by Stacey Miner

Created on: January 06, 2010

Only a Horizon

Deep in the dark of blackest night, stardust sparkled. White specks of light shimmered peacefully in the darkness. The light sang, a soothing melody of crystalline chime. Each pinging glint was a note in the song. This empty space with its serene music must be heaven. There was no cold or warmth. There was nothing but darkness and singing stardust.

Then the dust began to dance. One by one each speck slid to a center point. The specks of glinting light pulled themselves together. The closer they came to each other the more the light grew. The music became twisted and disruptive, as if someone were playing it backwards instead of forward. White light became solid green. The stardust was replaced by a tiny green jewel shaped like a tear, suspended from a silver chain. Suspended. Floating in space. Spinning slowly as if it were falling, continuously falling, in reverse.

The jewel fell upward and was swallowed into the black expanse of calm, empty space. Green light glinted, heard as a single chime instead of seen. The darkness growled and hissed words that could not be comprehended. The darkness spoke in tongues. The track still played backward instead of forward. Shadows faded, parted backward and gave birth to a table. On that table rested the glinting emerald jewel. Two men, one black as night and the other hard as desert stone, sat across from each other and held a rewound conversation.

Time stopped. The camera moved around the table and captured a lingering focus of the two men. The man of shadow was undefined. The man of stone sat with his mouth hanging open, frozen in the middle of his words. On the table, the tiny green crystal pulsed. An emerald heartbeat broke the scene apart and spiraled everything into pitch. This darkness was cold and suffocating, endless. Eternal.

Time flashed by in a breath. Another. And another. The movie of a life played rapidly in reverse. The man of stone smiled and laughed. He wept and anguished. He struggled and fought. He shrank from old to young to younger still. The man became a boy playing in the streets of an ethnic-rich city. He laughed as a boy and had adventures as a boy. He dwindled into a baby and then vanished into a womb. The darkness returned eternal. There was nothing. Nothing and nothing and nothing. Until...

A single thread of light split the darkness. Golden chime was its voice. Then another thread leaped into space. Then another, and another. Soon a network of glistening gold spiderweb replaced

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