Purgatory

Welcome to Purgatory

Surrounded by darkness, the only thing that you can see is a small, flickering light. You've been chasing after it for what feels like an eternity, but it is growing. All the heat has left your body, it pains you to take just a single step, but you keep on trudging forward, towards this light. What could it be? A town? A village? You are steadily getting closer, closer.

Your legs are numb. You close your eyes slowly; there are trails of ice from where your tears have fallen. Every breathe you take is labored, and as you exhale, you see it condense in the emptiness in front of you. The only thing that drives you to continue on is hope. The image is becoming clearer; it's a fire of some sorts. That's good! Fire means people, right? And people mean food, and ugh! You close your eyes again. When was the last time you've eaten? Can't remember, doesn't matter, keep walking. The light, the fire, it's closer now you can feel it. You open your eyes again and it's there! You look at it closely and realize it's a candle. A single candle. You drop down next to it and quickly put your hands next to the single flame. Who knew such a small and precious item could provide so much warmth, so much security, so much life. You hold the candle up and you can see what's around you, and you begin to cry and rejoice. You feel blood rushing to your cheeks and feeling returns to your lips and nose. The ice begins to melt off your eyelashes. Yes! Yes! It was worth it! All of the pain, all of the suffering was worth this euphoric feeling.

And as you smile with tears rolling down your face, you begin to feel a slight breeze. Your smile quickly fades. The winds begin to pick up. You look down at your candle, and the flame begins to flicker. "Nooo!" you scream, and you quickly hide the candle, bringing it near your stomach and in between your knees, sheltering it from the wind. But the winds continue to pick up, as if they insist on destroying everything you believed in, everything you worked so hard for. This single candle, this small flame has brought you happiness beyond belief; it is your everything. It may not have been what you expected, but it was enough. You're crying again, but these aren't tears of joy, as you watch the flame dance sporadically as if it was trying to free itself from the bonds of the wick. The wind grows even stronger, and no matter how much you try to shield the flame you know there is nothing you can do as the wind seeps in pushing the flame, stretching it out. You scream and the winds begin to die down. The flame is still alive.

You've made it through. A tear rolls down your face and off your chin and right onto the candle. The fire sizzles and is put out. You immediately plunge into darkness and all the heat seeps from your body once again. You stare in disbelief at the candle that you had just put out. After all the shit you've been through protecting your one source of light, life, and hope, you were the one who extinguished the flame. You smothered the one thing you cared about. You were the one who destroyed everything that brought you joy. Kneeling there, keeled over, frost has covered your body once again, but you don't care. You have lost the will to move on. You are broken—shattered.

But you get the sudden urge to look up. You slowly push yourself up, and wait... What's that? In the distance. You see it in the far distance as faint as can be. You carefully push yourself up onto your feet. Pain shoots through your entire body as you begin to shiver and shake once again. You move your foot forward, and begin to shuffle slowly through the darkness once more. And you begin to move toward what you have found—a small, flickering light.

Welcome to Purgatory.