Madness

World war 1 was probably the reason the world was the mess that it currently was, it had ended three years before Ikarus descended to the mortal realm but the after-effects still plagued them.

People found comfort in petting animals, that and the morphine made the body parts they lost to artillery shots feel pointless. Sheet covers blanketed the burned and disfigured human bodies that couldn't fit in the morgue and couldn't be buried due to a lack of personnel.

Still with the world in tatters people still gossiped, women, men. They gossiped about matters that involved the state of the country, the leaders of the country and sometimes even just people entering the country. Today's traveler being gossiped about was a wealthy man coming from Spain. "Maybe I could get married to him and-" "Trust me girl, he's not gonna marry you."

Ikarus was broken or at least he felt like he was, three years ago he had given punishments equivalent to the sins of the man but now. Even though still equivalent, he was enjoying their torment. He wasn't the devil and he knew the devil didn't exist that was a sham created by a certain group of people to try and lessen the amount of wrongs in the society.

A visitor would come today, he knew why the person was coming because he had come before however, he left the last time before a question was issued. Wilbur Ansel was a retired soldier that fought and survived world war 1, he had complained to multiple therapists about his inability to sleep and the itchy sensation he feels whenever he grabs something in his arm. Ikarus knew this information because he could hear it, his hearing was easily able to pick up chatter within the entire city.

However what Ikarus wanted last time the man visited wasn't what he wasn't what he wanted now, he wanted to know the man's thoughts and opinions on subjects. Ikarus felt like he was broken so he wanted to talk to someone that would feel the same as he did.

September 16th, 1921.

It seemed like a storm always started immediately a customer approached Ikarus, it was bright and sunny for hours but immediately Wilbur stepped out of his house. The flurry began.

Wilbur was thirty-eight and was on a strict diet of triazolam and morphine. He had PTSD that made him dream about the war and it was anyone's guess what he wanted from the choosing god.

Ikarus never sought a conversation, he believed conversations darken the mind. When hearing another person's opinion your thought becomes clouded, is he right? am I wrong? an influx of ideas that change your perspective on things and he was the last person in the world that needed to have his outlook altered.

However, he had a conversation once with a man named Philip Van Gogh. They spent six hours talking before the man ultimately made his wish and from that day onwards, he never saw him again.

"Human what is it you wish." Ikarus looked at the retired soldier, he had bruises all over his body and his hair was unkempt.

"The blessed ones... they say, you tell me my questions first." Wilbur spoke to the best of his ability, the morphine he took clouded his thoughts and he lacked his sense of feeling.

"Choose one, every time you blink for two hours you will see the events of the war. Your friends will die, the artillery shots will hit. Blood will spill, over and over and over. The second choice is almost the same, but instead of seeing glimpses. I'll put you in an illusion of the war, you'll forget it's an illusion but you'll retain the memory of the fact that you know the events have occurred before."

"....." Wilbur didn't say a word. He was in thought, or at least that's what it seemed like.

"Which will you pick mortal."

"I wanna have a good night's rest... Choice one please." Wilbur shut his eyes and tried his best to have whatever moments of silence he could get before the choice sets in.

"Your wish is my command." The two blue orbs in the middle of his chest turned dark and Wilbur let out a gut-wrenching scream.

"ISIAH I'M SORRY, PLEASE LET ME APOLOGIZE PLEASE..." Wilbur opened his eyes and stopped shouting. "I chose option 1, which happens when I blink. it'll happen... for 2 hours."

"What does it feel like to take another man's life." Ikarus asked and Wilbur didn't answer.

"What?" He heard the god but he couldn't understand his question. "What does it feel like to take a life?"

"Yes, that was the question I asked."

"Didn't expect it sorry." Wilbur closed his eyes for a split second and screamed again. "Sorry. About your question, what. Are you trying to become a human?"

"Just curious is all, I have granted wishes for clients who wanted easy deaths but it still doesn't feel like I'm the one that ended their life."

"Blame the man not the gun, you killed them but it wasn't your own decision they gave you the gun knowing your only purpose is to pull the trigger." Wilbur almost shut his eyes but opened them back up immediately they went halfway. "At first you feel nothing, if it was a me or you situation you could even feel a weight being lifted off your shoulders."

"..." Ikarus didn't speak, being a quiet god really paid off here. He waited and he listened.

"During your first night the event kinda just replays you know, you don't even have to be asleep. If you're with someone it replays, if you're alone it replays. If you wanna stop thinking about it, you start thinking about it."

Wilbur closed his eyes again but this time when he opened them back up he didn't scream, the conversation he had with Ikarus was helping. He thought about the conversation and once he blinked he keeps it in mind so immediately the flashes are over the only thing on his mind is the discussion.

Ikarus noticed that he was using the conversation as a crutch but since he was getting information from Wilbur there would be no need to stop, it is an equivalent exchange after all.

"Once you kill a lot of people, sometimes the voices stop and you can live a normal life for a while but they aren't gone. They'll haunt you for as long as you live, regardless."

"Thank you for your information." Ikarus had kept a timer running in a separate thought in his head, there was still time. "Can I ask you one more thing?"

"Yes." Wilbur screamed and dug his fingers into the ground after he blinked. Probably one of the more closer people.

"What do you feel is the definition of true evil." Ikarus focuse on Wilbur.

"True evil? that's a tricky one, I suppose true evil would be planning to harm someone for no reason."

"Do you believe in God?"

This was a question that Wilbur would usually answer to with a YES but now he was in two minds. The blessed ones had theories that said lots of things, some being that there are multiple gods however they all work on different aspects of life.

"I... When... I used him as a crutch, I prayed to him hoping that one day I would stop seeing the dreams."

"But since you're here."

"It means I'm unfaithful I know, the commandments say not to take a life however Saul was forgiven. So I thought maybe I would too but that day never came

funny enough." Wilbur chuckled. "So I decided to do the next best thing."

The two talked for hours and immediately the 2-hour mark struck Ikarus granted the wish of the ex-militant. A wish that could be guessed by anyone. A wish to forget about the war.

Wilbur left and Ikarus knew he wouldn't come back but the god still didn't understand what was happening to him, during the chatter with Wilbur he wanted to stop the conversation so many times so the man would truly suffer. Maybe he indeed needed to be cast out.

"I need more souls."