Blossom

Twilight

      Darkness encased her like a tomb, befitting for she didn't know if she was really alive. From the time she slept to the time she woke, Flora recognized no difference. A dream streamed into a thought and a thought streamed into a dream and asleep streamed into awake and awake streamed into asleep. This Nothing she existed in wrapped around her like how a blanket wrapped around a child after a nightmare, suffocating and damp.
     Where she was she could not see, only feel. And this cold wetness seeped into her constantly, keeping her alive yet killing her at the same time. Slowly numbing her to the very thing that reminded her of her existence. The inside of her shell was beginning to match the outside. Where did she begin and where did outside end? Flora was forgetting. She questioned her self in the same manner that someone would question "If a tree falls in the forest and nobody is around to hear it, did that tree really fall?"
     "If I can't feel, if I can't see, if I don't hear, am I alive? I am losing my last sense of surrounding, I am losing my last sense of aliveness." Flora's thoughts were her only company, each one a friend and a foe. How she could think at all was beyond her. With no stimulation other than herself and the numbing cold, she wondered how her mind had developed so much. Where did these words come from? She assumed she was born with it. She assumed that this void she lived in was all she needed to know.
       Of course knowing only nothing, she thought she knew everything. She thought she was alone. She wasn't. Surrounding her was Terra, or, as Flora knew her, Nothing.
       Terra loved Flora. Flora was Terra's child; Not born but raised from her fertile soil. All Terra wanted to do was protect Flora from the outside world, keep her from the envitable harshness that Flora would face. Thus, she made sure to keep her self as Flora's shield, protect her with her own body, feed her with her own nutrients, provide her the the things that Flora could not provide for herself. Every night, when Flora slept, Terra whispered to her, secretly teaching her the things that Flora did not know, like what a tree was, or how the sky stretched across the world like a floating ocean. When night streamed back into day, however, Terra remained silent.
    Terra feared that when Flora was awake, she would be compelled to speak of things that she did not wish to. Mistake after mistake taught Terra that aforementioned route would ultimately make things worse. So day after day after day, Terra kept quiet, holding her tongue and her heart, while day after day after day, Flora fell deeper into her despondency.
      Her mind was growing, her shell was cracking, and everything started feeling too tight, too small. Despite her numbness, Flora no longer felt right in her own skin. Anxiety started seeping its way into her through the cracks, "Their is no point to existing if I am the only one.I can't be the only one."
       Her mind became dizzy, a sense of loss and abandonment infiltrated her heart like a thickening fog. She was losing sight of her own image. Isolation battled knowledge, inexperience battled wisdom, her psyche resembled something of war zone, and she felt uncomfortable; like that static feeling of a sleeping limb waking up, something inside her was waking up.
      Flora's nights turned restless, nightmares of suffocating making her agitated. The fear that grew with each dream left little room for the desire to sleep. Stress was going to kill her; Terra could feel Flora's life slipping away but Terra's mouth remained steadfast in it's silence.
     Time continued to march forward, Flora was deteriorating along with it. Her breath growing weaker with every passing moment until one night its stopped.
     It was only for a few seconds but the abruptness and sudden cease of tossing and turning sent Terra panicking. Opening her mouth she screamed, "Little one, please wake up. Im so sorry I let this progress so far, if you would just please wake up and start breathing again, I would tell you so much. I promise." An anxious sob raked its way through Terra, sending a jolt to Flora.
      With a deep breath and a startled mind, Flora blinked awake, dazed and confused as to what was going on.
      "What...?" Flora mumbled to herself as Terra exploded into a hysteric explanation. Who she was, where Flora lived, the fact that she had been there since the beginning, and how sorry she was for never stepping in sooner.
      Flora's mood darkened like the world Terra had trapped her in. Flora was covered in layers of anger, hurt, and betrayal.
       "I was alone for so long that I questioned if I was even real. My mind splintered with worry, and you just sat there and watched. No, thats not quite right, huh? You gave me things to think and talk about with no one to talk to but myself. You damned me to loneliness. Why? Why did you let me suffer through such torment?"
       But Terra had no answer, no justification, not really, because fear never justified anything.
   "I never meant to hurt you, I swear." Terra entreated, "Please, is there anyway I could gain you forgiveness?"
     While Flora did not trust Terra, she no longer wanted to live like this, so, if only out of hope and spite, Flora responded, "I might forgive you if you tell me how to escape your grasp."
     Terra's lips flashed a quick smile, sad but understanding and accepting of Flora's despise for her.  "Right now, a part of you is growing, let it; It will lead you out of me and into the world I hid you from. However, you will also grow roots, and those will always anchor you to  me, I'm sorry."
     Flora was not completely happy with Terra's answer, but she would do as Flora said.
      Every day she let her sprout grow more and more. As she progressed on her journey upward, her environment grew drier, warmer. Her dying sense of touch was slowly reviving. For the first time in her life, she felt a wisp of what "alive" may be like.
    She was happy for a while.
    Until the storm hit.
Drenching Terra, Flora felt as if all her progress was being washed away. The water and its numbing effects seeped into her easier than it ever did before. Flora felt as if Terra tricked her, again. "This was just some sick form of amusement to her. Give me hope just to strip it away. I knew that I shouldn't have trusted Terra, but I did, and I suffered for it," she lamented, "the only thing to do now is sleep, I guess."
     She passed out as soon as her eyes closed, tired from the tumultuous emotions.
      Terra wept, they hadn't talked since their first introduction, and now Flora hated her even more for a crime she didn't commit. If Flora had pushed just a little further, she would have broken the surface into a new world, outside of Terra.
        With a watery voice, Terra spoke to Flora like she did so many seasons ago,  in secret. "I wanted to protect you, instead I hurt you and Im sorry for that. The hurting you part, not the protecting you part. I will never regret protecting my child. I will always love you and support you. This may be the last time we speak, but know that I will love you through your silence and hate. Seasons will change, environments will change but that never will."
        Sunrise was approaching, so as an act of redemption, Terra shuffled Flora up just enough to break her skin and let Flora into outside. And as the rays broke the horizon, Terra said one final word to her sleeping child. "Goodbye." Tears escaping her eyes.