The Light's Calling

Lina

Lina had grown up in a family that had discovered their light early on. They were persecuted by the Mexican government for money schemes, but there were no money schemes or a valid reason to be persecuted.

Her family owned a very successful family business in which each of her family members were able to use the gifts they had. Lina had created her first mural in the grand plaza her family owned, and she remembers that the light never shut off and shined bright day and night. Her brother owned a restaurant, her parents were musicians, and her grandpa ran the entire show.

Money was nothing to them because it came to them in abundance. It was here that she realized that those that discover their gifts are compensated for them in life with a life of few worries, with one of those being money. But money was much less valuable for those who did everything to discover their light.

The lights that Lina saw inspired her to keep painting in order to one day capture a world where lights were in every corner of the world and where children felt safe to find theirs.

Unfortunately, all the good in the world could not rid it of all of the evil there was in it. Evil that took the form of hurt, of abuse, of a lack of respect for life: plants, animals, and people, kids and adults alike. And that form wore a human face. Lina knew this evil lived within the people who hurt children, who harmed, and who disrespected the sacred boundaries that were in place to keep all life, especially children, safe from harm.

Lina knew it would be a challenging feat, but it would not be impossible. As she grew, she realized that she could erase evil by painting it away. Every evil she encountered was painted on a canvas that brought the dark to the light and destroyed it.

Evil no longer hid in secret, but rather Lina captured it in its human form. Every picture she painted led to the arrest of the evil people, but one day, the Chief of Police in her Mexican town came to life on the canvas before her. Just as Lina realized what the painting captured, the Mexican police burst into her home. Fortunately, they had a hidden escape room they hid in until the police had left.

The police had been ordered to do this, but they did not know why. One day, an officer in regular clothes stopped by to warn the family of the danger they would soon be in, and they quickly planned their escape. They went to the city on the water, one where the wind blows and has the power to destroy everything around it, but it doesn't: Chicago. Lina knew that Chicago would give her family a place to start all over far away from the evil that lived within her neighborhood.

Unfortunately, she soon realized that darkness rises when light fades, and as people began to forget their lights, the shadows came.