Important Texts

A Ray of Hope By Nikos Cheng A bitter current of frosty air flowed through the grotto, the chill seeping into a dark irregular shape in the middle of the bare rough floor. The silence that followed suit proved to be “colder” than the chill sent coursing through the poor creature’s body. Frigid as it was, it had nothing to cover itself with; the suffocating presence of nothing but itself wrapped everything up tightly. This creature was one that surely none could have fathomed to be present in a desolate place as such; nothing more than simply harmless and innocent — a boy. To the boy, the grotto was everything, anything, no matter a prison, coffin or even a home, yet was undeniably, without question, a void. An eternal void. The grotto was reigned throughout by an atmosphere of eternal darkness, the absence of light had great impact upon the boy’s psychological, as well as emotional state. Even negative feelings forsook this wretched, defective piece of humanity, or rather more accurately described as “once humanity” for even the swirling darkness wondered if he really was a human. The feelings that once existed within the boy’s heart were slowly drained, sucked into the abyss — leaving the boy’s heart devoid of everything that made him a human, except for the one emotion which embodied the very nothingness that now ‘filled’ the boy, loneliness. The loneliness within the boy ate at his soul and body, and before the boy himself noticed it, he was, but a pathetic shell of his former self — his pitiful frame, frail like naught but a baby; his insides, quite indistinguishable from a mash of flesh and blood; his shriveled limbs, akin to the withered branches of a dying desert tree; blood coursed slowly throughout his body, his pulse throbbed weakly, his heart thudded unstably — all this and yet the boy’s life still just......just hung by a hair-thin thread, truly a miracle in itself for the boy to have held on for so long a time, albeit a cruel one. This being however, in exchange for its life, paid a price, not worth paying — his humanity; the end result of all this is merely the deterioration of a human being into an entity incapable of feeling or creating emotions. One might wonder, to whom, to what, did it owe such misfortune to? And whatever so spurs and fuels this undying will, to continue living, perhaps better accounted for as, the resolve to prolong its existence? The answers to these questions were something that even the creature itself had forgotten already. Then, came the disruption, the disturbance that which interrupted all the usual monotonousness. One dull thud sounded faintly from the ceiling of the grotto, followed by another, and again — a working pattern that never seemed to cease nor change for what seemed like hours? Days? Years? Or even millennia? The loudness of the thumping did appear to be increasing as time progressed, attracting the creature’s attention. The true nature of the noise was soon revealed, as the stone all above, cracked and burst into nothingness, as bubbles would dissolve into thin air. But above all, the most prominent thing was the sudden introduction of light. The incredibly beautiful light enveloped everything, the rock, the air, and the creature, all without exception, within its kind warmth; nothing was able to escape the delicacy, the sanctuary of its embrace, akin to with which a mother would hold her beloved son in. Benevolence, elation, excitement, enthusiasm, zeal, ecstasy, and other positive feelings refilled the creature’s empty heart, his life once again returned to him, alongside his humanity. But he was at his limit and before his passing, he finally remembered why. Why he had wanted to continue living. With a satisfied sigh, at last he relaxed, and went away peacefully, with no regrets, as a plain, happy human. No matter dead or alive, the first and last image he had was firmly imprinted into his mind, an image he saw, not as light, illumination of any sorts, but solely — a ray of hope.