House: Slytherin
Category: Drabble
Prompts: Crossroads
Word count: 492 (Excluding Author's Note, but including entire Drabble and Title)
Author's Note: I had so much fun writing this piece. It was written for a dear family member who just recently passed away. I changed one word toward the end before publishing the completed work. Other than that, I hope y'all like it!
As always, enjoy
-Carolare Scarletus
Once You're Home
When the final rays pierced the impregnable veil, my eyes lifted to the heavens. No words were murmured, not even a sound, before they broke away and evaporated into oblivion. When the moon had gone to bed, and the sparrows long since ceased their noise, I found myself at a crossroad, staring into the eyes of death. I couldn't seem to find my calling, a place where I belong, and as I walked, my fingers slowly touched the healed flowers of the firefly-lit path. I'd come back to the place that I called home. I walked underneath the branch of the night. Tears that I'd held back for so long run freely down my cheeks. There was an unmoving sense about that I couldn't place; though, that was certainly enough.
"You are so brave," my mother told me with a smile. "So, so loved."
I stopped and turned, feeling the stone in my hand hum with the unmistakable warmth of what I'd left behind. The forest just pulsed with life, and a colorfully generated image appeared before me. I was supposed to leave it there, but I couldn't let go. Torn between my only solace and wanting to see them one last time, I succumb to my greed. One after one, they appeared, and I'm reminded again, in the middle of the forest, of what I've done. In their shimmering presence, I am loved and unforgotten; the sun finally kissed my skin, and I am left in the dreadful ray of night.
"It didn't hurt," I told them, my eyes pricking with tears. "Like you said, it didn't hurt."
A smile- warm, radiating perfection. It was this disease-ridden curse that I missed the most.
But, I am damned.
"As I promised it wouldn't," another departed spirit said.
I turned again, this time looking ahead; I am in the middle of a departed and long-forgotten dream, with only their memories to keep me sane. When my head lifted, I'm faced with another obstacle. My feet moved on their own accord, and without thinking, I'm walking away from them. I never really noticed how many different revenues there were. Overwhelmed, I stopped and turned.
"Which way do I go now?"
"That is all up to you."
"Would you be mad if I didn't accompany you?"
"One last time," their gossamer spirits wept. "If that is your wish."
"Go, it is where you belong."
And, then they were gone. An emptiness the likes of which I've never felt replaced them.
I am left alone to ponder once again.
The mist finally separated and lifted me from this low self-deterioration. When I opened my eyes, I was covered in darkness once more. Looking up, I found a pair of eyes that's always served as a barrier between the past and the future. At the brink of dawn, I discovered that it wasn't about the journey, but having the privilege to travel on a road less taken.