Life Light

In a vast and endless white void, an immaculate palace made of jade, and white marble stood majestically above the rest.

Countless flowers, of various colors spread between trees and streams in a boundless garden that stretched further than the eye could see.

Two children about 4 or 5 years old sat across from each other. Their nearly identical faces betrayed the fact that they were twins. Though, other than that, the pair couldn’t be more different. 

The older of the twins had dark brown eyes and raven black hair, that cascaded to his shoulders. His downturned lips made him look like he was always in a bad mood. His unnaturally pale skin looked like it would bruise if you looked at it to hard. He wore dark colored robes to protect his sensative skin.

Across from him, sat the younger of the pair. Her radiant smile was bright enough to illuminate the world. She wore a beautiful white and gold dress. The colors perfectly complimented her sun-kissed skin. She had bright eyes the color of water. They were filled with curiousity and  wonder of everything. Her beautiful chocolate colored curls cascaded down her back to her waist. 

In her hand there was a small bag, it made constant clinking sounds as she excitedly raised it into the air. 

"Nox, are you ready to play?" the excited little girl asked her gloomy brother.

“Ugh, Lucia we always play marbles.” Nax replied indifferently, as his sister poured out a small hill of marbles. There were all kinds of marbles in different sizes and colors. 

“You know it's my favorite game." Lucia stated while putting the marbles in the middle of the circle, before choosing the white marble.

Without bothering to reply Nox grabbed the black marble.

"Don't be mad Nox." stated Lucia pouting her lips. 

“Mad about what?” Replied Nox tilting his head to the side. 

“Don’t be mad when you lose again. Hahahaha.” Lucia cheerfully exclaimed. 

Nox looked at his cheerful twin and said in a voice not louder than a whisper. 

‘No you don't be mad when you lose' as a smile tugged at the corners of his lips,

                 .   .   .   .   . 

In the endless night, was a vast and broken metropolis. Buildings that once tall, and reached into the sky. Now lay toppled lying on the ground. The paved 

streets were nonexistent and have long given way to countless trees and plants, which also had long since died.

Old metal vehicles with various holes and rust littered the roads. Most of them had long since rusted with pieces falling to the ground.

Just outside the Rule Metropolis was a vast wasteland. Brown and red dirt stretched as far as the eye can see. Craters of various sizes in depth or all over.

In one smaller size, crater set a group of people around a small fire. They all looked different from each other, but  the one 

thing they did have in common was that they were all pale and gaunt. 

The pale light of the fire illuminated their shallow faces. They were layers upon layers of tattered and holy clothes, and an attempt to keep their frail bodies warm. They huddled together, regardless of whether they were familiar or not, as the fire was the only thing keeping the biting away.

Sitting on a rock in front of the fire was an old man on his lap was a thin little girl. Her thin, stringy hair hung to her shoulders, like everyone else, she was thin and pale, she blew on her hands and rubbed them together in an attempt to keep them warm .

The old man handed the little girl, a dry biscuit and a cup of dirty water. She looked at the man before thanking him and eating the food with relish. She looked up at the dark skies, with random specs of light before turning to the old man. 

“Grandpa?” called the little girl in a childish voice. 

“Hmmm?” Answered the old man in a deep booming voice, before retrieving a worn blanket from his old bag and wrapping it around the child.

“What are spots?” Asked the girl pointing towards the skies. 

“Those? Those are life lights.” Replied the old man. 

“What is a life light?” The little girl asked curiously. 

“It is the light that The Creator blesses each of his worlds with so that it can have life.” Patiently replied the old man.

“Are we not alive?” Asked the little girl, looking at her hands and turning them over. 

“ Of course we are.” Replied the Old Man with a chuckle. 

“Then why don’t we have a life light?” She asked. 

The smile on  the Old Man’s face froze and the corners of his lips turned down. The faces of the older people around the fire also dropped. While the faces of the younger people turned and looked with curiosity. 

Seeing her grandfather upset the little girl began to pout. 

“I’m sorry.” She stated looking down at the half biscuit left in her small hands. 

“Sorry for what?” Asked the Old Man rubbing the little girls head. 

“Do you want to hear a story Lucy?” Said the old man looking at his granddaughter. 

“Yes, yes, please!” Excitedly replied Lucy bouncing on the old man’s lap. 

“Ok. . . Ok . . Calm down. You guys gone over here too.” Stated the old man gesturing at the other children who were showing interest in hearing the story. 

“ A long, long time ago way before any of us were born, The Creator made the Life Light. The Life Light created the world, and eventually it created us. The Life Light worked hard so everyso often it would need to rest.

“ At first we were lost and didn’t know how to do anything. But overtime the Life Light shone brighter to guide our way. The Life Light gave us knowledge, technology and many other things to make our lives easier.

“Eventually we found out we could use the energy from the Life Light itself to do things. Those things powered by Life Light worked better and longer than the others. 

“One day the Life Light took a rest and never came back. Without the Life Light all the technology stopped working. It got colder and colder, and all the plants started to die. Then one day pieces of the Life Light came falling from the skies. It went on forever destroying almost everything. Then one day it just stopped and we never saw the Life Light again.” 

The children who were exited at the beginning of the story now had somber looks on their faces matching the adults. But the Old Man wasn’t done with the tale. 

“When the Life Light first left it would come back every now and then, thought not as often as before, but when it fell from the sky it created these wounds in the earth.” Stated the old man gesturing to the crater they were sitting in. 

“After the fires went out it slowly got colder and colder. Small plants were the first to go, then the big trees. Animals who depended on the plants were next and the animals who depended on them were after.

“ All of the ci . . . “ the Old Man was interrupted by a thunder clap loud enough to shake the shake the world. The few people who were standing were knocked down. One even fell and burned their arm. They screamed as they quickly retrieved it from the flame. 

Afraid from the loud noise, the children all worriedly looked around. Though they had a bit more composure, the adults also  tried to see what was the cause of the noise. The children were the first to notice. 

“Look!!” A teen exclaimed pointing into the distance. 

Far off on the horizon there was a reddish orange glow. It was spreading against the horizon almost to slow to be seen. 

Lucy seeing the light wriggled from the Old Man’s embrace and struggled to the ground. 

“Grandpa it’s the Life Light!” Lucy screamed. 

The few people who had yet to see the light turned to where the girl was pointing. No one in their group was old enough to have ever seen the Life Light, so they stared into the distance fawningly. 

The Old Man’s face scrunched up and his eye brows were scrunched in thought. 

“Can we go see it?” Lucy asked looking up at the Old Man. 

The Old Man looked from the little girl to the expectant eyes of the rest of the group. He looked off into the distance and furrowed his brows even more before turning to the little girl with a smile. 

“Of course we can.” He replied rubbing her hair. 

The group packed up their few belongings and started on their was to the Life Light in the distance. They walked and walked and walked some more. 

People talked joyfully as they made their way towards the horizon. It got warmer and warmer as they got closer. They began to sweat and for the first time they had to take layers off. 

The Old Man led the boisterous group towards the horizon. Unlike the younger people, the older ones proceeded with trepidation. After all, they had been alive all this time and had never seen anything like this. 

By the time the Life Light was a few meters in front of them many people had removed all but one layer of their clothes. Sweat dripped from their faces, as they approached. 

The Old Man was the first to arrive. As he saw what the Life Light was a deep frown appeared on his face. 

In front of him was a deep fissure in the world. From the crack a liquid fire that was strong enough to melt the rocks was bubbling. As he looked across the fissure he was rivers of liquid fire stretching into the distance like a spiders web. 

Pieces of the ground were slowly falling and being devoured by the liquid fire. Shocked the Old Man staggered back. He locked at the group waiting excitedly for his answer. 

“We need to go.” The Old Man said . 

“Why!?” Rang a chorus of voices. 

Without offering an answer the Old Man hurriedly went as far from the light as he could taking the group with him. They didn’t understand why they had to leave the warmth of the Life Light that they had never felt before. 

The Old Man took the group as far as he could. It was all for naught. The day they saw the light on the horizon again they were excited. As it got closer they finally realized something was wrong. It was to late. The liquid fire consumed everything until there was nothing left. 

.   .   .   .   . 

In the garden the bright smile that Lucia always had was gone, and tears threatened to spill from her eyes. She accusingly looked at her brother, as she clutched her small hand. 

Feeling her angry gaze on him Nox involuntarily flinched. He slowly raised his head and met his sister’s angry gaze. 

“I’m sorry Lucia, it really was an accident.” Nox replied once again hanging his head. 

“Liar!!” Lucia screamed as tears started to spill from her eyes. 

Feeling a pain in his chest at the sight of his sister Nox tried to give her a hug to make her feel better. As he went to wrap his arms around her he was harshly pushed to the ground. 

Nox wasn’t upset that he was pushed to the ground. He was upset that his beautiful sister was sad and he couldn’t do anything about it. 

As Lucia’s sobs grew their mother came over to see what the problem. 

Upon seeing their mother both children’s faces changed for different reasons. 

“Mom! Nox broke my favorite marble.” Lucia exclaimed, running up to her mother and holding up a beautiful blue and green marble that was broken into multiple pieces. 

Their mother looked at the broken marble before turning to Nox who was sitting on the ground before turning back to Lucia. 

“Tell me what happened.” Their mother replied. 

“We were . . . playing marbles and was winning. . . and this was . . .the only one left. . . and Nox got mad I was . . . going to win and .  . . he broke it.” Lucia said between sobs. 

Their mother once again turned to Nox who was now looking at her. 

“It was an accident. “ Nox stated 

“He’s ly . . “

“Enough!” Their mother cut Lucia off before she could finish. 

“Lucia look how upset your brother is. Do you really think he did that on purpose. I know you are upset that your marble is broken but it was an accident. 

“Here how about this. Give me the marble and I’ll have your father fix it when he gets home. It will be good as new in the morning.” Stated their mother with her hand out. 

Hearing that it could be fixed Lucia hurriedly handed the marble to her mother before thanking her. After that she made her way over to Nox and sat next to him. 

“Sorry I yelled at you and didn’t believe you. “ Lucia said giving Nox a hug. 

“It’s ok. “ he replied glumly, his lowered head hiding the corners of his lips curved up in a smile.