The Cabin

What It Means To Lose Oneself

My eyes illuminated in the sunlight, it seemed I was outside. I slowly opened them to see a beautiful blue sky, clouds being carried by the wind. It was absolutely beautiful. I hadn't seen such a sky in ages, not ever since my old days. Long had I forgotten the joy of seeing it. Then I looked around, I was on a grass field. The grass was tall and wild, little anthills all around. It wasn't just like the old days, it was the old days. It's exactly how it was when I was eight. I used to live on a farm in the countryside of Washington. I used to come to this grassy field whenever I needed to relax. I laid back down in the grass, just looking at that blue sky, enamored by it. Then I heard humming, from a familiar voice. I stood up and looked around to find the woman from the cabin rocking in her chair. This time she was there looking at the same blue sky, humming a soft and gentle melody; I was watching. She stopped humming and turned to me and said "This is a beautiful memory of yours, this sky is one in a million. Not even I have had the pleasure of ever seeing such a sky. Come here and sit next to me"

I sat next to her. I felt small since I was sitting on the ground. Her statute was still big. A mouse sitting next to the king of the jungle. She asked me how I died this time. This whole time I was so enthralled by the nostalgia of it all that I hadn't noticed that I had died again. I finally asked her where I was, her face went from a calm and relaxed expression to a dead expression, she said "You are in purgatory, The Land Of The Dead. The dead that didn't pass through the gates of Heaven nor Hell. No matter how many times you die, you will come back, but every time you die, you lose a part of yourself. When souls like you lose themselves completely they turn to the dark. They only live in the darkness, as in, they only come out at night. But there are some souls out there, so powerful, their wills towering many, that are able to roam about in the day. They don't come out often, with them being here for so long, they only come out to cause problems, or for their own amusement. The worst kind are the ones full of hatred. They have burned lands that have thrived, both up there and down there. And so, tell me how you died."

I told her of the creature I had seen, the thing made of nightmares. When I told her; her veins sucked in, her face actively started sweating. She started mumbling to herself, about how it was impossible, how he should never have been able to escape. Then she turned to me and said "That is The Soul Eater. He was the first Man I loved, and the last one. The Lost Relic On The Wall has been found. Now that he has been awakened there is no stopping him, for his will is the strongest." I stood up in front of her and asked her "Do you believe I will get through the forest with this Soul Eater wandering around?". Without hesitation she tells me "There have only been three souls to have rivaled The Soul Eater: Two men and one woman. These three souls were great in power but weak nonetheless. They were walking contradictions, paradoxes the people of the forest called them. They wandered around the forest at the same time, the peak influx of souls in the forest. Thousands of souls came to the forest in those times, but none compared to these three. The woman was of blonde hair, with blue eyes. Whenever someone looked into those eyes all they could see was the ocean. But just like the ocean, she was merciless, killing thousands, drowning them in her quest through the forest. Her attire was of a white dress that always blew through the wind. Everything about her was a constant state of change, adapting to every situation. Even The Soul Eater had existed in her era but neither of them could ever crush each other."

Then I asked "What about the other ones?" She told me to sit down, snapping her fingers at the same time, then I sat, a chair appearing out of thin air. The chair came out of thin air with the literal snap of her fingers. "The other two were wholly different. One of them was a man with dreads for hair, the hair going all the way down to his waist. He was merciful unlike the woman. He treated every soul, lost or wandering like family, a naive soul he was. His naivety eventually caught up to him when one of his most trusted comrades betrayed him and sold him out to The Soul Eater. Something that nobody had understood was that he was indeed naive, he was not one to destroy without reason unlike so many, but he was not weak in power, he had people so loyal to him that they would and did lay down their lives for him. He had a charm that enamored people all over the forest, nor was he blind to this power he had over people. This power would eventually corrupt him since he was such an idealist he could not fathom why anyone would betray him. The one thing that set him back from the other two were his feelings, that's all he had and what he felt was fury at the repeated cycle of the nature of man. And so he and his army of loyal souls went to war against The Soul Eater and his lost souls. For a century this war waged on. The war is the reason why the era had ended. Now because of that forsaken war the forest is the emptiest it's ever been. The final battle came about when the armies were reduced to one. The two commanders were the last ones standing, this being the case they fought till one of them was brought down to their knees. This last battle only lasted a day. The Soul Eater came out victorious, with the ideals of that man gone in the wind. But there are still rumors of his soul having survived the fight. Perhaps with what little power he had left, he was finally able to get out of The Forest, never to be seen again.

Then the third and last one is the most mysterious one. Having been the youngest and last one of the trio to enter The Forest. At the young age of 17, he was the most isolated from all the war and suffering that The Soul Eater and the other two brought upon the forest. Yet he was indefinitely the most powerful soul The Forest had welcomed. He was the most feared and that's why he was the most isolated. No one dared to touch him nor take his power, not once did he die in The Forest. Rumors say he still wanders around The Forest. I myself was only able to talk to him personally once. A sad soul he was but there was still hope in his eyes, deep in them. He wasn't interested in power nor did he have a malicious bone in his body. All he wanted was to find meaning in his life, wanting to feel everything in life but since his inception in this world and in the living world he was an outcast. He could do things no one else could, a genius they called him but his genius could only take him so far. Desperately he wanted things only normal people could have: Love, a community, and most importantly faith in themselves, things he was denied and could never have. In this forest the only way one gets out is if they find themselves. Nobody, not even me knows if the trio still wander around but it seems like things are getting exciting again. With The Soul Eater wandering around again, perhaps they will also start wandering too."