Not Real. Not Imaginary.

The gods have revealed me, that I came to this place out of my own free will, and, I would be lying if I said I wasn’t shocked to hear that...because, who, in their right mind, would come to this place voluntarily? I must admit, this place was perfect…in the beginning. Everyone was nice, they were all decent people that cared about each other, and about what was best for everyone. I don’t know when the corruption appeared, or why; but once it started, it couldn’t be stopped. Greed took over all of them; every single one of the good people of this place has been corrupted in some degree, and as much as I have been praying to the gods, and asking for guidance, they've refused to talk…until now. And what they revealed wasn’t what I was expecting to hear, and it wasn’t what I needed to hear to end all of this…madness. It is escalating, and I am afraid that it will soon turn into something that I won’t be able to stop on my own. Nobody wants to listen any more. They just want to hear that they are right. There are only a few people left that still listen to reason, like The Elder. The Elder has always paid attention to me…I would like to think it is because I’ve always had common sense, the capacity to discern right from wrong, and the sensibility to always think of others’ needs before my own. But the truth is…that he only listens to me because ‘I am the one the gods sent, I am the vehicle for their messages’…or something like that. Since I took my first breath in this world, they knew I was‘special’. The Elder said there was a special sort of aura around me, that everyone could see the moment they found me. That, and some other signals, like the day it was when I came to their lives, the position of the moon, the stars…or I don’t know what nonsense, led the Elder to the conclusion that I was the vehicle of the gods, that they had prayed for…for a long time. I guess I should be grateful that a group of strangers took me in after finding me abandoned in the desert…and I am. These people became my family, they all treated me as their daughter, their sibling, their friend…every single one of them. But sometimes, I feel that they treat me so kindly just because they think I was sent here by a higher power, and that I will somehow save them from...who knows what. Would they be disappointed if they found out I came here because I wanted to? Because, apparently, I knew this day would come, and I wanted to help them see that this path would only lead to destruction…and suffering…? Without me noticing, the Sun has left its place in the sky, and now a beautiful full Moon is replacing it. In other circumstances, I would be admiring it happily; the glow of the full Moon, always filled me with a new surge of energy, it always made a smile appear on my face. Today however…it is just a reminder that time is running out…and I still don’t have the answers, I still don't know how to save them all. As I left the Shrine, a thick wall of fog wrapped around me. I knew the fog wasn’t targeting me, specifically, but there was something so unsettling about it…. It was as if…as if the whole world around us knew what was about to come…as if it knew the dangers we were facing, and it was trying to match the overall mood the 'town' lived in, during the last years. My vision was so blurry I couldn’t even see the path before me. If it wasn’t because I had walked it so many times during my whole life, and memorized it…I would probably be forced to get back to the Shrine and wait there until the fog was gone. The Shrine was the holiest of places for the people in this place. People used to come here to try to communicate with the gods…without luck. However, that didn’t stop them from trying over and over...but, the only one that got any sort of luck in that front, was the Elder. He couldn’t communicate with the gods like me, but he would get some subtle signs and always tried to interpret them as best as he could. Those signs led him to me…and now…here we are. A myriad of whispers suddenly spread across the empty road…all around me. It seemed like some sort of bad omen. The air became so cold that I could see my breath in front of me, almost as thick as the fog. I stop for a moment and look around, a faint shine catches my eye. First, I see it only out the corner of my eye, then, I turn towards it to try to make out what it is, without luck. As I stand there, confused, trying to make out what it is, another shine gets my attention, this time, from the other side. As I turn to see that one, there is another one at the other side, and another one, and another one…. There seems to be something hiding in the fog, something that is just waiting for the tragedy…like scavenger birds circling a weak animal in the desert, just waiting for it to perish…. I am distracted by all the voices, and the occasional shimmers in the fog. It feels like I am being hunted by a pack of hungry wolves, which only makes me want to get back home as quickly as possible. In my haste, I forget to keep my eyes on the path ahead. I am so confident that I'm be able to get home even with my eyes covered, that I am not paying attention anymore. I just keep looking around me, trying to make sure that…whatever is in the fog, can’t get closer to me. I take a short but deep breath, and try to calm myself down. I know I am more than protected, whatever lurks in the fog, cannot harm me, and still, they are here circling me...why? The air seems to only be getting colder. I can feel myself shivering slightly. Here, in the desert, it isn’t something odd to have cold nights…but this…this is beyond cold, this feels like I could freeze at any moment. The more I focus in the cold, the more I realize, the cold isn’t precisely around me. The cold is coming from within me…of course, the air around me is cool, but the frosty sensation that has me currently shaking…that...that is coming from within me. I wonder if it is the doing of the creatures around me, or if it means something else… The Moon illuminates the path, just a couple steps ahead of me, like it’s trying to guide me through the fog, and it makes me sigh in relief. I didn’t even notice how tense I was this whole time, until I felt the relief washing over me, realizing my muscles and letting them loosen up. Now, I just want to get home and rest, until I have to come back to the Shrine tomorrow to find a way to stop all the madness, and help the people that I have come to consider my family. Suddenly, I hear the wind howling loudly, drowning all of the whispers around me for a moment, making a chill run down my spine. Something feels off…I can feel the fine hairs on my arms, and the back of my neck reacting to an unknown, invisible force; my breath becomes faster, superficial, it makes my chest move up and down erratically as I try to control myself…as I try to calm down. I turn around, and as expected…nothing is there. I sigh and close my eyes thinking of how silly I must look right now. I am supposed to be used to this kind of thing…I am the hope of these people…if they saw me acting like a scared child…. A small chuckle slips from me before I take a couple steps back…just trying to make sure there is no one around me…even when I know there won’t be anyone there. When I turn back around, that chuckle turns into a silent scream. I immediately cover my mouth, making sure I not to make any sound…they are all sleeping now, and after all that is happening, the last thing they need is a bad night's sleep. My body is completely tense, I can’t even move as I look horrified to what’s in front of me. All these external stimuli, the voices, the fog, the cold, the wind...all of these things happening around me distracted me, and I’ve gone out of the path…which isn’t even the problem. The problem is, that there, right in front of me, there's some sort of extremely sharp point. I am not even sure why it is there, or where it came from. It seems to be some sort of sign that broke and it’s in the middle of repair…but that sign…that point…was but mere millimeters of my chest…if I had given another step without looking…. I took one more deep breath and tried to get myself to calm down a little, before getting back to the path. When I looked away…I noticed the fog had cleared, there were no more voices around me, and the cold had left. I looked behind me once more, towards that thing…I looked up at the sky, and then, after nodding to the Moon, and myself...I just walked home.