Love Is...

Mal, The Cupid Betta

You could say that love is instant, love is known the moment you lay eyes on that person or object or emotion. And you would be right. Love is instant. Love is also slow. Love takes time. Love doesn't always show itself right away, sometimes love hides in the shadows and you wouldn't realize it was ever there... until one day it peeks out from around the corner and you catch a glimpse of it. It might give you a scare at first. You might jump back with your heart beating in your chest, trying to tell you this was a surprise and it could be dangerous and you should run away and and... whoa, you really do love them. This was unexpected. In all the time that you've known them, you never thought it would come to this... Here it is like a slap in the face. Saying "Come on! What are you waiting for? The potential has been here all along! Why did it take you so long to figure this out?"
Well, you see, there's this thing called incompatibility... "What's that?" It can be chemistry, religion, life goals, relationships, age... Sometimes you can fall in love with someone that you can never be with.
Now how did you manage to get yourself in this mess? Especially those of us who are very good at keeping up walls against these forbidden situations. It's better for all of us if those walls stay up exactly where they are. No, you will not cross that line.. that is a wall. And it will not be crossed. I am not arguing over this. The wall stays. Wait.. where did that hole come from? Why is the secret door open?? Curse human biology. Curse it all. Now you're here, on my side of the wall. And the secret door is once again shut tight, but you are on the wrong side of it. What do we do with this?
While this emotional battle is happening in your own mind, on the outside you find yourself excessively giggling at stupid jokes and daydreaming as you stare off in the distance and listening to sickeningly happy love songs. Now you're just embarrassing yourself with the country love playlist. And now your ex/coworker saw you swaying your hips in the back room you were working in that morning. You've done it now. You've gotten yourself into this mess and now you can't get yourself out. In your own defense perhaps the other side didn't do anything to prevent this occurrence. But now you both find yourselves staring at each other in complete awe struck confusion and bewilderment.
On the inside... You are just a figment. Just like these walls and that secret passageway are figments of my imagination. I can think you right out of my mind and you'll only be a real person with no power over my emotions, and then these walls will go back to the way they were and we can all be happy. And for a moment you think that works, your walls are in tact, there is no loving feelings, all is good and safe and exactly how it is supposed to be. But it's not that way at all when you drift off into your fantasies and see them as this knight who's going to sweep you off your feet and keep you safe from all that is evil in the outside world.
It doesn't just go away. You can't force it to disappear. It would makes things so much simpler if that were the case. None of this growing pent up frustration. No more heartache.
And this is why we have walls. People around you may give you a hard time and tell you that you would be so much better off if you would just let your walls down... But they have no right to say that when they don't know what lies behind them. All the emotions that we are hiding behind them.
Love is painful. Love hurts. Love can destroy you from the inside out. Do not let it control you. Do not let it take away the things that you care about. Find the kind of love that embraces you and everything you stand by, walls and all. Without obstacles, without secrets, without frustration.
Find love that is there to nurture you. And act in kind.

The Crumbling Earth

It is the year three thousand. Much of technology has changed, while the people have stayed the same. The human race has been through plagues, wars, cities have been wiped out, countries have nearly starved to death, and yet, somehow the race survives. By some miracle they are still here. They have a will to keep going in the absolute worst conditions, keep warm in bitter cold, keep hydrated in dangerous levels of heat, fight off predators, build technologies beyond their ancestor's imagination. All to survive the elements. To keep their existence known in this world rather than be forgotten by the life that inhabits this earth with us. But the earth was not so resilient.

You awake in small dark cot. The rocking of the bed you lie on leads you to believe you are aboard a ship on the sea. Staggering as you lift yourself up, you see a door through blurry vision. Every step feels like dragging a stone around your ankle as you reach for the handle. The door swings open and you are greeted by bright sunlight and shouts of men and women dressed in dark brown and black clothing as they rush past your vision. Shock grips your heart. You have no memory of who you are or how you came to be here. Should you turn back and barricade yourself in this room until you feel land hit the walls? Where will you end up? Or do you fight your way to the side of this ship and commit a suicidal mission to escape into most likely shark infested waters that could be miles from civilization? Or perhaps start a mutiny and take control of this ship? Gripping your fists tightly to settle the shaking in your hands you march out of the room to find the captain of this ship and demand to know what you are doing here.
You are nearly knocked to the ground by other bodies bumping and pushing and rushing past you. You push forward to the opening across the hall from the door you came from, towards the bright light.
The trail of light brings you to a glass room, where stands a grey haired man in red. You approach him but before you can start a debate on the injustice of this possible kidnapping the view in your peripheral vision catches your eye. There is no land. No water. No.. nothing. Only the sight of distant stars and chunks of rock floating past the ship you stand within. You watch in horror just as another chunk of rock slowly passes you, and you see a swing set still embedded in the earth. Earth... These chunks were once earth. Now nothing more than floating space dibree.
Instinctively you run out of the room away from the captain, looking left to right, you see a flight of stairs. The stones that were once dragging along on your ankles have now vanished as you run barefoot up the stairs. Reaching the opening of the top, you crawl out on to black pavement. For a moment you believe that what you saw was just a projection, for this ship looks a lot like earth. But the idea is crushed when you see the distant galaxies in the distance reaching from underneath the edge of this small piece of earth. You now realize you are floating on a mechanical piece of what once was earth. This was a small town once, now a ship in space, holding it's inhabitants safely from the outside conditions. Looking in the direction this ship is flying, you are nearly blinded by the light of the sun.

Coming back to reality you realize you were once again living in memories of almost a month ago. The sound of your captain's voice droning on and on until the words become twisted and garbled in your mind and lose all voice at all. "Purple dragon six seven gardens... Will go with Joshua." He says looking directly at you. You make direct eye contact in surprise, but before you can ask further you are interrupted. "You two will go immediately to retrieve Brian from EX61009, and bring him back here to The Überlebende."
You look around for clues as to what was just discussed, to no avail. A tall stocky figured man with dark hair, green eyes and a bearded face walks up to you. "Are you coming?" He asks growing impatient.
"Uh, yeah." You respond and follow him as he stalks away, shaking the ground as he lets each step collide with the concrete below.

You take a small shuttle through space to a chunk of earth that has remained relatively in tact this past month it's been floating loose. On this chunk of earth there is 2 acres of land and a white house. Leaving the shuttle outside, you walk to the porch. Looking up you notice the contraption that was once a doorbell. Wires reach up, through a small window that leads into the house, those wires pull a metal bar up, and when released it falls to hit two metal bird cutouts, making a loud hollow sound echo through the house.
The door is unlocked. Joshua steps inside first, it is a small room, with one door out and another leading further in. It does not take long to find Brian, the curly ginger haired boy. This was his mother's home before she passed. He explains that he had to come back, one last time before it drifted too far in space to ever be found again. He had taken one the of the ship's shuttles to get here.
While Joshua speaks urgently to him, explaining that we have to leave this place, an old record player catches your eye. Or so it appears to be a record player. You step closer and realize it is technology beyond that of such time period. You press a red button, a holographic recording opens in front of you. A family playing outdoors. Screams of laughter fill your ears. This was taken before the earth crumbled.
The image cuts out, but there is still a woman standing next to it. At first you believe it is still playing, you look to Joshua and Brian, who do not seem to notice the figure's image in front of you. As if it is not really there, only you can see it. "Are you seeing this?" You ask. Joshua looks at you questioningly, "See what?"
Brian's blue eyes grow wide, but he does not look in the direction of the figure. The woman smiles. "There is a woman standing right there!" You tell them pointing in front of yourself at the figure.
Looking back to the two men standing there, Joshua continues to stare perplexed. Brian, however, you see his eyes focus on the figure, and sadness come across his face.
"That's my mother.." He says.
You realize she is a spirit, still attached to this record player, never able to move on. Just as this realization is clear, another figure, a woman with white hair and a red dress, appears feet away from the first, with a sickening grin on her face. The house begins to shake with anger. This second spirit was not as friendly.
Joshua turns to swing open the door outside to reach our shuttle, but the door was locked and could not be broken through. Instead you follow Brian as he opens the only other door to the stairs leading up to the unknown. The door closes behind you as you rush up the carpeted stairs. You believe that Joshua is right behind you, but when you look over your shoulder he is not there. You try to open the door you just came through, but it is locked like the last.
You think for a moment. Your eyes darting back and forth rapidly, you have very little time and you can hear Brian speaking with the first spirit. Something about almonds.. What could that mean?
Without wasting another moment on technicalities of whether your newly thought out plan will work, you run up the rest of the flight of stairs, to another room to find a window. By some miracle the old window opens and leads to the roof. Carefully you slip through the opening on to the slanted roof as the wind blows a cold chill through your clothing.
You find the courage to jump off the roof and roll on to the grass below. Bringing you back to the front door. When you turn the knob the door opens, as it swings wider you see Joshua holding his blaster, pointing at... you. The last thing you remember is a loud bang.

All is quiet until the ringing in your ear becomes louder and louder until you are unable to sleep peacefully anymore and a splitting headache grows stronger as you come to. You groan as you adjust your shoulders against the hard surface you find yourself laying on. A warm hand rests on your right shoulder. Your eyes flutter open to see Joshua standing over you, the interior of the shuttle around you. "You'll live." he says with a grunt. He releases your shoulder and stands up to walk back to the control panel of the flying shuttle.
"Wait!" You exclaim sitting up on the cold floor as your muscles ache in protest, you are barely able to get the word out through the hoarseness of your own voice, you don't recognize yourself speaking. Clearing your dry aching throat, you ask, "What happened?"
Without looking back Joshua replies, "You got in the way. Lucky for you my blaster was only meant to cause enough force to make the image dissipate, not enough to disintegrate a human body. Next time, try knocking."

You return back to The Überlebende. Your limbs beginning to loosen from the blast you received hours before.
The shuttle comes to a steady stop safely within the floating island that is your home, tugging along the the shuttle that Brian took to reach the house. Joshua emerges first from the shuttle, then Brian, and you follow close behind. "Go see the medic." Joshua states bluntly, making eye contact with you to be sure you understand it is an order. "Make sure there was no internal damage." You give a silent nod in reply as he walks away.
On your way to the medical office, a man and woman dressed in leather armory come stumbling your direction, having just come back from their own shuttle. As they get closer you see the blood staining their chests before they collapse to the floor. You rush to help them and call for the medic. The woman with long dark hair is gone but the man, coughing blood, speaks to you with a straining voice. "They are coming, the plague, it's here.." He trails off with one last breath leaving you bewildered.
The captain strides to you with his long jacket trailing behind him as he moves. "What happened?" He asks urgently. You cannot answer for you do not know what could have happened. Who is coming? What plague?
You open your mouth to speak when the woman and man take a deep breath and their eyes open wide, causing you to jump back in surprise as you watch their wounds through the tears in their armor heal completely. This is beyond any technology you have seen, no medic could ever bring back the dead.
The captain, looking just as surprised is speechless. A new threat arises, for the unknown here is a dangerous thing.

Certainty of What We Do Not See

  In a small patch of woods, a little grove not a quarter mile from the highway, sits a bench. The wood has become weathered along the edges from the seasons, taking on a dark grey hue where there was once almost naturally white wood.
  Drawing closer, as the saplings and wildflowers tug at your sides, you see the last hour of sun begin to come out from behind the clouds and bring into light the the wood of this bench for what it once was. The middle of the seat begins to glow with an angelic like presence from the sunset, making you feel safe, while growing more curious of this place.
  Your hand can almost reach out and touch it, the strokes of grain smooth under your fingertips. This was once important to someone special. You can't say why, you simply know, by the spiritual presence coursing through the confines of the trees.
  While contemplating the presence around you, something catches your eye you didn't think was there a moment ago. A pile of stones stands neatly stacked feet away from the bench. You turn to get closer, when you feel your footing pulled out from under you. You catch yourself on your hands and knees before your face can hit the earth. And there it is. Brushing away the leaves you make out a name in the aged stone plaque, and words of wisdom to guide you on the rest of your journey. "Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see."

Dark Summer Nights

It was a cool late summer evening on the streets of Bland Missouri. The moon shining as bright as the street lights that lit the quiet lonely road. This narrow road seemed a mile wide tonight, standing in the middle of it between the many antique shops that dapple the sides. They lie empty and lifeless, while filled with mannequins dressed in 1950's dresses and tin buckets sat outside the doors, hoping to draw in customers who can still remember the smell of fresh warm milk that once filled their brim.
The orange lights shown a glow over the black pavement and still water from the early morning rain. The dark shadows of the trees stretched over the road, reaching out for an unsuspecting wanderer to step too close, so he could then be engulfed by the blackness.