Sunset City and the Dark Forest
I DREAMT SEVERAL weeks ago about Shauna, and it seems as if everytime that I see her she becomes more and more clear, till the thought of her reaches the infinity that I only assume comes before reality.
Shauna walked up to me and told me it was all a misunderstanding. She told me that she had not died. That, for some reason that I don't remember anymore but that seemed to satisfy me at the time, the news stories were all wrong. And why couldn't they be? I never saw her body. I never saw her grave. I was simply told one day that she was gone...forever.
She showed me where she had been living all this time, and it was a beautiful place. The entire sky was filled with the light of a sunset, from one end of the firmament to the other, golden orange and purple, and it was so beautiful I could hardly refrain from weeping. On the horizon I could see a mountain of glass, the most wonderous city one could ever imagine, and all the light of the sky was reflected off its glassy surfaces so that it seemed to be alive.
I flew away, going to the place where Shauna told me I could live with her, and I passed a wicked forest where it was perpetual night-time. I flew low among the trees and caught a glimpse of a Grey Wolf, evil in his very nature, snarling in its own contempt. The Dark Forest filled me with fear, but I passed it by and ended up at a small wooden house by a mountain range, the sunset still leaking its way far into the horizon behind the slopes. Standing by the door was Shauna, smiling, her hands cupped in front of her.
She told me the truth. She told me that I had died and that this place, this wonderous Sunset City, was Heaven. She never said for how long she had waited for me there, or that she had waited at all, but as she said this to me she dissappeared with just a blink, back to the city where I first met her. I was alone, but most of all, I was happy again.
And when the sky turned dark and all the color was drained of it, and when the Dark Forest seemed to grow around me, I knew the real truth all too well. This place was not Heaven, but for me it was a Hell like no one could ever imagine. No one had to tell me, not a single word, but I knew it already. I would never see her again and remember it. The feeling of having Shauna shown to me in the most wonderful of ways, and then taken away by a force of darkness so terrible it should never be known, is a torment that far surpasses the physical pain of eternal and fiery torment that Hell is supposed to be.
And all around me the Dark Forest breathed, and the clouds growled in a bellowed tone that brought me to my knees, and the golden city died in a breath of wind...forevermore.
Shauna walked up to me and told me it was all a misunderstanding. She told me that she had not died. That, for some reason that I don't remember anymore but that seemed to satisfy me at the time, the news stories were all wrong. And why couldn't they be? I never saw her body. I never saw her grave. I was simply told one day that she was gone...forever.
She showed me where she had been living all this time, and it was a beautiful place. The entire sky was filled with the light of a sunset, from one end of the firmament to the other, golden orange and purple, and it was so beautiful I could hardly refrain from weeping. On the horizon I could see a mountain of glass, the most wonderous city one could ever imagine, and all the light of the sky was reflected off its glassy surfaces so that it seemed to be alive.
I flew away, going to the place where Shauna told me I could live with her, and I passed a wicked forest where it was perpetual night-time. I flew low among the trees and caught a glimpse of a Grey Wolf, evil in his very nature, snarling in its own contempt. The Dark Forest filled me with fear, but I passed it by and ended up at a small wooden house by a mountain range, the sunset still leaking its way far into the horizon behind the slopes. Standing by the door was Shauna, smiling, her hands cupped in front of her.
She told me the truth. She told me that I had died and that this place, this wonderous Sunset City, was Heaven. She never said for how long she had waited for me there, or that she had waited at all, but as she said this to me she dissappeared with just a blink, back to the city where I first met her. I was alone, but most of all, I was happy again.
And when the sky turned dark and all the color was drained of it, and when the Dark Forest seemed to grow around me, I knew the real truth all too well. This place was not Heaven, but for me it was a Hell like no one could ever imagine. No one had to tell me, not a single word, but I knew it already. I would never see her again and remember it. The feeling of having Shauna shown to me in the most wonderful of ways, and then taken away by a force of darkness so terrible it should never be known, is a torment that far surpasses the physical pain of eternal and fiery torment that Hell is supposed to be.
And all around me the Dark Forest breathed, and the clouds growled in a bellowed tone that brought me to my knees, and the golden city died in a breath of wind...forevermore.
