Short, but significant. Hope you understand. Thanks by the way, to all of you who are continuing to read my story that has gone wildly out of control. I'm enjoying writing it very much and I think I have grown significantly as a writer in the time I have spent. Please take the time to review and let me know what you think so far and also what you think might happen next. I'm wondering how my foreshadowing is going... Thanks again!

Night by William Blake

The sun descending in the west.

The evening star does shine.
The birds are silent in their nest,
And I must seek for mine,
The moon like a flower,
In heavens high bower;
With silent delight,
Sits and smiles on the night.

Farewell green fields and happy groves,
Where flocks have took delight;
Where lambs have nibbled, silent moves
The feet of angels bright;
Unseen they pour blessing,
And joy without ceasing,
On each bud and blossom,
And each sleeping bosom.

They look in every thoughtless nest
Where birds are covered warm;
They visit caves of every beast,
To keep them all from harm;
If they see any weeping.
That should have been sleeping
They pour sleep on their head
And sit down by their bed.

When wolves and tygers howl for prey
They pitying stand and weep;
Seeking to drive their thirst away,
And keep them from the sheep.
But if they rush dreadful;
The angels most heedful,
Receive each mild spirit.
New worlds to inherit.

Chapter 43: Sunrise

Voices, millions of beautiful voices-- they joined together in the most harmonious of songs filling every fiber of my existence. The music and notes were unknown and indescribable in words of any earth bound language. I felt the intensity of the pitch, experienced the dynamics of the rhythm and was soothed by the joy that accompanied the angelic voices surrounding me. I basked in the wake of their song, giving my consciousness over completely to their accepting arms. Serenity and comfort drenched me with their merciful power. I thought I would burst for joy. I wanted so badly to join the voices around me, to become one with the divine gift of golden lyric. My body, in the physical sense, was overcome with warmth and starry pleasure. I felt like a single pale yellow flower blooming for the first time to meet the gilded rays of its life-giving source. I strained with an abundance of adoration for my surroundings, for the sweet gift of consciousness and understanding. Emotion overcame me and all physical existence fell away. Stripped of my earthly confinements my inner self stretched its vastness in awareness, bathed in realization as my eyes opened fully for the first time.

Blinking, I stepped into the light-- a golden and warm light. A fine dust of blazing amber seemed to settle over all before me. I was without my body and therefore without my eyes, but I was seeing all the same as if my mind were merely opening itself to another dimension that had always been there, but had never been available for recognition. Dumbfounded and overwhelmed, vehemence burned fiery and fierce in my newborn state of mind. Colors shifted vividly and fought to form shapes and things that my mind could recognize. I could feel my former self battling for understanding and familiarity in my new surroundings.

Despite being unrecognizable, I was surrounded in what I knew to be beauty. Had I been in my physical state, I would have wept for the sheer amazing beauty of everything around me. My emotions sailed on an ocean of endless love. Here there was no darkness, no fear, no malcontent or misgivings. There was no regret, no shame or guilt. Good and evil simply did not exist. Serenity was not bound to morality or the unpredictable scales of right and wrong-- peace was all that peace knew. I was merely a vessel drifting lazily out to sea on the waves of utter and complete beauty, acceptance and love. I should have liked to stay there forever in my timeless abyss, lingering between life and death, paralyzed in the physical realm and dancing aimlessly between worlds, but it was not to be...

Riveting pain, cruel and torturous rapture seized me by the throat, tearing from me my very humanity. Angry black snakes sank in their venomous fangs while burning me with their coiling skin. Visions of dark cloaked figures depraved of sanity and wholeness clouded my mind. I was running, sprinting, exerting all of my energy to escape the clutches of my dark assailant. Terror gripped me like tiny hooks burrowing into my flesh. I screamed in agony and roared with desperation. Black holes of flame surrounded me, engulfing me in fiery despair and rancorous panic. The evil that lives only in nightmares of the worst and most realistic kind chilled me to the root of my soul. Cold, laughing fear threw his ugly head back in victory as I felt myself being reduced to a lifeless ball of wasted flesh tormented by demons that swallowed me whole faster than I could imagine them into existence. The only music now was the sound of my exasperated and desperate screams. Anxiety held fast, raping me with its horrible personification of the unknown. I thrashed and fought, unable to escape its burning embrace. Hopelessness and failure weaved like thorn ridden vines climbing up the stony walls of my consciousness. The thorns jutted angrily into my skin, tearing at the flesh of my sanity. Drops of thick red blood seeped endlessly from my wounds, draining me of all hope and the will to survive. The darkness opened its dreadful mouth, baring its unforgiving teeth as it threatened to take me down into the depths of its cold and lonely bosom. Terrified and abandoned I could do nothing-- nothing at all.