Once upon a time, there was an extraordinary world created by one lone soul, her name was Anna, and she was absolutely beautiful. Her face never lost its smile that was always accompanied by her dimples, her eyes appeared to sparkle when she spoke; she had perfect angel-curled hair that lay on her shoulders; her hands so small and delicate, her skin the smoothest imaginable. Her body the perfect hour glass shape. There appeared to be a glow about her, as if she was an angel – she sure was beautiful like one.
All by herself, she built a world based on her perception of perfection. She didn’t allow hurtful things into her world: violence, sorrow, death, cruelty, and other things relating to those just didn’t exist here, along with other humans. She didn’t trust people, and she never would, she believed they were the cause of all Earth’s grief. She made the perfect foundation for everything to live there, all creatures and critters that had walked the Earth were now here. She could trust them and always rely on them to be there for her when she needed a shoulder, although, now she’ll never need that again. Anna only taught of good things to the inhibitors of her world, she’s seen too many tears shed over the course of her years and she would not tolerate another.
This place was full of nothing but happiness, color, and wonder. Even the sun seemed to smile a big, toothy, grin down on its soil. Outside forces couldn’t penetrate the thick walls keeping everyone inside safe from harm. Anna refused to teach anything that could possibly ruin the perfect life she had made out for all of them, she even changed all of the stories and nursery rhymes she grew up with to protect her world’s purity. She simply replaced all of the parts where someone got hurt or got their heartbroken with something happy or she just cut those scenes out completely. She felt as if they should never have to suffer the pain others have, she wanted one pure place. And it was here.
Each and every day Anna went out and walked the entire land, making sure everything ran smoothly. She’d walk from her castle to the far other side where the evergreen forests bloom, and back. Stopping every so often to play a game, or tell a story. She’d usually stop at the beach and stand barefoot at the shallow end, watching all the fish swim by to silently greet her. The water was a magnificent shade of blue and when the sun hit it, it glittered, making all of the fish appear to sparkle as well. Sometimes when she strolled through the meadows she’d stop and pick a bouquet of flowers to plant around her home. It took her a whole day to walk the area but she didn’t mind. She loved looking at all of her creation in awe.

One night as she walked back home she paid extra attention to her surroundings. Something was off and she didn’t know what it was. And idea trickled through the back of her mind but she quickly banished it and kept moving forward. All of the animals were getting ready for their night’s sleep as well, whispering good nights and sleep wells to her as she walked past. The moon gleamed over every aspect of her little world and all the stars twinkled together in delight. Once Anna got home she went straight to bed, exhausted from her full-day journey, just as she is every night. All night she tossed and turned and awoke a couple times. No matter what she did she couldn’t get the sound sleep that she desperately needed. Usually it’s so easy for her to fall asleep comfortably.
Something was wrong. She knew what it was and she couldn’t keep her mind off of it. She tried to lie back down and forget it, that it was just nonsense, nerves maybe. But it wasn’t. Her heart and her gut both told her that something was out of place. She sat straight up in bed and stared into the darkness, slightly lit by the moon glowing through her window, she felt an odd chill run through her body; the familiar chill of fear that she’s felt so many other times in her life.

“Not again,” she whispered into the dark. “No, not again.”
Guilt fell upon her shoulders like a tower and she fell back onto the bed from its pressure. She began to weep uncontrollably. This wasn’t the first world Anna created; she’d created multiple before this one. Each one failed, resulting in the entire world perishing: everything dying, turning to dust, as if it was never even there… Anna created these worlds in hope of finding her true happiness, finding a true path for her life; building worlds on nothing but love and happiness when she didn’t even know how those emotions truly felt. She built worlds on lies, each time making them a little different in hopes that it would work this time. It never did. Building things on lies would never solve anything, but she didn’t learn. Now she created yet another place and must suffer the consequences.
She arose abruptly from bed and peered out her bedroom window; the sky is darkening in the east, where the woods are. “It’s happening,” she muttered. The moon is halfway down now and the sun is slowly making its way up to brighten this day soon to be filled with anguish. The dark clouds are pushing their way through the sky, completely taking over everything in their path, leaving behind a trail of dust and fragile, broken trees. She knows that they won’t stop until everything is dead.
Hurriedly, she dressed herself and ran out the door to warn those that were awake at this hour and hoping her franticness would awake the rest of the sleeping creatures. Once she entered the still darkness outside she began to yell hoping this would attract any bystanders. She yelled random absurdities into the night and waited for someone to approach her. She woke up a small family burrowed under the ground a few yards away from her.
“What are you yelling for?” the father of the family crawled out of the burrow and came close to her.
She knelt down so she could look him in the face, “Help me warn everyone,” she cried frantically. “You’re all in danger and I don’t know how to save you.”
He looked at her puzzled at the word danger, not having the faintest idea what it meant. Before he could ask her she already knew she had him confused, “Just tell everyone you know to spend as much time with their families as they can.”
“Everyone always spends time with their family –“
“No!” she hollered, “this time is different. Please, just help me,” tears fell down her face and he still didn’t comprehend what all of this was about, “Tell everyone to stay far away from the areas covered by dark clouds.”
He looked directly up from where he stood, “I don’t see any dark –“
“They’re coming in from the east! Just stay away from them!”
“Okay… I think you ought to go back to bed,” he said with a chuckle, “seems like your speaking in tongues.”
“For the good of the ones that you love, you will do as I say,” she glared at him, her voice stern.
He tried to say something else, but she walked away from him before he got the chance to get it out. He did as she said and went off to tell the others the news Anna gave to him. New feelings struck her world, feelings of fear. Unheard of and unwelcomed emotions were being absorbed like sponge to the ignorant minds of the inhibitors. Anna had tried so hard to keep this place pure and keep all evil away but she failed miserably; now she has no choice but to sit and watch as everything unfolds. Her world was inevitably doomed.
These clouds were treacherous and felt no mercy for anything living. This is the same exact fate that reached Anna’s world on all of the other occasions. They destroyed, murdered, brought unbearable torture to those passing under them. They held within them the definition of pain and suffering: brutality at its worst. Unimaginable anguish came to those in the mere presence of them. Fear breathed throughout the winds they brought.
The dark clouds continued to engulf anything and everything in their path. It all used to be so full of life, so full of exuberating beauty, now it’s all turning into the worst nightmare imaginable. Animals caught in the path of destruction are suffocated by the thick, treacherous clouds and perish before they pass over them. The clouds are now well past the forests and heading over the meadows; even the flowers quiver with fear as they roll nearer and nearer killing off every trace of life. Critters of all kinds try to outrun their inevitable fate, but the clouds always win. Everything’s in a lethal race of time and for many their time was cut short.
Two young squirrels huddle under a tree, holding onto each other weeping, wishing they were somewhere else, somewhere safe. They wished all of this would end now and everything just go back to normal. They didn’t bother to run because they’ve seen what happened to the others when they did – running wouldn’t save anyone – they continued to sit there together, soaking in their sorrows and sharing their last moments together. The clouds approached them and the two little ones looked up at the roaring blackness with utter terror. In an instant they were completely covered, trying to fight their way out, but there was no way out. They were trapped and suffocated. The two lay there dead once the clouds passed: fur matted and dirty, eyes stuck wide open with traces of fear sewed through them, bodies stiff. Two more lives taken.
Anna watched all of this from her window. She cried uncontrollably at the sight of it. She knew them; she knew them well actually, along with their families. She used to tell them stories and play with them every time she saw them when she would walk her once beautiful land. Loud, unidentifiable screams escaped from her throat. She had no clue what she was even saying; she just wanted this to end! This was nothing but pure torture for her to watch and then not be able to do anything to stop it. She knew what would happen if she stepped into the cloud’s path… she couldn’t bear the thought of that happening yet.
The clouds had already passed the beach; turning the once vividly blue water murky and full of silt. Fish lay on the surface: dead. The clouds were coming closer to her home – closer and closer by the minute. She stepped outside for a moment to see just how real all of this was, to make sure that this wasn’t just a vivid, reoccurring nightmare. Oh, how real all of it was. Many animals found refuge around her house, holding onto each other just as the two young ones did under the tree. Some hid in small burrows underground thinking that would protect them from the dangers. Anna knew better than that but couldn’t stand the thought of telling them. They need some sort of hope… Even though all hope is forever gone.
A new mother chipmunk, holding her young one, approached her. She was no bigger than Anna’s hands if she was to put them together and she had the fear in her eyes that everyone else had: dead and alive.
“Anna,” she squeaked out, “help us, please,” she wanted desperately to cry but stayed strong as she looked down at her baby. “We need you. All of us need you,” she looked around at the other families. “Just give us an explanation of some sort.”
Anna couldn’t look at her, “When I made this place, “she began, “I thought I knew what love and happiness was,” she was speaking loud enough for all of them to hear her. “I haven’t any idea what those words really mean. I don’t know how to love someone or be happy, and when I made this place – I shouldn’t have made this place to begin with – I made it entirely on what I thought love and happiness would feel like. I taught you all nothing but lies and deceived you time and time again,” Anna stopped and waited for a response but didn’t get one; they all waited anxiously for her to continue. “This isn’t the first world I’ve created,” she started again, still not looking at anyone, “I’ve sought out to find what these emotions really mean countless times and each time I’ve failed.”
“You knew this would happen!” someone near her cried out.
Hearing these words cut her deeply because in all actuality, she did know that this would be the outcome sooner or later. She couldn’t say that though, “No!” she lied, “Every time I’ve created a world I’ve tried my hardest to make it better than the last, tried my hardest to stop the inevitable. I can’t though… One can’t build something out of lies and expect it to turn out perfect. It’ll all crumble eventually. I was just too ignorant to face it,” she breathed out a sigh of sadness.
“What’s the inevitable?” the mother asked cautiously.
Anna looked directly up at the blue sky overhead, then looked east at the roaring, black as night clouds, “Everything will die,” she said it bluntly and the words chilled through the others’ bodies like ice.
The clouds were minutes from being at her doorstep and Anna fled the scene, not daring to look back, not daring to look at their faces, not daring to look into their eyes and see how much she has failed. She ran into her home and locked the door and all the windows. Her home, her magnificent castle that any fairytale princess would kill for, how she loved it so dearly, how she’ll dread the moment the lethal clouds pass over it. Made of white marble stone, surrounded by all of the flowers Anna delicately picked and planted. She ran up to her bedroom and slammed the door shut. She quickly walked over to her vanity, and looked into the huge mirror. She stared at herself for a moment, and a tear fell down her cheek. She looked out her window and saw the deadly blackness and knew it was time. She hurried over to the far side of her room and sat in the fetal position with her head pressed against her knees, waiting for it all to unfold.

The clouds broke through the windows and small cracks in the walls. She felt a sharp pain go through her body, but she kept her head down; not daring to look into the darkness that had killed everything she tried so hard to make perfect. She didn’t cry, and she didn’t make a sound. Once it had passed she continued to sit there, motionless, afraid to look up and see the damage. She knew she had to sooner or later though. She stood up, without opening her eyes; she wasn’t ready to look yet. She stood there cowering in the corner, hoping that when she finally looked around, everything will be back to how it was.
She slowly opened one eye and her heart sank. Everything was ruined. She opened the other cautiously and looked around her room. Broken glass lay on the floor, everything a dull, gray color, holes in her wall from where the clouds pushed through, everything turned upside down or over on its side from the great pressure. She looked towards her mirror and slowly walked over to it. She wasn’t capable of preparing for what she saw. Her angelic beauty had been completely tarnished. Her once lushes curls now lay in a stringy, knotted mess; her once smooth skin was now painted over with pink scars which stood out against her pale skin. Her eyes lost their luster; her teeth were no longer straight and white, her body lost its shape and now she was nothing but skin and bones. She was hideous.

Anna stepped out of her fragile and broken home to see all the damage this time. The harder she tries to rebuild her world, the worse it is when it dies. The foul stench of death lingered in the still air. All the animals she spoke to that refuged close to her home lay sprawled out on the ground, their eyes stuck wide open and filled with terror. The mother still held onto her infant even in death… Anna made her way over to the meadows and saw nothing but desert soil, the vibrant flowers and fields were all gone; bodies lay about here too. She looked towards the once evergreen forest and saw nothing but deep, dark woods that even the scariest of nightmares couldn’t create. Everything used to be so colorful and full of life and laughter, full of hopes and dreams, full of so much that could never really be entirely fulfilled.

She walked up to the beach and looked out into the putrid water, “I’m a horrible excuse for a human,” she whispered to herself. She sat down on the damp, gray sand and wept. “How can I continue on like this?” she cried out into the nothingness. “I’ve killed so many lives because of my selfish wish for eternal happiness! I’m nothing but a murderer. Why am I still here?! Why don’t I die with the rest of them? Why?!” She stood up from the sand and began walking out into the water, sticking just her feet in, like she used to. She closed her eyes and tried to picture everything as it was but it was impossible. The water was ice cold and the air hovering over the dead fish smelled worse than anywhere else.

Before she knew what she was doing she began taking long strides out deeper into the water. The dead fish floated away from her, making a path, as she came close to them. She looked down at her reflection in the water and spat at it with disgust. She looked like a dirty, old rag doll that needed to be thrown away a long time ago, but stuck around thinking that there would be some sort of hope that someone would want to play with her. Nobody wanted her though. The water was so cold it burned her skin, but she didn’t care. The pain she felt on the inside outweighed it. She continued to walk deeper into the freezing abyss, not daring to look back at all she had done. Her head went under and she was prepared to literally drown in her own sorrows.












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My eyes opened abruptly and I sat straight up from bed. I cautiously looked around my bedroom in shock. Everything was back to how it was: vibrant, elegant, beautiful beyond belief.


“How?” I said to myself.


I quickly jumped out of bed and ran over to my mirror and saw me. The beautiful me: my curls, my dimples, my eyes had their shine back. My skin was sun kissed and smooth, my curves were back to how they should be. I sighed in relief as I gently pulled a curl and watched it spring back into place.


“I didn’t know you were awake,” a deep voice rang from the door.


I turned around and saw my hero standing there.


“You tossed and turned all night. You had that dream again, didn’t you?” he frowned at me.


I looked at him in disbelief from the nightmare, “Everything seemed so real,” I whispered to him. “I want those thoughts to just leave my mind permanently,” I glanced back at the mirror.


He came over and took me by my chin to make me look up into his loving, gentle eyes, “I promise you that that will never happen again,” he said solemnly. “I’m thankful each and every day that I came just in time to save you.”


My mind trailed back to that dreadful day and how I thought everything was really over, how I had absolutely ruined everything, “And I’m thankful that you’re the one that found me.”


He kissed me tenderly and whisper in my ear, “I love you.”


“I’ll always love you,” the words escaped my lips like a knee-jerk reaction.


He kissed my forehead then stood back and smiled as he looked me over, “Get dressed and around for the day, we’ve got a world to take care of.”


I looked out the window and saw everything back to how it was again: the beautiful world that I once tried to create on my own was now in perfect harmony. Now I know what true love is, what true happiness is, I know how to live and fulfill my wildest dreams. I’m whole now and so is this place that he helped me create. We worked hard together and in the end we built a masterpiece. Nothing in this world will ever crumble or fail again: this time it’s forever.