Dear Moon,

Dear Moon,

I sneak out of my town every night to meet you. Your glorious face lightens up my dark world and you, you just stand there with your black hair stretched out adorned with diamonds. There have been countless odes, songs and masterpieces of art dedicated to you and mine is not any different. The lady of the moon, our Artemis, had countless young maidens following her and more sacrificed in her name. Many young innocent creatures have had their blood drained to add to your dazzling glamour, many more invocations dedicated to reflect the same. Oh Moon! What would civilization do without you? I refuse to imagine a universe without your glittering smile.

My story is not very different from that of our ancestors. I set out to get a glimpse of the power you bestowed upon us. Hell! I even tried to get a piece of it! But you're up so high away from our reach that it seems barely possible, even with the enchantments and the spells we have.

I remember that night. The night when you refused to show up from your palace. Did you have any idea how hard it was for me? I treaded across lands and rivers in search for you but your stubbornness covered my path in a blinding shroud. I had no idea where I was going but I knew I was following you. 

The ground under my feet shifted as I dared to ask for more. From fire to water to earth to just air, I had it all! Yet you were never found. 

Soon I heard a familiar snap resonating, starting from under my feet, the satisfactory crunch of the autumn leaves or a tender bone. Either way I knew where I was.

I unfastened the hefty satchel tied around my waist and pulled a struggling creature out. It was quite difficult to get hold of the creature since it put up a good fight against me. These creatures are hard to get hold of anyway. I wasn’t sure what they called it but it was unusually small and it was too dark to find out more.

A rabbit? An owl? A human infant? My mind searched for a name.

None of this actually matters. Nothing that lives, walks or moves really matters. In the end, all meet the same fate - an unavoidable darkness: Oblivion. I felt it struggle again against my resilient grip, a futile attempt at escaping. The woods echoed the very familiar and eerie snicker emerging from the vibrations clacking against my ribs. 

The silent cries of the innocent creature left unanswered gave me a sense of amusement. I searched my waistband for the tool of its redemption from this cruel reality of life. Soon I set it free, with its head meeting against the cold hard earth and my arms submerged in a dark gluey liquid. It was free, the sorrow answered. I touched my dripping, dank fingers against my lips. Soon it was followed by nectar flowing down my throat.

“It wasn’t enough. It just wasn’t enough! It was all a lie!” echoed a terrible groan as my feet stumbled around in a disarray.

I drank the ecstasy and danced in a daze till my head settled against the earth with my lungs filled with dust.

Right before I let my head slip into the unnerving darkness, I felt a void in my heart getting bigger. It refused to stop till I realised something - something that would empty my insides and fill it with silent screams.

It was funny because it was the ultimate truth and I couldn't do anything but smile as the back of my head dampened with the same sticky liquid that I inflicted on the innocent soul.

I was content I was ready to be taken.

I was the darkness.

In the end, people are just blind. What they see is just like the darkness of the night sky.

For the moon was a fantasy that never existed in the first place.

The only moon to ever exist was the state of my mind.

I killed the Moon.

Srishty Mahesh 

18/UELA/055