Creators of the End

A great many call it “war”, but those with a clear lens know exactly what it is—genocide. Ever since the current invaders took over the lands stolen from us by their predecessors, we have faced endless firestorms that have claimed countless lives. The descending barrages took everything from us: our families, friends, homes, schools, fields… Each attack reduced our livelihoods to ash and displaced us further and further away from our homes, ensuring that we could never return. That is how the invaders secured more of our lands, with methods so indiscriminate and cruel.

Decades into the slow evisceration of our people, the invaders, emboldened by the support of the “great” powers of the world, now seek to finish what they’ve started: they aim to wipe out the few of us who are left starving and homeless. Many of them have begun to claim the ruins of the towns and cities we once called home, renaming them as they see fit to make settlements for themselves. I wonder if they have any feelings at all, or even a conscience. Perhaps the veil of ignorance drawn upon them was too dense, or perhaps they just did not care who had to suffer as long as they reaped the benefits. I feel I will not live long enough to find out, not in this blood-soaked labyrinth.

The past two years alone have been the worst that I’ve ever seen in the fifteen years I’ve struggled to survive in my own homeland. So many of us are ensnared in the corners of our land that isn’t even recognised as a country. It makes things all the more convenient, I guess… It’s easier to erase an entire ethnicity when barely anyone recognises them as actual citizens, or even as people at the very least. In the end, we’re just a means to an end for those who hold power over the world—the ones who control what thoughts and ideas people can have. However, even amidst this hopelessness, I’m glad that their grip hasn’t strangled the will of at least the few who stand by us; they are the only ones who would even recognise us as human beings.

I wonder if the invaders truly believe that a god would side with their actions. It would be the cruelest joke I had ever heard. But I doubt the invaders give it much thought. In the end, everyone is a scapegoat, everyone is disposable. Even gods. What creator would ever cheer the slaughter of their creations? Would they truly feel joy seeing the horrors of hell itself raining down upon people who seek nothing but to live their lives? Parents who want to watch their children grow and become independent, children who dream of reaching goals they have clung to for as long as they could remember… All snuffed out in an inferno that leaves nothing but suffering and despair in its wake.

What’s more to ponder upon is the matter of when this needless bloodshed would even cease. Our lands would only be the beginning. The invaders would not stop there, not when there are more resources beyond our current confinements. Our neighbours already face their relentless wrath and depthless greed. It is not something that would ever be sated, not until they’ve burned the world to the ground and found prosperity at the expense of every last innocent. Bearing the self-proclaimed title of being the “chosen ones” has led them down a path of bloodlust. I fear it is a pit they will keep digging themselves into until they can never see the light again. Will they be the creators of their own end?