Happisad Memories

Chapter 9: One Year

She was gliding in the air thanks to black clouds that had materialized around her arms and looked like water wings. There was a silver arch floating in the air in front of her. She could see each marked keyhole and silver key she had collected throughout her journey to the happisad memory realms. There was a keyhole that remained empty but she could not see any more pillars, or dust-looking pillars, she could use to travel to that realm and collect the last key. The arch looked very much like the one she had seen all along at the completion of each realm, except it was bigger, way bigger. In fact, it was as big as the giant creature whose deep voice had just echoed in the Land of Morning. It looked like one of the monsters she had seen in her nightmares as a child. It was three times her size with a deep echoing voice. It was oddly shaped so that you really couldn't tell what it was because imagining it was scarier than knowing what it was. It was dark and rocky with two white eyes, a red mouth, and no nose. It had no neck or shoulders. Its legs were linked to its head and its arms were tied midway to its legs with big rocky hands on each extremity. They looked a lot like the hands that had thrown her into the pillar depth and towards the entrance of the happisad memory realms. The woman initially lost her voice from fear. She was hearing her fast heartbeat even louder than the monster.

"It is too late. Look, even we are dusting away staying here," the rocky creature told the Nalhak, shaking dust off its big uneven arms that almost looked like legs.

"There is still time," the Nalhak replied, "we witnessed some hope in the you in the past happisadness realm timeframes. The suns are still shining."

"She is too angry and weak," the scary creature told the Nalhak, "The suns are dead."

"The suns are still alive!" the Nalhak yelled back for the first time ever.

"We feel some bias in you, dear Nalhak," the monster replied, calmly.

They were both ignoring the woman and talking to each other as if she was not there.

"Bias is absent in the Land of Morning," the winged creature fought back.

"But it is known to any Nalhak coming from the Land of Presents," the rocky monster replied.

The Nalhak stayed quiet for a moment, looking at the woman as if not knowing what to do. Then the monster grabbed the winged creature and shook it. Its silvery dust spread all over the rocky monster.

"We made an exchange dear Nalhak," the monster laughed, "Pillars for silvery dust. Now it is time for us to get our prize."

The woman got so angry that she found her voice immediately. For some reason, it reminded her of the nice kids being bullied at her school that she always ended up defending. She felt like she had to defend the Nalhak. The creature felt part of her family.

"Leave it alone!" she yelled at the rocky monster.

But the scary creature just kept on laughing and torturing the Nalhak and the woman knew that without silver dust and wings, the little creature would not survive.

"Your silvery dust will decorate our pillars in the clouds of Ending, they will not save you now," the rocky monster giggled.

The woman jumped towards the monster in the air, trying to hit it with her arms and legs. She knew she was barely staying afloat because the small black clouds of angrisadness were still around her arms.

"You may be right, dear Nalhak. There is some remaining hope. But it will get crushed very shortly," she heard their enemy say to the Nalhak.

The woman flew back in to hit the rocky monster but missed again. Her black cloud arms caught her fall. She dashed stronger towards her enemy one more time and bounced off of it. She turned around and targeted it again but this time she slid back down before even making contact. It felt like a lost cause but she somehow had enough energy to decide not to quit, even if it meant that she would die trying. She felt like the Nalhak was part of her family, in some fashion, and she always defended family. She flew again, and again towards the rocky monster until one of its hands hit her on the head and she fell back down. She was still floating in the air but half unconscious. Everything around her was blurry.