be the understatement of the century! I had caught it good and proper – I can’t actually imagine anyone catching a crack to the head better than I caught that one just then. To say that my head was ringing like a bell completely fails to do justice to the situation, it is however all I can think of to say on the subject so I suppose I’ll just have to go on saying it…

I lost the power of speech after that – I haven’t come out with any quips since, clever or otherwise! I’m not feeling too clever at all, if the truth be known. If the truth be known. If the truth be known. I actually wish that I could stop saying that – talking about the truth has unpleasant associations for me. It makes my head ring like a bell. What is the truth, anyway? Is it possible to know one way or another? Does truth belong to the powerful? I’m not as sure of this as I used to be – I’m not as sure of anything as I used to be come to think of it. I was listening to the sound of all the people talking in the room and all I could hear was wall-to-wall babble. Was it the truth that they were babbling, I wondered, or was it only nonsense? Was it a mixture of truth and nonsense? Did it matter either way?

Cowed by authority, I creep around in the shadows. I am a shadow-dweller, I think to myself. I am a shadow-dweller and I fear the light. ‘Just leave me here in the shadows’, I ask the powers that be – I can just about cope with that! I certainly couldn’t cope with anything else. I find myself worrying that I am no longer the person I used to be. I feel as though I have been beaten solidly into the ground like a fence-post. I feel as though I have been hit with a hammer so hard that I have become the inverse of myself. I haven’t just been crushed – I have been turned into the negative of myself!

I no longer exist in reality, but in the infra-dimensions. I have been knocked right out of reality, knocked right into another dimension. Only it isn’t a dimension – it’s an infra-dimension. I have been transformed into a shadow in the shadow-realm, a being that quivers in fear at the mention of the light. But the light isn’t my only enemy – there are other shadow-dwellers here apart from me, creatures far more aggressive and terrifying than I am. Which wouldn’t be particularly hard since I am not aggressive or terrifying at all! I am a blob of fearful energy…

I can no longer exist in reality because reality has become a source of pain for me. I have retreated into a kind of a murky contaminated netherworld, a world where your slightest fear or insecurity can be magnified a millionfold within seconds. There’s no telling how big your fears can grow here! It’s like a hothouse for fears.This is a place where your fears can grow legs and walk. This is a place where your fears can grow fists of iron that can punch you in the head with hammer-like force!