The Adversary

The gun lies there in the dirt, matte and maniacal and begging for an enemy, but there are only victims here, half-hidden in the murky shadows of eyelashes and silently screaming for a voice because I've become all too good at tuning them out. But I have my own quest, gun and bullets and all, and I can't be bothered with the stifled moans of the already dying because if I move an inch I'll join them swirling down into the event horizon of eternal blackness. I was knighted once by someone who didn't matter and given a quest of my very own, but what becomes of the knight when the quest proves impossible and his only purpose becomes existence itself? Does he push futilely onward for king and honor, or is it long since time to put up the armor and rejoin the bleached and bland reality of second choices and forever regrets?