The lost children of Darvakan

Chapter 8: A glorious night at the theatre

People were going to their seats since the show was about to begin. The place was a beautiful outdoor theatre illuminated under the moonlight, which acted like a natural majestic spotlight. Branches twisted into an arc, with symbols carved on their wood and elegant flowers, making the glorious scenery.

There was a nice view of the darkened forest and the valley below. The breeze was fresh and enjoyable, it was a perfect night for a performance.

A little girl climbed the stairs to the stage, and stopped in the middle, looking nervous but excited.

"Welcome, dear guests! Well, not so dear, since all of you are cunning imposters," said her, when the moon coincidentally made her shine. The people were booing, unpleasant. "See? Like animals. Well, I'll present myself... I'm Maetda! The real and only Maetda in this cursed forest."

Although many were calling her imposter, bookworm, burglar cat, street rat, stray dog, witch, and all sorts of things while throwing whatever they could find, one of them was confused. She was seeing so many look-alikes, wearing even the same clothes and glasses, each one claiming to be also Maetda while it was their turn, completely convinced and telling the others they were fakes, but she wasn't sure who she was... the same they said to be, perhaps?

She was wondering what she would say in case she had to take the stage because she didn't remember a single thing about herself, not even how she ended up sitting as another spectator.

However, there was something in her hand, a stripped piece of paper. She looked at it, recognising her handwriting, although she couldn't tell for sure why she knew.

That's right, she used to write tales while passing her days in an orphanage lost in the woods. There was something more, another person, a kid perhaps, who liked her stories, but, who was it?

She noticed that a cloud made of thoughts coming from her head was blocking the moonlight, making the entire theatre remain silent. The other Maetdas seemed afraid, staring at the one in the centre of the stage, who was now dark and frightening. They gradually started to turn into shades of rabbits, wolves, turtles, eagles, etc. Now becoming longer, coming from where she was standing, until only she was left.

She was petrified, but after stopping trying to remember, the cloud vanished, illuminating the place again, where the Maetdas emerged again from the shadows. She was now more confused than ever, what was all that from before?

Once again the thought was forming, obscuring a little the moonlight. She quickly paused, not wanting the same situation to happen. She tried to watch the terrible performance of the girls, who were imitating the sounds of animals in a goofy way, to avoid thinking too much. But she couldn't do it for much longer, not only because their acts were extremely bad, but also because her mind was eager to make her stop being a spectator of herself, so now memories were flooding in her head.

She grabbed the ripped page, remembering that it came from a dark book she found in a secret room, where there was also a mirror, which appeared in the middle of the forest where the other... lost children were...

Suddenly, all around her was darkened, the entire sky was covered in grey clouds as if a storm was about to start raging. The theatre was empty, only hundreds of shadows coming from her feet were somehow making the illusion of sitting in their respective seats, by looking at them she finally noticed, there weren't any imposters, since all of them were her, Maetda, from a different angle, cast from the same light.

The wind started to blow stronger, making the piece of paper she was holding leave her fingers, before it went too far, her shades caught it, returning it to her raised hand, just as she thought of picking it up again.