Safe Haven

The island is peaceful. It is only a hundred square feet at most. Maybe not an island at all, but an inlet, or an iceberg, minus the ice. The river which surrounded it was as clear as glass, and flowed with a small giggling sound that a baby would make.

The sky is blue, and in that blue lays twinkling stars. They shine day or night. Their brilliance is not lost by the warm light of the sun, and only seem to shine brighter as if in competition with it. Across the island, and the river is the forests. The trees grow so big along the bank that they seem to touch the sun. A person could spend an hour walking around the trunk of one tree, whose bark lay brown and cracked like the life lived of an elders skin.

The grass is so green and soft that it looks more like rabbit fur. The island has no trees. It only has grass, and soft purple flowers. The smell of them is so sweet that bees like them more than honey.

The only inhabitant of the island is Serena, the earth's child. She has lived on the island all her life, and she has never left it before. Serena has emerald hair that is completly transparent like glass. The hair danced together making music like a wind chime whenever she moved. Her glass hair sparkles with a green light as the sun shines through it reflecting onto the grass and the banks making everything dazzle around her.

Her eyes are blue, or green, or brown, given to whom is looking into them. The eyes would change as she looked at the trees, the sky, the sun, the stars, and even herself. The wonder of the world is expressed into the two tiny orbs which are mirrors to the world around her. Brown freckles dance across her nose, almost looking like splattered mud that was misted over her earth toned skin. Her nose is flat, and her nostrils look as if they are just almond slits. Her lips are full with a cupid's bow. She is the most divine of natures creations, and everything she touches is a gift of life.

Her only friend is Wynonye, the rainbow fish, who's scales light the sky. The sun which reflects off the scales sends a shimmering illusion of colors into the sky. At night, with the sun gone to rest, only the star light remains, and so their light shines on the rainbow scales and into the sky is the northern lights.

Wynonye had always been there, and would always be. Serena could never remember a time without her friend. Every day the little fish would swim up the river to the safe haven Serena called home. The fish would bring her tales of the river, of the sea, but never from the land. And each day Wynonye would say before she left, "Never leave your home, because you are the only thing that keeps the rest of us alive."

"How do I do that?" She would respond a slight smile on her face as she joked with the fish. The cool night air touching her skin and raising the flesh into bumps.

"We are all a body. And you, you are the heart. The body cannot live without a heart."

"Then what are you?"

"I am the brain, and you should listen to the brain."

Alone on this island that she had never seen another life before her. All she has is Wynonye, and the stars which sung to her in the night. She had been alone for so long that she did not even realize she was that, alone. Only when he came did she realize what alone meant. Because she was on the island and he was on the bank on the other side of the river.

He came like a breeze, so silently that she did not know he was there until she felt his breath travel to her. She knew it was different, she could feel the air vibrate differently. When she turned she found him there. She had never seen a man before and he is definitely a sight to see.

Black hair that glosses in the light of the sun almost making him look like he fell from the night sky, because his eyes also looked like the stars. He looks shocked to see her, and she was sure she looked just as surprised. His body was not like her own. His skin, as white as the moon, but still his body was not the same as hers. And seeing him awakened some part of her that she had never known before. It burns across her skin like the sun, and made her feel jittery. She wanted to dance, she wanted to hide, but all she did was stand, and look at him.

He spoke first. His voice was not like her own. It was like the rumble of thunder, "I have been looking for you."

"Why?" She asked, aware that her own voice sounded like the drops of rain.

"Because you are the heart." He said. He smiled and his teeth reflected like the light off the water.

She smiled and tilted her head to the side. Her hair clinked together, "Then, what are you?"

He did not respond, but with a secret smile he walked a few paces awa. She was set into a panic, "Don't leave!"

"I wasn't going to-" He smiles again, like he knows some secret, "Why don't you come over here?"

"I can't"

"Why?" He teased.

"I am never to leave my home."

"Who told you that?" His voice sounded sour and for a moment she felt silly. Her cheeks blushed like baby roses.

"Wynonye, my only friend."

He was silent for a moment, "I can be your friend too."

She smiles, feeling perfectly content. She had often put her feet in the water, but she had never before walked in it. She felt the warm mud slip between her toes and giggled at this. She could see his smile as she waded across. The water is not deep, it only reaches around her waist. She wishes she could swim like Wynonye and if she was here, she would have asked her, but her friend is nowhere to be seen.

As she makes it closer to the other side the mud turns into tiny pebbles and they feel a little sharp on her feet. She stops to look down. She had never felt pain before.

"Your almost there." Something changes in his voice, a whine almost. His smile is still there, but it is different. She can't tell why it is different, so she smiles back. She can see the muscles in his arms and on his chest. She can see the sharp outline of his jaw and the gloss on his hair. She cannot look away from the stars in his eyes.

"Why didn't you come over to me?" She asks taking one more step.

He holds out his hand to her, his smile as wide as the crescent moon, "Because there was no room on that island for two. Only for one of you."

She takes his hand, and it is not like her own. Her hand is warm, and soft. His hand is cold to the touch and it sends shivers up her arms. He pulls her the rest of the way. The water sliding off her body and into the grass. The grass here is different that her island. It is sharp on her feet.

"What is this?" She cries, "I'm scared. What's going on?"

She looks into his eyes, and watches as the stars disappear. They turn into the endless dark of space. Never had she seen such a dark. She feels her hand turn wet and looks down to see green boils grow on his skin, and slim cover her hand. She lets go in surprise and takes a step back, her feet bud with ruby blood as little cuts cover her feet. She looks up from her hand back to him, and sees his smile as the rest of his body turns to ash. The wind picks up and takes him with it.

All she can do is scream. She turns around and watches as the ash spreads and touches the trees and the flowers. Everything it touches turns to slime, and crumbles into a sort of ash. The ash destroys everything, takes everything.

In terror she turns back to the river, and sees that it is churning, and is practically boiling as she wades across it. Tears stream down her face as the pain washes over her. She grits her teeth and eyes and forces herself to move forward back to her safe haven. Everything would be fine again as long she made it back there.

Her hair turns brittle and as she moves her hair which once would clink together now shattered against itself. Its green glowed no longer like emeralds but looked like dying seaweed. The shards fell and cut her shoulders and back, making her once smooth skin looks like bloody ribbons.

She holds her hand to her chest, where she had held his hand was green, and blisters had erupted there making her skin bulbous and angry.

When she makes it back to her safe haven, the grass feels the same. Only now it is brown and as her skin touches it, it dies and withers away. She lets loose a cry of frustration and clutches at the grass hoping it would come back. The sun faded and dark grey clouds covered the light. Her breath comes out in shalow gasps as she looks around her at the the greyness hoping it would return to its once rich vibrancy.

She curls up weeping, the sound echoing across the now dead land. She does not look up until she hears the lapping against the shore of her haven. When she does, she wishes she could unsee. She closes her eyes as cold tears slip and fall.

Wynonye lays at the bank. Her silver and rainbow scales look out of place in the grey of the worlds around her. Her eyes are lifeless as they look up at her. The brain, dead, the light dead. Everything dead.

Serena goes to her friend and clutches the small body to her chest. She weeps, "I'm sorry I did not listen to the brain. I listened to heart and now everything is ruined. I just wanted to believe there was a better world out there, but there isn't one. Now there is only ash and dust. I brought the darkness home and destroyed everything. I destroyed everything."

She looks up horrified. The wind is harsh, and carves into her, "Just look at the mess I have made. I have trusted so blindly. And now there is nothing. Nothing. Oh such nothing."