Thousands of years ago, a girl living in a vast, dry, desert had not seen rain in many weeks. Her family members perished one by one from dehydration until she was the only one left. She cried for the souls of her family for they had nowhere to go. Where did they travel to when they left their homes, their shells, the bodies we identify with?
Mourning and fearing for the loss of her own soul she began to wander through the hot blazing sun and the cold starry night. She walked until her feet bled and were burned from the hot desert sand. She did not know what she was searching for but she kept on walking. She vowed to walk until her feet gave out, until she met her death. She prayed as she walked. Her parched throat was as dry as the desert sand. Her skin was cracked, burned and brittle. She became disoriented, hallucinating the moonlight and stars were guiding her to a home she could forever call her own. She imagined the sun pounding down on her as if it were testing her faith, her strength. She was determined with the help of the moonlight to not lose her faith and pass the test of the sun in hopes of gaining an immortal soul.
She did not want this life to be all she would ever know. She did not care for her body but she wanted her soul to become one with the earth, free from the prison of her body which kept her soul chained to dying flesh. She pleaded to father sun and mother moon. She counted the stars, named them and promised them that everything would be alright because she was there to gaze upon them with love and that they too would shine every night for all of eternity with her.
Surprisingly, the little girl did not die of thirst, she continued on for many months. Walking hundreds of miles through a desolate earth with her only friends being those she always knew of but only just met after losing her family. Her new friends consisted of the grains of sand that burned her feet, father sun who continued to test her faith every morning as he rose from his slumber, mother moon who soothed her overheated, tired, burning body with a cool breeze and a path of guided light every evening as she rose into the sky and the stars who shined on as beacons of hope. They were her loyal friends whom she talked to every night and prayed to unite with for she had grown to love them all.
Click here to read Chapter One: Missing Person of The Genesis of The Looking Glass Short Story Series
freedom 