[WP] You come across an Old God sealed away millennia ago. Turns out It was imprisoned for a crime it didn't commit. Because of Omnipotence Racism.

My hometown has always been a little... off.

It was the little things, the weird stories you bring up with your friends in a "remember that time when.." to bond in collective remembrance. Once my elementary school's stairs were flipped upside-down, and nobody could find out how the prankster had done it. Another time the tap poured out blood instead of water, freaking me out right before I started to wash the dishes. By the time I managed to bring my parents down to see, it was back to regular clear water. Everyone had their own story or two, but most of the time, things were pretty normal.

It was in ninth grade, on my way back from school. It was an usually bright and sunny almost-summer day, the type of day that just made you want to run home and hide in the air-conditioned shade. With the sun beating down, I figured it would be bright enough to forgo my regular route through the graveyard and past the abandoned hospital, and instead take the more direct route through the greenbelt. The last time I had done this, I barely got three steps in before realizing how unimpenetrably dark the woods got. This time, with the sun blazing down at full blast, it would be easy to find my way through.

It was maybe twenty minutes later, when I heard the noise. It's hard to describe, but it was a bit like hearing your own voice played back to you. Not that it sounded like my voice, but in the way it sounded both ordinary but strangely different. It was like the sound of the forest, but not quite right.

I picked up the pace. Started running instead of jogging, jumping over logs instead of going around. Anything to get out of there as fast as possible. A different noise erupted behind me, a sound like the screams of a wild animal mixed with a mechanical clicking. I turned my head for a mere moment when

WHAM!

I ran straight into a tree. Crashing to the forest floor, I felt liquid start to run down my nose. Great. Mom's going to kill me when she sees me. With nothing else to use, I wiped the blood away with my sleeve, cleaning up as best I could.

It was then I heard the third noise.

BLOOD

Or really it was more like I understood that it meant blood. I heard the wind rustle and a tree fall, but I understood that it meant "blood". I could understand the forest.

It was then that I noticed the rest. I saw the trees not what they looked like (which was regular old trees) but as arms, the appendages of the earth.

It turned to me, staring at me as I stared back. Again, I say stare, as if it had eyes, but it really didn't. At the same time I "saw" it, it "saw" through me. I turned my head down, staring at my blood-soaked sleeve.

BLOOD

It was like seeing your best friend after years apart from each other. You know, the way that even though you've both changed a lot. you both still seem to know what the other is thinking? That special connection, forged after so many years of sharing so many interests and hobbies?

HEY MAN, IT'S BEEN AGES SINCE I SAW YOU. WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN UP TO? NOTHING MUCH, HOW ARE YOU? NOTHING HERE JUST SORTA TRAPPED FOR ETERNITY. OH MAN THAT BLOWS, I KNOW THAT FEELING.

I really didn't. Except I felt that I did. I felt the anger and sense of injustice. I felt the unbridled energy trapped within the ground.

THAT MATH TEST YOU DIDN'T SO HOT? YEAH, I KINDA BOMBED THAT ONE. WHAT A SHAME, IT'S NOT YOUR FAULT REALLY. CAN'T BEAT YOURSELF UP OVER IT. YOU'VE GOT A BRIGHT FUTURE AHEAD OF YOU, DON'T LET IT GET YOU DOWN. THANKS FRIEND DO YOU HAVE ANYTHING YOU WANT TO DO WHILE YOU'RE IN TOWN?

It should be noted that "friend" never left town. Never could. That was the entire injustice of being locked in the earth. Despite this, I somehow didn't question my question, didn't even bother to think about what happened next.

YEAH I WAS THINKING ABOUT APPEALING THE VERDICT AGAIN. YOU KNOW, I THINK MY LAWYER REALLY SCREWED UP, AND FAILED TO CALL SOME SERIOUS WITNESSES. THERE MIGHT BE REAL GROUNDS FOR A RETRIAL. OH IS THERE ANYTHING I CAN DO TO HELP? SACRIFICE SOME ORPHANS? DESECRATE SOME VIRGINS? SACRIFICE, THEN DESECRATE SOME VIRGIN ORPHANS? NAH, THERE'S ONLY ONE THING YOU HAVE TO DO: START A PETITION AND BRING SOME ATTENTION TO MY CAUSE. ALRIGHT NO PROBLEM, SEE YOU LATER. LATER.

The last few years of school passed in a blur. It was a slow process, filled with solo-demonstrations, posters and crude billboards paid out of my own pocket. Despite my best efforts, nobody would join me in a perfectly normal walk into the woods. I once even stole Jim's backpack, goading him into chasing me into the woods. Suffice to say my parents were not happy with my sudden obsession.

My parents didn't understand. My change in behaviour and increasingly bloody laundry left them scratching their heads, wondering where they had gone wrong. As far as I could tell, they were worried that my keen interest in criminal law and rampant aggression to others meant that I wanted to be a politician. At least, that would explain why they sent me to a "pray away the political ambition" camp this summer.

And that's why I'm here today with the rest of you. Maybe not quite the path the rest of you have taken. In retrospect, I'm starting to wonder if I really did that of my own free will. In fact, it's slowly dawning on me that I may have been swept up by "friend" 's charismatic wiles.

I mean, he insists he's innocent of corrupting and devouring all those native people. Like, if he did eat all of them, then why are there still Indian graveyards? Why do Old Gods make up less than ten percent of all deities, but ninety-nine percent are jailed? IT'S A CONSPIRACY I TELL YOU! THEY HATE HIM JUST BECAUSE HE'S A DARK GOD! ONE DAY HE WILL RISE UP FROM HIS SHACKLES AND RECLAIM HIS RIGHTFUL PLACE AS MAYOR! #FREEFRIEND

/r/WritingPrompts Thread