• Dark Side of the Heart

    It all started that night in my bedroom…when the whole world fell away. It was dark and the rain was pouring heavily on the window beside my bed. I had been doing very poorly in school that year and had recently developed a habit of being gloomy. Not even I understood my depressing mood. My parents thought more time together would help but it didn’t. After that came the psychiatrist. It just made my mood worse if anything. And it continued to grow gloomier until that night. I was lying in my bed hoping tomorrow would never come. Unknown to me, I was about to get my wish granted.
    My bed was abnormally comfortable that night and I could feel my eyes grow heavy. Despite the cold rain falling outside, I slept on top of the covers.
    As time dragged on, I thought I heard something. It started as a low roar that I passed off as thunder. As the decibels increased, I realized it was the sound of glass cracking. It ceased with a final crack. I glanced at the window hoping that something wasn’t trying to break in. Nothing was there.
    Well, what could it be, then? I thought.
    I sat up and looked around. The sound was too loud to be coming from downstairs, so it had to be in my room. I took a chance and threw my feet over the side of the bed. As soon as they touched the floor, a loud sound, like a giant piece of glass shattering, pierced my ears. Simultaneously, the floor disintegrated from under me in tiny square inch tiles. I couldn’t help but be reminded of some cartoon I used to watch.
    Once the last plate of color flew up out of my room, I began to fall. All around me was darkness. Presently, the air turned cold. I also felt an odd sensation run through my body. As the fall continued, I oddly enough felt my rapid descent slowing. Finally, my fall reached a snail’s pace and my feet lightly touched ground.
    It was still dark and I had no idea what had just taken place. I took a step, making sure the ground wouldn’t dissolve beneath me again. It didn’t and I took another.
    I guess I’m on solid ground now. I thought.
    Looking around, I noticed something odd. It was faint but I could definitely see an outline of something ahead of me. As it became more defined, I could tell I was looking at a tree. The same thing was happening all around me. From the darkness, an entire forest emerged.
    Well, that’s a little better. I know I’m in a forest now…but where exactly is this forest? I thought.
    Then, the last thing I expected to happen, happened. A girl emerged from the tree I was standing in front of. Her skin had a green tint to it and her ears were pointed like an elf’s. She was wrapped in a garment of foliage. An assortment of flowers leaves and vines all woven together. Around her head, was a wreath of lilac flowers. As I stared at her, she smiled.
    “Greetings, Michael Vorins.” She said.
    The whole scene left me speechless.
    “I am Lilac.” She continued.
    That figures. I couldn’t help but think.
    “I’m sure my presence is a bit…shocking to you. And, as you might have already figured out, you are no longer in the world known as Earth.”
    The only thing I could say was, “You-You’re a nymph…”
    She took a step towards me.
    “Correct. There are many creatures similar to me in this world.”
    I wasn’t sure if I wanted her too close to me so I inched back a bit.
    “What is this world…?” I asked. “ It seems kinda…familiar…”
    She seemed to float as she walked across the small clearing to another tree.
    “This world is Almatter. The world you created.”
    Then, she walked right up to me obviously not aware of personal space and put her right index finger to my forehead, “The one you live in up here most of the time. We’ve had many adventures, you and I. Do you remember?”
    I stumbled backwards.
    “Almatter…? My world? You…You’re Lilac! Then…I must really be in…Almatter?!”
    Unable to remain standing, I sank to my knees.
    It was true, around the time my mood began to become more and more depressed I made a world I called Almatter in my mind. Whenever I could, I would go there and have many adventures with Lilac and a few other fictional creatures. But that was all fake! Every time my adventures ended, I found myself back in the miserable life I lived on Earth.
    “This…This is real, though!” I exclaimed.
    She floated over to me and dropped on one knee.
    “Yes, this is quite real, as is the danger. In your many adventures with us, do you recall the evil entity always causing trouble?”
    I looked up hardly believing she was asking me this.
    “The Evil Kizer? What’s he at now, Lilac?” I asked before I could stop myself.
    Her eyes filled with what looked like sympathy.
    “He’s dealing us a rather personal blow: he’s after your heart, Michael.”
    All the information was swirling around in my head. Everything was swirling. I grew dizzy and fell to the ground and lost consciousness.
    Lilac sat on her knees and turned me on my back and rested my head on her lap.
    “Don’t worry, Michael, we have some time.”

    When I came to, I found myself in a bed of leaves. Lilac was nowhere to be seen. I pulled myself up and rested against the tree at the head of my bed.
    Almatter…wow. Never saw this coming. I thought as I listened to the peaceful sounds of the forest.
    Lilac emerged from the underbrush and brought me an assortment of fish and berries in a basket of woven branches. I dug in like a ravenous animal. When I had my fill, I stood.
    “I suppose we should set out now. He won’t likely wait for us.”
    During my adventures in my mind, I had taken the path to the Evil Kizer’s castle many times. Everything was as I had imagined it along the course to the castle. We reached it in little time at all.
    The black beast of a castle loomed out of the now dark world of Almatter. We approached cautiously for we had had rough encounters with his guards before and almost didn’t make it out alive.
    The emptiness of the castle was out of place. Not a single guard did we encounter the whole climb to the Kizer’s throne room. The large double doors leading to the throne room reared up in front of us. As I started to push the doors open, Lilac stopped me. She looked almost sad or perhaps it was fear.
    “No matter what happens…” She said in a wavering voice. “Don’t lose sight of the objective-to annihilate the Evil Kizer once and for all.”
    After that she tugged me to her for a brief kiss.
    “Don’t die, ok?”
    She took off toward the door with me quickly following behind her. Immediately upon entering, shackles rose from the ground and entangled Lilac. As I tried to pry her lose of her binds, a swirl of black smoke arose in front of the throne. As it dispersed, the Evil Kizer’s grisly figure emerged.
    “Ah, how good of you to come, Michael.” He said.
    I couldn’t free Lilac and had no other choice but to stand and defend her. The Evil Kizer took a couple paces towards me as he spoke, “Michael, for some time now I have been trying to steal your heart. You might have noticed the foul mood you have been in for a while now. That was from my trying to convert your heart completely to darkness. But, for some reason, I have been unable to do so. Your heart is putting up a valiant fight for you, Michael Vorins. I have come to the conclusion that it will not give up until I have manifested myself in it in the real world. Only then will I have control of you.”
    Everything suddenly fell into place in my mind. The reason why the darkness in my room grew darker every night, the reason why I had been shying away from the world lately, and why I had created Almatter-it all made sense! I now had a full grasp on the desperate situation I was in.
    Presently, I began filling with anger. It wasn’t a dark anger, but rather a zealous anger. It wasn’t fueled by the darkness in my heart but the light I was filling with from the want to protect Lilac and myself. I was actually starting to glow from this righteous fury.
    As I watched the Kizer cower as the light began dancing on him, I actually smiled. It felt good to smile again. I looked back at Lilac with a reassuring look to tell her everything was going to be ok. Then, I returned my gaze to the Kizer.
    “Kizer, I do not want you to harm the peaceful world of Almatter ever again.”
    Out of a nowhere, a sword appeared in my hands. It had a golden hilt encrusted with rubies and emeralds and a giant sapphire on the middle of both sides of the hilt. On normal circumstances, I probably would’ve been going on about how cool it was that a sword spontaneously appeared in my hands but not now. I somehow knew exactly what had to be done.
    I took a running start directly at the Kizer. He made a lousy attempt to get up but fell back down as the light overpowered him again. As I was about to inflict the killing blow, I uttered one word, “Stab.”
    I drove the sword right into the place where his heart should be, but an entity as dark as he, was never blessed with a heart. This is the reason behind wanting to take mine.
    What happened next is a little fuzzy. I remember a falling sensation after stabbing him and also that I lost consciousness because I opened my eyes to find Lilac’s face over mind, teary-eyed. When she saw my eyes open, she smiled and the tears started flowing. She bent over me and hugged me.
    “I thought I would never see your eyes open again.” She said through the tears.
    I wrapped my arms around her.
    “It’s ok, Lilac, I won’t ever leave you.”
    At this, she loosened her grip on me and turned from me.
    “Michael, you and I both know that we cannot be together. With the Evil Kizer gone for good you can leave this place…and return to the real world.”
    She bent over and gave me a final kiss. I felt as though I was rising into the air. Suddenly, I could feel ground beneath me but it wasn’t right-it was soft.
    I opened my eyes to see I was no longer kissing Lilac but a giant stuffed bear. I immediately tossed it aside. I looked around and realized from the overpowering white I was in a hospital room. A table beside my bed was filled with flowers and all sorts of get well soon packages. I couldn’t comprehend what I was seeing. Then, my mother’s face appeared over mine and I knew for sure I was in the real world again.
    Something was different this time though…and then it hit me. I was no longer depressed.