The Author Games: Literature

Aspen Kinsley's End

She was a girl who dwelled in the past.

A wanderer within her own history, Aspen had the strongest desire to only find herself and the truth of what had been, and what could have been. She delved deeper into her memories as she held a thin thread of reality between her fingertips. The wooden planks of her house blurred around her until they disappeared, and the pine forest scent of her district dissolved into a void. Her surroundings began to fade, the light vanishing as it left only a lair of obscure darkness. The string between her fingers dwindled to nothingness, and a blade slashed her only connection to the real world as she disappeared under the waves of a sea embellished with the shades of her past.

The colors of the water around her were vivid, bringing warmth to her heart. It was that sunlight that fed the flower inside of her, letting it blossom under the beauty's reign. Light caught the surface of the water of the sea she ruled at the perfect angle, creating a reflection to show her all that she could never forget. The memories had been brought upon her once more, and she watched in silence as she accepted what had been, and all that she would never be able to change.

Her sister's tragic death.

Distinct tints of color blended together to create the image of the beautiful girl she had once admired falling to the ground. The moonlight shone in honor of the one who could never see its beauty again. The night itself had wept along with Aspen as she had cried her tears of grief, of fear, of a promise of revenge. It was a promise which she had broken, and for that, she seeked forgiveness. She, however, did not regret it because in breaking that promise, she had seen so much more, finding what truly mattered. In that moment, as the image of her sister melted away, a peace settled within her mind and heart. She had finally come to an understanding with herself, and as she let the grief, the pain, and the love go along with the memory, she found true bliss.

Her brother's neglected love.

Threads wove together with the light to depict her brother's face. His lips' thin lines of pink drooped downwards into a frown, but his eyes were where the true emotion was shown. Rejection shone clearly in the dark brown of his eyes, his pupil flitting with a sort of pain. It was as if staring through his eyes and into his soul would only highlight the misery which had so obviously conquered his mind and heart. Aspen forced herself to watch him, and to see what he had gone through. She wanted only to lift that frown to a smile, and to see not sorrow, but joy shimmering in the warm brown of his eyes. Only when she felt that heartache herself, the pain throbbing within her blood as she let the silent apology carry her forward through the agony, did the vision cease to exist.

Her own substantial mistakes.

There were many errors she had made, but they had been inevitable. The key was in the acceptance, and only in that moment did she truly admit to her mistakes. She recognized her mistakes including clinging to her sister, disregarding her brother, and letting her parents drift farther and farther away from her. The glow of the thread that strung her to reality began its return, twinkling brighter than ever. Like a puppet pulled by its strings, it lifted her out of the sea she had fallen into, bringing her back to the sky, to the world from which she had fell- the real world.

She was a wanderer, but not all who wander are lost.

Aspen escaped her mind and the place she had once wandered within as she left those boundaries behind. Her eyelids fluttered open, and her eyes darted about. The green of the land had turned to ash, a charcoal black settling to mask the emerald and jade. Smoke was thick in the atmosphere, seemingly shrouding the air to conceal the dimly lit sun. The sky was dead, the ash of the smoke conquering its soft blue and the puffs of white clouds. Faded of their color, dead leaves were scattered across the ground, and trees stood, stripped of the lush green which had once gave them beauty. The rubble which surrounded her was all that remained of her house and its neighbors.