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The statue was bleeding, for one thing.
Its blank eyes were oozing out a viscous dark red liquid Sammi didn’t want to know the origin of. The murderer was nature, overtaking the statue, which radiated power she could not understand. Vines curled around its limbs, body and face. Trees shrouded it in gloom, hiding the statue’s face from her view. Nature had taken back what was hers, and left a shell of a former divine being, long forgotten.
At least, Sammi presumed it was divine.
Days upon days of running, escaping, and hiding led her to this… thing. Statue. Being. She had crashed through the woods, crossed streams and got bit by so many ants the numbers were rising every minute. And she still felt a presence staring at her, watching her every move, tracking her path – but nothing in the forest could prepare her for this moment.
Raindrops were like needles, every drop harsh on her skin, her eyes, cold to her bones. She blinked away rainwater. A river roared behind her, its waves crashing and smashing everything in its path. She was cold and shivering and wet, her clothes soaked and stuck to her skin, among the remnants of a past civilization, once so grand, left to nature’s own devices. Every inch of stone and marble was covered with vines, weeds and shrubbery. Dilapidated buildings stood on both her sides, crumpled beyond recognition. Her surroundings felt unwelcome.
Yet she stood before the statue.
If she concentrated, she could hear the muffled whispers of spirits, mumbling unintelligible words to her, but all of them conveyed a single tone - sorrow. She could relate to the spirits. She had experienced sorrow.
But this sorrow was another level she could not comprehend. It was equal parts terrifying and melancholic.
All of them were stuck on the earth without peace, attached to this divine statue she did not know or understand.
However, Sammi could understand sorrow. She could understand the need to find peace. To heal.
She crept closer to the statue.
It seemed to glow a faint red, now that she was nearer. The rain seemed to scrape the glory of it, every drop revealing colours that were long faded. All that was left was the slightest tint of red, and the dark red liquid trickling out of the eyes.
Sammi thought of the spirits. Of the former civilisation, the being depicted as the statue lost to history, lost to the earth.
It had lost to nature.
Distantly, she thought of what this being and its followers had done to deserve such a horrible end. What crimes had they committed to nature for it to fight back so harshly?
Nature was petty. It was a thief, a murderer.
But its reasons must have been…well, reasonable.
The sorrow and pleas were too much for her to take. Wordlessly, she took another step towards the statue. Maybe it was the trick of the moonlight, but it seemed to acknowledge her. The statue seemed to glow a bit brighter.
Nature wasn’t the only ‘villain’ in the story of woe.
Sammi stared at the statue, into its blank eyes, bleeding out red tears, and listening to the muffled cries of lost spirits unable to find their peace.She stood in front of it, looking into its eyes, searching for an answer.
Who scrapped the being of its glory in the end?
Her throat was dry and parched after days of little water and unspoken words. Yet she opened her mouth, swallowing and taking a breath.
With a broken voice, she said, “You will face salvation, and rise. Your followers will be free, and will no longer be tied to these ruins.”
“I will be the one to free you.”
She found herself stepping back, where her foot caught on wet grass and rock. Sammi didn’t know what had compelled her to do so, but she leaned back, over the edge, towards the rushing torrent of the arms of the river ready to drown her in the sorrow surrounding everything. Somewhere at the back of her mind, she wondered what she was doing, and where the water would lead.
It was too late anyway. Her feet slipped on the slick stones, and then she was gone, plunging painlessly, quietly over the edge, into the enveloping water, and there was nothing left besides the glowing statue, the heavy weight of rain, and the river who was the only bystander of her descent into hell. Or was it heaven? Either way, she was another forgotten victim of time. No one saw her last moments except for the water, and she would be presumed dead in the local towns searching for her.
everything dies in the end, and time always gets fed.