The Remnant in the Box
#2 of Short Stories
When everything seems lost and all the virtues dispossesed
There is a light, for only death cannot be mocked.
Remember that: "dum vita est, spes est"
There's still the one Pandora locked.
The Remnant in the Box
By: D Ocelot
After a long time of unconsciousness, opening your eyes once again is an arduous task. So it was for me when I awoke from my long slumber. After an extensive struggle full of failures, I was able to see the light once again just as a newborn creature does... the light was as blinding as majestic. While my pupils got used to the light, I tried moving my limbs with little result, I can still remember the impotence I felt at that time. Just like with my sight, I regained control over my body a few minutes later.
I tried to get on my feet, and though I could feel tickling in my legs, I managed to stand up. My eyes were still unable to see anything except for a blurry yet intense light all around me. I looked at my body and was able to notice my white skin, as I ran my hand through my arm I felt how soft it was. I looked around and noticed something on my back, I took a closer look and realized it was a pair of white feathered wings bound to my dorsum. I was amazed, but I was too confused to question about it, countless interrogations were already in my head and not a single answer.
At that moment I had no memories, just emotions and thoughts.
"Where am I?" Were the first words I said aloud "Who am I?" Was the question that followed.
The answers to those questions were an enigma to me, but I needed to find the answer. At that exact moment, I began hearing murmurs, whispers and unintelligible voices from all directions, they were saying nothing and everything, they were loud and soft, joyful and frightening at the same time.
'This can't be real.' I thought to myself 'I don't know who I am, I don't know where I am, and my memories are blank' I closed my eyes trying to hide from the light 'Am I dreaming?'
"This is no dream. Of that, I can assure you." I heard a calmed and soothing male voice say.
I opened my eyes and amazed myself at the sight of a silver-scaled dragon standing before me. His body was imposing and fascinating, he was standing on its four limbs and its tail was resting on the floor, his stare was fixed in me with an emotionless expression in it.
'It's not real' I said in my mind as the fear possessed me.
"I am real as I can be." The lizard said as he slowly approached me "There's no need to be afraid, I am here to help you."
"Do you know who I am, then?" I asked optimistically.
"No, but I'm here to help you find that out."
'I can't trust him.' I whispered to myself.
"Do you have a choice?" Asked the dragon as he and his voice faded in the light, the brightness increased and blinded me for a few seconds.
When my vision was restored, and amazingly enough, I was no longer in that place full of light but in a quadrangular room paneled and floored in wood. There were two closed doors leading out of the room, both were in the opposite wall to the other, on the third wall was a fireplace with a couch in front of it and a hearthrug in the between. On the fourth and last wall, there was a long mirror from the ceiling to floor in which someone could see himself entirely.
"Is this my home?" I asked without expecting an answer. "Is this is where I belong?"
"I don't know." The dragon replied without showing "Is this your home? Does it feel like you belong here?"
One of the room's doors opened before I could think of my answer, a vixen followed by a child fox entered the room and turned on the lights. The mother had tears in her eyes and the child had a sad expression in his face, both of them sat on the couch, they didn't seem to notice I was there.
"Mom..." The infant said "... will daddy come back soon?" The mother tightly held his son in her arms and replied:
"Yes... he will. Some day he'll be back and we'll live like a family again." The boy stood up from the sofa and walked towards the mirror, stopped in front of it and contemplated himself.
"Please come back soon, daddy." The child murmured while staring at his reflection.
I stepped behind the little fox and looked in the mirror. I wasn't able to see my reflection but I concluded that I wasn't really there. I gazed at the boy and his mother for a while before I closed my eyes and said:
"This is not my family, I don't belong here." The voices and murmurs I had heard before appeared once again. I didn't know what they were saying nor what they wanted and that fact was bothering me.
I felt sudden dizziness and a strong wind rampaging against my body, I opened my eyes and realized I was in a different place once again. This time it was the roof of a building, probably a large one since the lights of the city could be seen too far below.
'Is this my hometown?' I questioned myself in my mind. 'Is this the place where I was born?" The haunting utterances stopped and I heard the dragon's voice behind me.
"I don't know. Is this your hometown? Is this the place where you were born? I looked back and saw him standing there.
The building's door leading to the roof opened and a seemingly troubled brown lynx dressed in a formal suit rushed out, quickly approaching the edge of the building. The feline was both distressed and stressed by the looks of it. He dropped to his knees as he cried in rage, smashing the floor with his fists.
A black bear rushed through the door. As soon as the lynx noticed him, he stood up and got dangerously close to the roof's edge and shouted to the bear.
"Don't get any closer, Richard!"
"Don't do it, Vince. This is not the way!" Cried out the ursine with a worried voice.
"There is no other way for me. I lost my money, my properties, my house and even my family!"
"We'll start from scratch! You and me, friend, we'll work hard to move on and leave this behind." Richard approached a little to the lynx.
"But what about all I took decades to build?!"
"That's just material, it doesn't matters! You still have the most important thing, you got yourself and that's all you need, please, don't lose that too."
"Myself? And what am I? I am nothing!"
"You are the man who built an empire from nothingness, you can do it again!" The lynx dropped in his knees once again.
"I don't have the strength, Vince. I just don't have the strength..."
"I will help you, no need to think you're alone." Affirmed the bear as he slowly approached to him.
"I will need all my strength, all your help... and then some." Vince smiled at the feline and helped him up.
"You can't count on me. We'll get through this together, my friend. Let's go inside now." They slowly walked towards the door leading inside. They feline stopped.
"Oh, Vince...?"
"Yes? Is there something wrong?" Questioned the bear worried.
"No, no, I... I want you to know that I owe you my life."
They smiled warmly to each other and disappeared through the same door they had appeared. I stood motionless, silent and confused.
'What is the meaning of all this?'
"You do not understand." Said the dragon still behind me "You need to apprehend ideas then comprehend them, but you're doing none."
"Not understanding?" I asked annoyed "What does this has to do with me?"
"You need to find that out by yourself."
"You're supposed to help me, but you're not really helping." I took a breath before continuing "Are you the one doing all this?"
"I'm just a messenger and that's all you need to know."
"A messenger for whom?" He remained silent. "A messenger for whom?!" The result was the same. "Who are you?!" I shouted at the top of my lungs.
Yet another time he faded as the fulgent light drowned everything else and another scene appeared before my eyes. This time it was the interior of a church built and decorated in a baroque style. There was a central and two lateral aisles divided by rows of seats. Behind me was the main exit door and in front of me, at the end of the main aisle, was the excessively adorned altar.
In the very first row of seats was a black panther, no older than 30 murmuring things that I could barely perceive. He was alone, his only companions were the lit candles and a statue above the altar of his lord nailed to a cross, bleeding and staring at him with pain in his eyes. The panther kneeled in front of the bench and spoke:
"My lord..." He began as he looked up at the statue "Maybe you are listening to me, maybe you aren't, but I am here asking for your intercession." The cat remained silent for a second, looked down and continued "I am not the most fervent believer nor am I the kindest of souls, but I am in need. My wife is now lying in a hospital bed, unconscious..." He smiled slightly at her memory "with a beautiful smile and a warm, calmed expression on her face. She's been like that for a few weeks now and..." Tears formed in his eyes as he spoke "and I miss her, I need her, because I love her. So please my lord, be kind to me, be kind to her and bring her back. Don't take her from me just yet, I am nothing without her!" His tears flowed through his face and sobs could be heard in the middle of his prayers "I have nothing to offer you in exchange for I am but a mortal, just one of your children!" The panther wept for some time before continuing "Take me, lord. Take me instead and let her be, I'm willing to give anything for her, even if that means my life. I'm no longer asking you, I'm begging you to help her and I know you will do what is best..."
The panther silenced and remained with his paws together as sign of prayer.
"Are you beginning to understand now?" The dragon asked me though he was not present.
"I... I think I am. I'm ready for the next place."
"So it shall be done."
This time I wasn't dazzled by the light, for I was expecting it and closed my eyes beforehand. I opened my eyes and saw a beautiful sight before me. I was right in the ledge of a cliff far above the ground. In front of me was a vast forest extending all the way to the horizon where a mountain seemed to stops its progress. I turned around and saw a vast willow completely isolated. Beside it was a young hawk sitting in a chair writing what I supposed was a letter. Something that caught my attention was a rope tied to the tree's broadest branch, the rope ended in what it seemed to be a circle or oval hanging below the branch some six feet above the ground.
I decide to approach the boy and read what he was writing. I got behind him and leaned my head over his shoulder to peek at the piece of paper. The letter read:
Dear Mother:
Let me start by saying that I'm so sorry for doing this. You must be asking why I did it and that's the reason I'm writing this letter. Know that it's not your fault nor anyone else's but mine. I decided to take the easy way out and I expect not to regret it.
For a long time now I have been uncomfortable with my life. All I seem to work for tears apart, all I seem to love is destroyed and all I seem to like is wrong. Emptiness is feeling me to the point of agony. I am not accomplishing anything in my life for I have neither goals nor I feel bad about it for I really don't care. I have simply lost the will to live, simply there is nothing more to give.
It is too hard to explain but I am trying. Mother, I don't like living and life seems not to like me either so I have decided that I'm better off, I need the end to set me free. The pain is too great and I want to end it as fast as possible so I've made up my mind and have chosen this path.
I decided to kill myself in the exact same tree that gave me such happiness as a child. Someone will surely find me sooner or later and this letter will hopefully get to you. I know you will be sad but know that as I died, I felt happiness after so long... for the last time.
I'll try my best in the afterlife, and I'll be the best, have what I want and do as I please. I don't know if it exists but this is my ultimate act of hope. Goodbye, mother.
Nicholas.
I couldn't believe what I had just read, the boy was going to kill himself right in front of me and there was nothing I could do. As I expected, the young hawk stood up and placed the letter deep in his pants pocket. He carried the chair below the rope and climbed on it. I began to panic as I saw him pass his head through the rope and adjust it around his neck.
"Alright, I've had enough. Take me to the next place!" I shouted but no one replied.
The avian took a deep breath, and a second later kicked the chair away from the tree and himself, his body dropped to the air but quickly stopped at its max length, tightening the rope around his neck, constricting his neck a bit more every second.
"Please, stop this now." I cried out "Why do I have to witness this?!"
The sound of the bird gasping for air was atrocious to my mind and my soul, but the kid had no way back, just as an apple falls from a tree, the young hawk named Nicholas exhaled his last breath, ripping the last sign of life from his body.
"I'm sorry. There was nothing I could do." The dragon said as he approached me. I felt rage fill up in my mind.
"Tha... that was purely cruel and senseless. Whoever your master is, he must be sick! I refuse to keep this game going! I don't care who I am! I don't care who you are! Just, just leave me here, ok?"
"I can't there is one last place you need to visit..."
As the lizard said that, we faded in the light again.
"Here we are." He said. "Open your eyes."
I slowly opened my eyes, and even when I thought I was ready for anything, I instantly realized I was sorely mistaken. The beauty had no compare. The place itself was barren and empty, but it was the thing beyond the horizon what was so magnificent... I could see the entire Earth as it is from space. My feet were standing on the mythical Selene, the Earth's daughter, the Moon itself.
"But... what am I doing here?" I asked to the dragon standing beside me.
"You are here to find out who you are once and for all."
"What does that mean?"
"Consider all you've witnessed up until now and what you're about to see. What is common in all of them? Think, then you'll have the very answer you've sought." He faded away after he said, leaving me alone with an enigma to solve.
"And what you're about to witness..." I recalled the dragon's words. I looked around but there was nothing, just me. It was then that I diverted my attention from the moon to the planet of blue and the vastness of space. Still, I found nothing strange.
I gazed at the stars and the Earth for a few minutes, asking myself what would happen, if anything. Then, I finally found what he wanted me to see and I stood paralyzed at the traumatic, almost absurd sight. What I had thought a shooting star had turned bigger and bigger every time I saw it, but I hadn't noticed until then. It was an asteroid heading for Earth at a brutal speed and it seemed as if nothing would stop it. I could do nothing but stare at the Earth, and probably the Moon's, inevitable end.
I tried calling out to the dragon, begging him to stop it all, but my pleas fell upon deaf ears. It was like this that two minutes later, my prediction came true and the asteroid smashed the Earth without any impediment, creating a powerful shockwave that reached the moon, carrying away anything it its path. Fiery shrapnel, once part of the globe, instantly flew away to space, as the Earth, the once blue planet, turned red with fire and lava. The remnant of the planet in which the core was began pulsing inside out and I prayed for it to stop. Its beating turned faster and it was then that I resigned to any kind of salvation.
It was then that I remembered what the dragon had told me. I decided that if I was to die, I would at least die knowing who I was.
"What is common in all I've witnessed today?" I asked myself.
I sat down and began thinking and remembering the mother and her son, the distressed lynx, the praying panther, the suicidal hawk and the dying Earth. What was common in all of them? 'Maybe people... but the Earth wasn't a person. Life... no, the kid and the Earth had died. Confusion... no, the panther was sure of what he wanted, and how on Earth would the Earth itself be confused?! The mysterious voices... no, it had been a while since I last heard them. The dragon? Maybe, but he wasn't present all the time.'
"Damn it! I give up." I smashed my fist into the floor.
'You can't give up, there's still hope" I thought. 'Hope...'
"Hope." I said aloud. "Hope!"
'The child and her mother were hoping someone would return; the bear had inspired hope in the brown lynx; the panther was hoping his lord would help him; the young boy died hoping his life would be better in the afterlife... but the Earth... there is nothing, no one, how can there be hope in a dying planet? Well... no one except... me...'
"Am I Hope?"
"As long as there is life..." Murmured the dragon's voice in the air "...there is no life but you, and hope is the last thing to die..."
"That can't be true, you're still alive!" I yelled.
"Are you sure I am real?"
"Well...no."
"Goodbye then, Hope."