Just One Breath

Inhale…. 

Darkness enveloped her frame. Impenetrable upon first glance, it presently started to weave quaint patterns and painted silhouettes of pallid semblances of once cherished entities. There, on the right, came to be the garden where the two of them would often stroll, side by side. Its succulent greenery, however, was all shrivelled, withering away, forlorn and slowly disintegrating, blighted with neglect and slight. Sharp briars had superseded the once velvet petals of roses, and were now stretching their gnarly arms, claiming each frail blossom on their path. The swing which had cradled moments of buoyant bliss on many a time, hung jilted in inadvertence. The formerly exquisite fence enclosing the garden used to boast iron-cast peacock feather ornaments and interweaving flower patterns. Alas, mold and rust were the sole decorations left, building up the air of utter dilapidation and decay that seemed to permeate the surroundings.

Her heart sank. Had it all been just an illusive reverie, an evanescent moment of delusion? 

She could distinctly see the parched ground beneath her feet, as if gasping for a life-saving drop of water. And yet, a few feet ahead the path vanished into a dense forest. Had it once had mountain ashes or mighty oaks, beech-trees or slender birches, coniferous or deciduous trees, she could not tell. They all looked as if they had just stepped out of a sketch – solemnly looming above her, without a single leaf to their boughs; with dry, prickly branches which intertwined, ready to ensnare the most precious of sunbeams. The forest was without a doubt not a distorted version of a treasured memory, but more so the forbidding cage of a potential future. 

Somewhere far into the background the sun was setting. Devoid of its gold hues, the lurid ball flared up the skyline. It bled, scarlets and carmines drowned in black and stood still. The solitary cawing of a raven shattered the silence. 

Exhale.

Open your eyes.

Respond.