text: The heavy steel door ground to a halt, revealing the dimly lit room it protected. In the centre of the room was a rectangular table with a metal foldout chair on either side. The closest chair was empty. My gaze rose across the table, and I saw it. Cloaked by the darkness of the room, sitting in the other chair, unblinking eyes fixed on me. My legs quivered as I approached. With every step its focus on me seemed to intensify, its gaze never faltering. I took a deep breath and sat down. I stared across the table, trying to collect my thoughts. My heart was racing but my mind felt completely almost blank. Despite all my preparation, only one question came into my mind. “Why did you do it?” It smiled, “The voice of the creator compelled me.” The intense look in its eyes gave me a lump in my throat. “The creator?” “The creator speaks to me, guiding me down the right path”, its smile grew wider. Hearing its answer stirred up and mixture of anger and confusion, “How can murdering seven people be the right path?” Images of the crime scene flashed into my head. Mutilated bodies strew across the furniture. Blood soaking into an opulent Persian rug. An ornate chandelier lying shattered in the centre of the room, a child’s body crushed underneath. “Do you really think they deserved it?” “I do not question the guidance of the creator. I follow and obey.” Its expression became serious, pale green eyes narrowing. We both fell silent. It stared at me, unmoving. I stared back, trying to figure out if it was telling the truth, or even believed what it was saying. “What created you?” It smiled again, sending a chill down my spine. “The creator made everything, space, time... you!” It licked its dry lips with a long, black, glistening tongue. I grew more curious, “There’s a lot of research that would prove otherwise. It’s indisputably proven that...” “Heretic!”, it interrupted me suddenly and with great volume. “You have no idea what is real, you are merely looking at shadows on the cave walls, you have not heard the voice!” Its twisted features began to look angry as it continued, “you sit here and question me? You presume to know the origins of the universe based on what you’ve been told by your peers, I have heard the creator!” Its cracked lips started to bleed as it spoke louder and louder. “Even if that’s true it doesn’t justify all the violence. I find it difficult to believe that an almighty deity told you to do it all, or even exists at all” I paused “I think that you’re delusional.” Immediately it launched itself at me, knocking me out of my chair and on to the concrete. It stood, frozen mid-lunge, held in place by its restraints. It’s eyes boar into me as it snarled like a wild animal, lips oozing with blood. Slowly, I backed away, never breaking eye contact. The door behind me clunked open and the waiting guards rushed inside, weapons aimed at it as I hurried out of the room. As I left it cried out to me in an anguished voice, “You all fall! He is eternal!” Three hours later, I re-entered the room. Its restraints had been secured, affixing its limbs to the floor. Once again, I steadied my nerves. “I’ll ask you again, why did you do it?” It growled, blinked slowly, and then spoke. “I have had this conversation many times, with many people like you” A razor-sharp finger extended slowly, pointing towards me. “You can ask me a thousand questions a thousand times, but it always ends the same way.” I was taken aback by its sudden change in demeanour. “And what way is that?” “Either we give up trying to convince either other of our beliefs or...” its teeth were in full view as it paused, “violence!” “The people you killed; did they choose violence? Did that child choose violence?” I felt myself becoming angry at its casual attitude towards what it had done. “The creator saw that they were evil, the creator told me to punish them. I did the child a kindness, it did not fear like the others did, it did not experience the pain that the other did. Its life was ended first.” “You call that kindness? You call them evil? You murdered them in cold blood!” Fury welled up inside of me, my fists clenched and my legs shook. It started to cackle like a hyena “I knew you would not understand” Its cackling grew louder, and my rage boiled over. Blinded by my anger, I swung my fist towards it, hitting it square in the jaw. Unaffected by the blow, it smiled once more. Its barbed teeth seem to elongate as it grinned wider and wider, its lips now dripping with blood. It flexed its claw-like hands, showing off their true, gargantuan, size. The spines that lined its back and forearms bristled, standing on end. I then watched in horror as its restraints fell away, clattering on the concrete.