You saw me!

i most solemnly swear that i did naught. let the truth be trolled, eye was just estranger lookin on... i had nothin too do weave disc i swear!

You don't have that many chances left you know? I've already collected 16, that means I'm already halfway through. If you were a tad smarter, you'd stop shitting me and spit the truth out.

u have to trust me, i didn see anyting! pleese let me go, i beg u. pleese...

Guess that leaves you with 15 more to go... >:)

i cannaught take dis anymoor pleese...

Just curse your luck. You should know better than to rat me out!

it was to protech myself..

Oh blast the irony, for see where you are now?! Maybe you shouldn't trust everyone you meet eh?

he was an ascendant...

And so am I.

why did he do this to me... he promised he would protech me. HE PROMISED!

Oh shut up! The world is cruel, DEAL WITH IT!

please don't hurt me..

This won't hurt one bit. It'd be like the first time you descended. Painful, but only in a flash.

BEAT

I don't know what I saw...

You need to be honest with me if you want to stay alive. It's the only way I can help you.

This was a mistake! I shouldn't have said anything. I'm probably drunk as usual. Just forget everything I've said. I'm going back down.

Stop! You've already started... if what you're saying is true, he'll know, and by then it'll be too late for me to save you. Just tell me, I'm pleading with you now...

Look! The lift's here.. guess I'll be descending now.

...

I.... don't know.... (breaks down)

Neither do I. Trust me.

....

Surely you can trust me? I'm an ascendant...

So was he.. and you are always fervently defending him...

I am an ascendant.. it's only in my moral policy to have faith in those I am liaised with you see.. but I've always had a connection with the people down there, and you with us up here. I know I can trust you, you know can trust me too.

Silence.

Nobody saw it coming... it was just serendipity, or perhaps cruel fate, that placed me at the wrong place at the worst time. But I'm sure what I saw, and still I don't believe it! It's always been a legend and I've never actually believed the system can be cheated.. but it's true! I most solemnly swear!

If you would just tell me, I can help you.

When he took of his robe, his scar was still there. He's not fully transfigured! He's still one of us! Impure and filled with disdain. But the way he carries himself... it's virtually impossible to have seen through this facade. But then there was always the propensity for his tongue to slur with vulgarities..

Yes. That is a perturbing point. 

So will you help me?

Of course I will help. [I never said who]

BEAT

You're waiting for a train, a train that will take you far away. You know where you hope this train will take you, but you don't know for sure. But it doesn't matter.

Why the shit won't it matter? Of course it matters! If the goddamn train brought you to the forsaken desert of the Middle East, are you going to just suck it up and live with that crap?! God, you are pathetic you know..

It's as if you brush your mouth with a profanity-drenched toothbrush; do you even hear what you spew sometimes? It's plain crude and foul.. It really makes one ponder how you ascended hmmph

Oh shut up you saint! Fact of the matter is: I did. Deal with it!

You sure you didn't cheat the system?

I am confidant and can most certainly ascertain. [that perhaps I did]

(laughter in unison)

If it isn't yet another private gathering of the ascendants? We all know the exhilaration of growing up but that doesn't grant you the privilege to flaunt your exclusivity right?

Shut up you son of a...

Go home. You don't belong here.

Neither do you. (glares)

(in unison) How absurd?! Get out! Descend.

BEAT

So what happens if you aren't actually ready but somehow you ascend?

Ah, I see you've heard about the 'feedback' then?

(Sheepish grin)

The pursuit of knowledge is never something to be embarrassed about. Young one, the 'feedback' mechanism has always been just a paper rumor, just another legend used to keep our system in check but as far as I am concerned, it is as true as it is fearsome. You see, given a strong enough willpower, one can emanate an aura of adulthood and maturity, despite his age speaking otherwise. But it takes sheer mental will and the erosion of pure goodness or morality for one to undertake such an unethical decision.. to cheat the system is simply pure evil..

But alas, it is possible no?

Aye. Young one, use this knowledge well, I plead.

Yes master, I most certainly will. [well in favour of my own selfish intent perhaps]

BEAT

Once upon a time, in a distant land, where humans no longer regarded each other as divided creatures. Long faded were the distinction between races, religion or ethnicity. It was an agglutination of cultural particles, an amalgamation of languages but a single distinguishing trademark remains central to the dichotomy of classification: maturity.

One lives for as long as he pleases, but it could take eons for an individual to finally ascend. Given the extended longevity of life, it may take decades for babies to grow out of their needy phase, for children to break loose from their shell of havoc or even for people to simply realize it's time they grew up; time to ascend.

But time isn't everything. The only thing that matters is your mentality and if the system deems fit, you shall be judged will and ascend. Ascension grants you the maturity to see things with enlightenment and even more. Perhaps, that explains why so many have attempted and still failed to ascend.

From here onwards, the story begins. This story was designed to proceed upwards, so that you may ascend as the story progresses but the conclusion lies below, because we were all born to descent. We can never judge ourselves by our mature we seem. True maturity stems from the ability to reason right from wrong and to control when to be immature and when not to be.

BEAT

So then what are you going to do with all his teeth?

Does it bloody matter?

It is a bloody matter.

Oh you would know it sooner or later.

Indeed I will, so I might as well know where you are going to dispose of us after this.

You never should have ratted out on me!

You were going to hurt him all the same.

But you brought this upon yourself!

I am not denying. You've taken everything away from me. Even at his deathbed, I'm just a criminal in his mind.

You should be happy. You are now going to ascend for good, to join him in heaven hahahaha..

And alas, all those who have ascended will only descend when the world crumbles..

BEAT.