Child of Darkness

Darkness fell quickly, and She was alone. The once bright sky faded to a deep, subdued purple that was still so vivid it seemed almost tangible. She resisted the urge to reach up and touch it, knowing the task's impossibility. Some things seem so close yet remain so far away, She thought.

Dead leaves rustled as She walked through the forest, murmuring consolation, nameless faces clucking their pity in sympathetic tones. As if at a wake. Perhaps Her family's, perhaps Her own. It was irrelevant. She was a Child of Darkness now. The moon was Her guide, Her friend, Her solace. In that alone She placed Her trust.

She walked alone, yet in silent subconscious communion with the hordes of Others: Orphaned by chance or fantasy, walking ever forward in unified footsteps, in total isolation. If She had met Another, She wouldn't have noticed or cared. But She never would meet Another: They are always alone.

She came then to a lake, small and pure, its mirrored surface shining slickly brilliant in the moonlight. She saw Herself in the surface as if it were a scrying mirror. She wondered what the lake saw. She knew what others had seen, sometimes. She searched the rippling image of Her eyes for some kind of answer. She didn't really know the questions: No one ever does.

In the pool She then saw the moon, Her guide and Her direction, Her mother, Her child, within Her reach at last, waiting for Her. So wide and so bright, it mesmerized Her. Slowly, as if it were some sort of dance, She leaned toward the moon, Her face mere centimeters from the thin skin of the water that separated Her from the moon.

She no longer wished to merely touch it, She wanted--no, needed-- to immerse Herself within it, to be surrounded by it, never to return to that place and time. She did not notice how Her breath made the moon ripple.

Slowly She immersed Her face and neck in the moon, the moon seemingly immersed in Her. The cold swirled around Her-- cold of space, of water, of the grave-- She neither knew nor cared. If Her eyes had not been closed, She would've seen crystal bubbles escape Her lips like stars strewn by the mouth of God, floating silently the same, yet each lost and alone in the depths of the night.

With a final sigh, She surrendered, and the moon welcomed Her. The Others will find it too, someday, if They are as strong as She. Always existing in that eternal moment. She can never die.