Michael Jackson’s Thriller led me down a path I did not expect but I am actually really proud of this piece. Especially given the current international climate. I hope this inspires someone out there.
And Hope
How could this be happening? She shouldn’t be surprised and yet, part of her hoped humanity could learn.
It seemed not.
Less than one hundred years since the last war that consumed the planet and yet here they were heading down this path again. All the terrifying signs were there. Many saw but so many did not. They lived with blinkers on that were nearly blinding.
She hoped it was just her imagination. Just a nightmare. But no matter how tightly she pressed her eyes together, reality remained.
It was terrifying.
Who needed the four horsemen to ride now when this man could bring war, famine, pestilence and death. This man was bringing them. It was clear in his every action.
And the world was about to burn because of inaction.
No, not inaction. People could act, did act, but these actions counted for little in a world that had been rigged to this very outcome.
The Order were winning because this is what they had been grooming the world for all these years. Darkness was returning. And she feared the darkness. This body had not lived in the dark times gone by but her soul had witnessed them, taken part in them, suffered in them.
And all she could feel now was fear that they were coming again.
She needed hope. Rebellion and change always came from hope. She wore it on her T-shirt with the face of a beloved princess, but she did not feel hope. She wanted to. She needed to. She struggled to.
She was afraid. Even with all the power inside her, all the weight of destiny upon her, even with the blessing of the Wiccad, of the Ancients. She was afraid.
Could she find hope in that fear when she felt that for all her power she had been made powerless? And they sought to take even more power from her.
She closed her eyes and took a slow breath. This was not her imagination. This was reality. She opened her eyes and felt a wave of energy crash through her body.
“I am not powerless. I might be just one but I am mighty and I have a voice to be heard. I have power and I will never be powerless. No matter what they think and what they try. I am alive now for a purpose. I have a place in this world and a mark to leave. Even if I save a single soul it will be one more than they hoped I would. Even if I stop a single dark act, it will be more than they want. I am not voiceless. And though it may bring me pain and it will bring me hate. This is my time and this is my place to stand up and say that this is not right. This is not the world we want and it is not the world we should accept. I will fight and I will keep fighting. I will keep shouting until my voice is hoarse. I will act until there is no energy left in my body to go on. I will keep hope until the last breath leaves my body. No matter what the darkness that comes, I will keep hope that there will be change. The darkness cannot last forever. Not when we bring light. I will burn bright and brilliantly, I will be a beacon. I will be hope. We will endure and we will outlast and we will drive the darkness back. It begins with hope and I will not let them take that from me. I am afraid, terrified, but I have hope. And if you will let me, I will give you hope to. We will endure. We will not be silent. We will fight.”
This world was beyond her imagination but she could imagine a new world. And in her imagination, she found hope. In her imagination, she would bring hope.
She has hope.
Can you imagine it?
The Princess Bard 