A Short Story to Share...

Rain, tinkling against the window woke her from her sleep drenched mind.  Her room dark with the foreboding of the stronger force to come.  She curled into a tight ball, hugging her knees to her chest with a shuddering sigh.  Her hair lies matted against her cheek slicked with damp salty tears.  She tries to embrace the calm silence before again joining the land of the living, or barely living depending how you saw it.  She wanted much for her life, but somehow always felt as though falling short.  Once, she had considered herself a warrior of the game some call living.  Surviving more then some people can claim on their dying day.  But somehow, this failure seemed too startling and blatant.  Surely everyone knew by now.

It seemed as though it should be so easy, just choosing to slip away and not wake up.  But it wasn't. She stretched her legs out, moving her ankles a bit to revive them.  She hasn't slipped away in unconsciousness so for her to give up in wakefulness seemed too cowardly.  Life called whether she wanted it to or not.  She started to rise on her elbows.  But a strange scent stopped her like a rabbit caught in the garden.  That scent, so familiar.  It was heady with a sense of exotic.  But yet it somehow smelled homey.  It smelled like a hug with a whispered encouragement.  It took her off guard, breathing deep she whispered, "Who's there?" No voice echoed back but her own.  She pulled the blankets close to her face trying to block the scent.  It disarmed her and she didn't like feeling out of control.  But the scent filled her blankets and memory too clearly.  She couldn't escape.  She couldn't move.

She knew the scent from some time previous, but somehow couldn't place its time or place.  Somewhere deep inside she knew it was nothing to fear.  But she also knew that in this moment she did.  She began to weep, cry "what do you need from me?" Why now in her utter failure did it wash over her?  This wasn't the time for a visit from Him.  Not when she had lost all she had hoped to be.  But that scent, tangling in her hair and brushing her skin with an otherworldly glow of joy, it seemed to disable her mind.  She felt whole and...happy.  Her tears gone, she lifted her eyes to the fan spinning above her.  She began to sing, a song she had not known just an hour ago.  A song of joy and hope.  This was her place she found refuge.  She found peace.  Her own personal sanctuary.

She no longer belonged in this world but she had to press on.  She felt strong, but it wasn't her strength to waste on something other then what it was meant for.  She was marked, the scent flowing from her hair.  She was different.  She didn't belong here, she belonged there.  She belonged where no one could go and return. She belonged away from what had plagued her only moments before.  She, was not of this world.  She smiled, knowing she had not failed.  He had visited her, here in her sanctuary.