"Love and hate are two sides of the same coin, each capable of turning us into something unrecognizable." Edgar Allan Poe

When you first knew him you were so young and dumb, he was too and that made you love him so much more. You explored each other's personalities, likes, dislikes, sexualities, and your deepest most sincere passions. He was your first love, you were his, but something changed along the way. Maybe it was you, maybe it was him, maybe time and other influences drove a wedge between you. The nights you spent talking about your lives together meant nothing when you said goodbye for the last time. Over the years he reached out to you but love lost is often followed by a heart spurned, whether it be pride or betrayal you turned him away and eventually just completely ignored his pleas. It was childish of him, how many years had it been, and how many more would it take for him to get over you? Time continued as it always does, you pursued your goals, failed and succeeded in life as all do and found yourself phasing in and out of contentment. How long had it been now, well over a decade, no more pleas came and not a word whispered. If you ever thought of him, you wouldn't give him any acknowledgement, never. The days blend as your work drives your life forward, for better or worse you've totally moved on. That's when everything changed.

The political movement came swiftly and swept across the country like a hard winter wind, cutting like a knife so that none would be able to ignore it. The positions weren't extreme one way or another, not initially. Members of the movement strode through the doors of political office with ease, and before long they were recognized as the up and coming rather than the fringe and seasonal. At their head was a revolving door of charismatic but unprestigious leaders that furthered their goals but never made a meaningful attempt to stay as the figurehead; those few dissenters said it was a ruse to keep eyes off the true leadership.

Elections came and went and with every seat of office shifting towards their influence the national personality shifted as well. Members acted with zeal and power, showing lion like bravery in the face of opposition, as if they knew what was coming. It was then that the charade and shroud were lifted. You were at home, flicking through a dozen programs when the face of someone you recognized was purported as the new leader of that political organization, him.

His eyes were a beautiful shade of hazel, a yellow green surrounded by a trim of brown, it reminded you of those late night facetimes and web calls. Though his eyes weren't soft and welcoming as you remembered, but you were just kids back then, right? His eyes were that of a predator, sharp and scrutinizing like he wanted to physically pick apart the people he saw before him at that initial press release. HIs voice was deeper now, a chalky and exact tone, where was that everpresent undertone of comedy you remembered? You remember those nights spent together laying on the roof, hearing each other's far out ideas and explanations, he was always a joker back then, when you were young. How much can someone change, what could make him change like this?

He spoke with that authority you hear about from people that escaped dictatorships and despotic nations in the third world, his organization's guise of neutrality tossed to the wind as his aggression was made clear. If he hadn't been who he was, you'd have turned away, but it wasn't. He spoke about the country's weakness, the acidic ruin it was in, the power of their rivals, the everpresent fire of past glories that could be rekindled, all the nation needed to do was choose him to lead. You know what he is, what he had become, or at least you thought so. You expected the media to react with revulsion, but with every word their eyes grew ever blurred and then blind. You expected a national panic at his clear revision of the political stance, but no one seemed to notice or care. His popularity grew as he crossed stage after stage to stand before a podium and a greater and greater amassed crowd. The election came and went, the result was astonishing but clear.

Those that disagreed with him, those that dissented, those that spoke out, and those that did not doggedly follow him joined into the crowd of his evergrowing support. The country changed around you night by night with the strange happenings of state agencies. People changed too, those that did not become loud and aggressive became quiet and complicit. You spoke out, finally pushed too far by the bizarre and despicable, you made your position clear to all around you. He was a tyrant, an evil to be resisted, he was everything that your culture had primed you to be against. You expected to be hurt or killed for your outbursts, the first martyr in a war of resistance, but that never happened. You slept at night without the arrival of any secret police, you walked the street without harm, you just kept going about your life.

You weren't sure when it happened, but you found yourself sitting in a hallway, your mind reeling from amnestics. Men and women in suits were placed in key positions in front of every doorway left and right to you. You sat there for several minutes, slowly putting together your faculties as you were gently pulled from your seat and walked into a door at the end of the hall. As you were ushered through a hard darkness permeated the room and your eyes, still recovering from whatever drugs were in your system, could not adjust to it completely. You were sitting in a chair and before you a figure leaned forward,"Leave us." The tone was soft, and you could almost recognize the voice. Then as the door closed and your eyes began the slow road of adjusting to the dark, the figure's face became clear. How many years had it been? His popularity wasn't hindered by his relatively young age, but it had been some time since you'd seen his handsome features. He didn't speak, he watched, something dark was behind his predatory glare, but he waited, a small sense of fear became clear. But it wasn't really him, not anymore.