…like the colours of a holographic colony – lustrous but empty – hollow voids echo in her eyes. She runs forward and her heart is burned by the splendor surrounding her. It begins to swirl. Images are distorted and reformed as an imitation of the greatness all around.

She panted heavily and looked at the swaying grasses, waves on an ocean. Her mouth opened and released an insignificant sound into the atmosphere.

Her fists clenched when she once again felt the deleterious water flowing through her body. Death hovered so close she could feel his spittle dripping onto the crown of her head. Her purpose played perniciously past, and its irony rammed into her stomach. When had the minutes of her life become particles of something bigger?

Darkness approached soon, chasing away the sun, roaring in triumph over his terrain. He conquered all but the frail, dying girl in the midst of the grasses. She was the gallant knight of the fairy tales, denying the power of evil.

At first sight of opposition, Darkness left her alone to set his sleeping spell elsewhere. She opened eyes that had never been closed, and tried to breathe in the sweet air. She seemed to be suffocating from the lack of coherence.

“Return to me,” she pleaded, but her voice was lost in the sinuous dance of the silence. Finally, she settled back, willing to accept a victory laced with loss. She unfolded her hands and released time.