Light in the Darkness

Your Destiny can wait no Longer

When the responders left it was about lunchtime, so the girls sat and ate their lunch. Adri studied her sister and it seemed to her that Carmen had grown older overnight. Her medium skin was stained with soot and her frizzy brown curls were messy. Her eyes seemed older and darker like she was storing the pain of last night deep inside her. As they finished their lunch, the girls decided to go into town to buy clothes.

They went to a thrift store and each bought an outfit. Carmen came out of the fitting room wearing a grey T-shirt, a denim jacket, jeans and hiking boots. One of the saleswomen gave her a hair tie and she threw her hair up into a long ponytail. Adri put on a dark blue t-shirt, black jeans, hiking boots and a blue, plaid, flannel button-up overshirt. They paid and walked out. As they were walking down the road, they heard the bell chime as someone exited the store.

"Miss! Miss!" a young salesgirl called after them.

"Yes?" Adri answered as she turned around to see the girl running after them.

The salesgirl was maybe thirteen with long black hair, pink cheeks and solid black eyes. She was dressed in a floral dress and white sandals which made her look even younger. Her cheeks were dusted with glitter and she had pale white skin that was quite the opposite of her hair.

"You forgot your dress!" she told them as she caught up to them on the busy street.

"I didn't buy a dress," Adri assured her, "Did you?"

"No, I don't wear dresses," Carmen chimed in.

"Well, then it's on the house," The sales girl decided presenting Adri with a white sundress.

"Oh, well, thanks," Adri took the dress and turned to leave.

She and Carmen walked a few steps when Carmen turned around to take one last look at the salesgirl, but she was gone. Vanished as if she had never been there in the first place. Carmen shook her head as she and Adri walked down the road together. Adri thought about the events of that day and how Carmen was keeping her emotions bottled up inside of her. They arrived back home just as the sun was setting. Adri and Carmen sat together in the cool grass and before long Carmen laid down and fell asleep.

"Adrianna Miller, it is time to claim your destiny," whispered a soft voice in the cool breeze.

Adri looked around but didn't see anyone. She went back to watching Carmen and looking at the stars, thinking she was hearing things or hallucinating from her long day.

"Adrianna, it is time, we can wait no longer," the voice whispered again.

Adri looked over to the woods and there was a young girl, maybe ten years old in a glowing white dress. Her long white hair and pale skin glowed as well and her cheeks were dusted with glitter. The girl waved at Adri and signaled with her hand for her to come over. She giggled with delight as she danced in the moonlight, her bare feet moving softly across the grass. As Adri got near the girl, she took off through the woods moving somewhere between a skip and a dance as she sang softly.

They arrived at a clearing that looked familiar to Adri. It was the clearing from her dream with the large pond in it. Just as her dream had predicted, there was that beautiful woman standing on the beach next to the pond, if you could even call it a beach. It was just a strip of soft, cool mud that surrounded the little pond. The woman turned and smiled softly at the dancing girl who was beaming as she hopped and danced in a circle around Adri, squealing and giggling with delight.