Dry Bones:

Simone’s Notes:

Some evolutionary psychologists theorize that guilt and shame helped maintain beneficial relationships, such as reciprocal altruism. If a person feels guilty when he harms another, or even fails to reciprocate kindness, he is more likely not to harm others or become too selfish. In this way, he reduces the chances of retaliation by members of his tribe, and thereby increases his survival prospects, and those of the tribe or group. As with any other emotion, guilt can be manipulated to control or influence others. As a highly social animal living in large groups that are relatively stable, we need ways to deal with conflicts and events in which we inadvertently or purposefully harm others. If someone causes harm to another, and then feels guilt and demonstrates regret and sorrow, the person harmed is likely to forgive. Thus, guilt makes it possible to forgive, and helps hold the social group together. Guilt is founded on our empathy system and mirror neurons. When we see another carrying out an action, we carry out the action ourselves in neuronal activity, though not in overt action. The neurons that mirror others are called mirror neurons. When we see another person suffering, we can feel their suffering as if it is our own. This constitutes our powerful system of empathy, which leads to our thinking that we should do something to relieve the suffering of others. If we cannot help another, or fail in our efforts, we experience feelings of guilt. From the perspective of group selection, groups that are made up of a high percent of co-operators outdo groups with a low percent of co-operators in between-group competition. People who are more prone to high levels of empathy-based guilt may be likely to suffer from anxiety and depression; however, they are also more likely to cooperate and behave altruistically. This suggests that guilt-proneness may not always be beneficial at the level of the individual, or within-group competition, but highly beneficial in between-group competition.

XXII:

Hazy. Alex slowly awoke to the warmth on his face. Waves lightly streamed over his face. Color and life were drained from this place, but he didn’t care. This feeling was nice. The lamb slowly shut his eyes to take it all in. The sounds inside his body had softened to a low hum. Alex felt light all over.

A heated, feather-like breeze touched his cheek. Alex took in slow, deep breaths. Memories of his mother flooded his brain. “Mother…” he thought. His mind faded into a warm peaceful place. The lamb slowly shut his eyes and took it all in. He slowly began to feel himself falling into a warm sea of nothingness. All without a struggle.

XXIII:

Painful. The electric sounds echoed in Alex’s ears. He tightly shut his eyes. The sounds inside his body had fired up on high again. He forced his eyes open again. Waves of lighting sparked like crazy before his eyes. Through the lighting, the surroundings were patch black. The pain rose higher in his ears. Alex tightly squinted his eyes. He tried to see some relief in this hell. He should have known by now. But yet, hope seemed to peek out at him in the distance. The pain got higher to his brain. Alex was powerless to stop this. All he could do was succumb to excruciating pain in his head and body. He slowly became dizzy. The lamb tried to fight it all, but he slowly sank down below as he lost consciousness.

XXIV:

Speeding. Alex felt as if he was stuck to the pavement with everything around him going three times as light speed. He tried to look up, but the boy seemed like dial-up in a Roadrunner-type world. Even the sounds were going too fast for Alex’s ears to keep up with. Colors zipped by his eyes like streamers on parade. The lamb found his mind in a confusing place. Part of him was lost on what was going on. But, another part of him found himself dazzled by the colors floating by him. He wanted to join in with the flying colors. But… his feet were still stuck to the ground. Alex tried to reach out to the colors instead. No matter how high he reached, the stars he could never touch should speeding wonder. A wee bit of sorrow crept forward in his mind. “If only there was some way to…” he thought.

Suddenly, Alex felt his body getting light again. He looked around and noticed himself floating upwards to the flying colors above. Alex himself expanding with joy inside. With one hand always up to the sky he could almost feel the colors’ running heat touching his skin. He just has hold on tight and hope for the best.

XXV:

Lonely. Tangled, dark trees surrounded Alex. No matter how much the lamb looked around, there was no sign of life at all. Just wood as far as the eye could see. He could hear sounds. Not inside this time. They were still there, but the sounds of wild animals drowned out the sounds inside of his body.

“Hello?” Alex called out. “Is anybody here? Hello? Hello?” The jungle drowned out the sound of his voice. After a good ten minutes, he gave up trying. The boy had no choice but to battle his way out. As he saw before, that was not going to be a joy ride.

His own determination to get back home gave Alex the strength to push and climb his way out of the thick trees and vines. His muscles sprang with pain and his sense of direction was thrown out of whack, but the boy refused to give up. “I have to get out of here!” he thought. “I have to go home. I have to get home!” The sounds grew louder and louder around him as he kept trying to battle his way home. He nearly slipped and fell over the increasingly slick mud below, but even that didn’t stop him. It only pushed him to keep fighting through. The sounds and the work built up to try and gave way.

Alex reached out into space. There was no time to celebrate; he had to get out of this mess. So, the lamb walked out blindly.

Outside, Damon set down his mug of hot apple cider on Havoc and Jaks’ kitchen table. He stared out into space when he heard the lt. walking back into the kitchen to check on him. Damon clinched his fists tightly on his lap.

“I once tried to commit suicide…” he just said right out of the blue without warning. The pain only reeled up from there all over again.