Written for past theme #108 - Line over at iyissekiwa. This piece was awarded second place.
The Chain
It is said that in our final moments we see the grand equation of our lives play out before us; the cosmic reel stretches back across the years in a rush of soundless color, of mistakes, of choices…
Yet as the lady Midoriko lays dying, the sum of all her endless struggle bursting like a newborn babe from her chest, it is not visions of before that come upon her sightless eyes. The world shatters in light and darkness, and in the great between, she sees all that will come from this choice.
This mistake.
She sees the faces of those lives her burden will touch, the fates that it will brand-
-the chain stretches forward across the years in a rush of soundless color, of mistakes, of choices not her own-
…and she knows their pain.
And as the world closes around her, the final breath of life cold upon her lips, she sees the echo of a girl not unlike herself and yet so very different. A girl who will face her hardships, her sorrows, her fears, and still carry Hope's heavy torch; rising from adversity not unblemished, not unscathed, but all the stronger for it.
Midoriko smiles.
Her body is almost gone now, caught in the loathsome beast's grip, and yet not even it can rob her of this most intimate knowledge:
Yes, she would be the beginning.
But this…this purest spirit will be the end.