Illuminate Darkness

It was a bitterly cold day in the city of dreams and tragedies. The air was dry and sharp, it felt as if I were breathing in razors. Everyone was bundled up and unwillingly huddled together to fit on the winding stairway that empties to the train platform for their morning commute. Like rats in an endless maze trying desperately to escape this mundane routine of being but a small part of a larger machine, but have no option except to push forward or be trampled by the rest. Day in and day out we are forced together for brief moments that feel like an eternity. Carried through by the fact that we know this day will soon end. Then we can seek comfort in isolation or the company of friends and family. Sadly this day was just beginning and the train was late.

Dreading the known repercussions of my lateness I began to ponder what was to happen if I just suddenly disappeared. Simply blinked out of existing. Would it matter? Do I even play an important role? Fortunately, the train arrived just as I started to feel myself inching towards the edge. I moved out of the way to let those who have been freed from the day off of the train. As always upon entering, there is a dash for the seats knowing that we might not have another chance to sit till the day is done. Without hesitation or looking I throw myself down onto one of the hard plastic seats. But I suddenly notice something is different about it, I’m sitting on something that feels like a wallet or book. I reach under myself to retrieve it. It’s a small rectangular black book. Its cover is made of thick black paper, with scratches and creases running all along it but still has life in it and holds its form.

I proceeded to open it out of sheer curiosity. On the first line as a header it read.

“If you are reading this then I have passed on. Not from life to death, but from darkness to light. With you, I will share my story.”

Needless to say, I was automatically drawn in and full of questions. Thus I continued to read:

“For the sake of connection and persona, you may call me Ben. I grew up in a simpler time than we live in today. This swelling metropolis once was a small humble town. There were rolling green hills of bountiful land, cradled by smogless skies. The air smelled of flowers and tasted like a rose in honey. We had a profound connection with nature, we respected it and it nurtured us. There were few worries, everyone was cared for, equal, and happy. Allowing for communal growth deepened understanding of the elements as well as an elevated knowledge of self, our bonds with each other, and the stars. We all had roles to play in the community that benefited us as a whole. I was a scientist and alchemist on the verge of a breakthrough that could potentially change everything as we knew it. I created a new element that would allow us to harness the full potential power of the sun. By combining a few elements and minerals found inside our earth and exposing it to filtered rays of sunlight, the sunstone was born. The sunstone had enough energy stored inside to power cities and advance our industrial development years beyond imaginable. Unfortunately, it was not stable which caused it to degrade quickly and leave behind a toxic byproduct. Not to mention that to acquire the needed elements for its creation meant stripping them from the earth and upsetting the natural balance we achieved. Thus I kept my experiment and results to myself and made my apprentice Dev swore they would keep it a secret. Until I could create a more complete and stable sunstone. However, having seen the power the stone wields. Dev grew impatient, grasped by the potential power they could themselves could control. They burglarized my lab, taking all the samples, research, and equipment they needed to produce the sunstone. They then presented it to the scientific community and in turn became its leader, entering us into a new age. An age of darkness, greed, instability, straying away from harmony.

As time passed our communities evolved at an unsettling rate, leaving many behind to fend for themselves. Pitting once friendly neighbors now rivals against one another. People were torn from their homes like weeds from a garden. To make room for factories to produce machines to mine the land for minerals and key elements. The factories emitted plumes of thick dark smoke turning the sun blood red, turning the once blue skies to a smuggy grey. It's run off choked the life from the once fertile land. Causing many to abandon their land which had grown barren and poisoned from toxins released from the stone and machines powered by them.

Those who at first sought to profit from mining began to leave as the area became dilapidated. Turning the remains of the town into a toxic ghost town. Dev, lacking workers concluded that the stone must be completed and pleaded with me to do so. I, having seen how they abused the power they already held, refused to assist in the completion. Which infuriated Dev, they in turn sent their guards. In the middle of the still of night they creeped into my home, snatched me, along with my family from our beds, dragged us outside. They then proceeded to set our home ablaze. We watched helplessly as the flames danced over the rooftop engulfing it into an inferno. All of our memories, hopes, and dreams seemed to burn along with it. But the worst was still yet to come.

We were then branded, stripped nearly of our humanity, herded into cave dwellings, and forced to work in the mines. Breathing became torture, the air was thin but thick with particles of stone that sliced its way through our lungs. Day in and day out we toiled away in the suffocating shafts with little to no rest or food. This went on for months, till one fateful day the mine collapsed trapping my family on the wrong side of the exit. I ferociously dug through the rubble but I couldn't reach them. I knew that they were still alive as we could hear each other digging and calling out for one another. I begged and pleaded with Dev to help me free my family. They refused to help unless I agreed to stabilize the stone, slowing the degradation. With my family's life at risk, I gave in, and stabilized the stone. However, Dev, corrupted and drunk on power, was still not pleased. Paranoid that I would strip them of their power and that I was withholding vital information, I was exiled to the wastelands, and informed that no effort was made to free my family from the mine.

I wondered about the wasteland sinking deeper and deeper into a hole of self-loathing and despair. Years have passed, I was surrounded by darkness, with nothing more than a mere glimmer of hope or will to live left. As I felt myself descending deeper into darkness ready to give in. A letter reached me from a peculiar courier, it was delivered by the same guard who informed me of my family's fate. But they defected, moved to the wasteland and have been searching for me. The letter contained an earring that my partner and I made for our child. Along with a message saying that they survived the collapse with the help of the nameless guard. They have been hiding among the masses in the city, befriended the guard, tasked him with searching for me.

This immediately restored my hope and reignited my will. However I knew that if I were to return to the city without a plan, I would be executed and risked my family being discovered. Foreseeing that the only way to be reunited with them was by promising Dev even more power. I threw myself back into my research and development of another type of sunstone that would last as long as the Sun existed. Unbeknownst to Dev, upon this stone being activated it will render all others useless and could only be enhanced by using the waste of the previous one. Which in turn would bring an end to the needless brutal mining which is tearing the flesh and lifeforce from our planet. It will hopefully reunite us as a community to rid our world of this waste and hunger for power. Restoring our harmonious balance with one another and the planet.

That day will come sooner than you may believe, but it shall. For even at this very moment as you read this story, my story. I am finalizing the new stone and will usher in a new era of unity and light. For I have existed in the darkest depths of self with no light left to guide me. But now with new hope on the horizon. I leave you with this story to add some light to your darkness along with a gift for you in exchange for your story of perseverance that may be the needed light in someone else's darkness. “

Upon completing Ben's story and feeling moved I, in turn, shared my story. When I completed it I noticed that there was a pocket in the back cover. It held a card with $20,000 on it, this must be the gift that was mentioned in the book. I flipped it open again to see if there was something I was meant to do with it. But to my amazement, only my story remained. While riding the train in completion back to where I got on. I stared out of the dingy soot covered windows imagining what it would be like to experience a blue and sunny sky, breathe clean fresh air or what it would even smell like. All the while thinking of what to do with this unexpected wealth and inspiration. I decided to use it to feed my family and the people in my sector for as long as it would last. Allowing us a bit of much needed time off to reconnect with ourselves and each other. Breaking free from the rat race even just for a moment. When I finally reached my home to share the news I realized that the little black book I had found vanished. But deep down I knew that it would reach someone who needed to read it most.

“If you are reading this then don't give up....”