Helga (unedited)

Chapter 5: Authentic Reality

The black atmosphere that is space descended upon us and she returned to normal-atleast, what was normal to me. I couldn’t be certain anymore. My first thoughts were corroboration that she was a demon or not human; an alien would be the safest word. But, she came from Earth, and Earth people were aliens by definition, and I to them.

‘Are you an alien?’ I asked.

‘If the truth is alien then I am,’ she returned ‘You have been so brainwashed that you don’t trust, and you uncertainty has led you to fall victim to lies,’ she continued, a fire burning in her eyes, and passion burning in her soul, ‘ If you don’t stand for something, you will fall for anything.’

Her words were certain and relieving. She didn’t try and convince me that she wasn’t doing what she doing, she didn’t hypnotise me, nor did she try and make me understand. The onus was mine.

‘Could everyone on Earth do this?’ I questioned. I’d never been on Earth, but it made sense that atleast she wasn’t the only one.

‘Everyone had the potential, but not everyone did it. I mean most were psychological victims to their thoughts. Their thoughts were not their own, come to think of it. Each thought was designed and imprison, telling them what to do and how to do, not what do etc. These thoughts were simplified compared o what they could really do. Earth’s people lacked souls. Many believed that their minds and their souls was the same thing. They could use their minds to imagine, wish, dream, but, they lacked the souls that put these very imaginations, wishes, and dreams into action. A lot were ‘educated’ into false education. If they agreed on something as a people, they accepted it as truth. So, I guess if what they agreed on was a lie, and then you had a people of fools. You had a minority, rebels, that did contest this, but these rebels were antagonized and consumed by majority.’

The tragedy of Earth and its people as told by Helga was deep and saddening.

‘They lost their way,’ she continued ‘ You had religions  at odds, kings, races, genders, and the lines in the sand were drawn on the sands of Time and then, well, Time ran out for them as they were consumed in war. They were their own devils, demise, and destruction.’

‘How did you survive-on that planet?’ I continued.

‘I was a person in the first place. I understood myself and took no notice of what people expected me to be. When the planet inevitably began to cave in, atleast the war paused for the Last People to find refuge in the other planets. The first was Mars because it was closest and people damaged in war are too lazy to go for long. Yeah, that’s how I left.’

To me, it was amusing that Earth’s people could have saved themselves much sooner, but they wouldn’t do it.

‘Why fire?’ it was an obvious thing to ask, considering the situation. Her hair was flaring, rising up like the fire of a candle. At the apex of the fire, ash formed a cumulus and it rained a bit. It was volcanic, her head region.

‘I was born close to Erta Ale in Ethiopia. There was a lot of volcanic activity in that area and I guess fire became my element. It cannot burn me. I harness it and it makes me warm.’

She then returned to normal, or what was normal to me before. The ash accumulated at her feet and the book did she hand to me. I was afraid that I might burn, but I didn’t- it just felt awkward and that’s all there was to it.

‘Where’d you get it?’ I swear this was my millionth of the session.

‘What is more important, having the book or knowing where I got it?’

Fortunately, I wasn’t the only one asking questions. Having David Copperfield in my life was good enough. Helga had already ignited the ‘truths’ of what I believed, and I didn’t feel strong enough to learn that she’d burnt whoever stole the book, or whatever happened...