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Once upon a time, there lived two siblings, the two were children of the stars, born of the light and dark and guardians of the tree of feelings. The tree was a large and powerful apple tree, the apples dual toned and split into two halves; one half carried beautiful glowing golden apples that radiated the light of the sun, the other carried dark and murky apples that seemed to absorb all light in their path.
The two children that guarded the tree were just as polar opposite as the apples it held in its large branches. A little boy, Dream, and a little girl, Nightmare. Dream was as happy and energetic as they come, a sweet light in the boring village and literally glowed brightly when the people around were just as happy as himself, a small ringlet crown sat gently atop his dark curly hair and glowing brown skin. Nightmare on the other hand was shy, book-smart rather than people-smart, she loved to learn and often read to her brother when the sun was going down, she made herself scarce and was quite timid compared to her brother but that was okay, the villagers didn’t like her much anyways.
The people of the village acted very nice and kind to Dream but behind his back they would harass and berate the small guardian of negativity, they saw her as some kind of demon in disguise, the source of all their problems as if she didn’t exist then neither would the deep despair and pain they felt. They seemed to fail to realise that Nightmare was not the one that made these terrible things happen, she just represented the feelings surrounding them.
Often when Dream came back from doing activities with other villagers he would find Nightmare with gashes on her hands, knees and face, Nightmare would always say it was just because she fell down but Dream started getting suspicious after the 5th time that excuse was used, he knew something was wrong but he didn’t want to make his sister uncomfortable so it was never brought up.
One day the punishment for living had gotten too great, Nightmare deciding it was time to stand up for herself. She spoke out and tried to reason with the cruel villagers as they pushed her down to the ground, screaming and crying in pain as she begged them to “Please! Stop!”.
Eventually they grew satisfied with the damage they had done, the punishments they had given for her existence and left her alone on the ground, crying and bleeding out.
It was a gory sight really, blood on the rocks near the stump of the tree and roots unearthed from her attempts to run and escape. Her face was bloody and purple from bruising, her lip busted and a tortuous headache was left pounding at her skull from the inside. She curled in on herself in pain as her body ached and bled out on the ground. She rolled over onto her back eventually and looked to the sky, her vision was hazy and out of focus but just above her on a low tree branch was an apple, one black as the night in the sunshine of the day. She just laid and watched it blow in the breeze for a while as she almost felt herself fade in and out of consciousness every few minutes.
Soon enough she regained the ability of thought, her breath quiet pants as she formulated a plan, staring at the apple above her, drawn to it like a sailor to a siren.
She attempted to stand, leaning on her left arm to aid her but keeling in pain as she realised the condition of it, too blinded by rage and adrenaline to notice the sheer injury on her body. She pushed through it anyways, the adrenaline pumping through her veins and replacing all of the blood she had shed onto the tree, eventually standing on her own two feet.
Her posture was terrible and she was shaking on her legs in pain but she leaned on the tree for support, careful of the bruises and gashes that line her flesh now. She could feel her heart beating in her head as the headache still pounded away like a dentist drilling teeth.
She weakly reached up as far as she could to the apple that loomed above her, her fingers brushed against the bark of the tree as she held onto it for support, she could feel regret and pleas being reached out to her through the magic of the wood but she failed to listen, her hands grasping the apple and harshly pulling it off the branch. As the fruit left the tree all of the emotion around seemed to die, it all went dark and her vision returned clearly, the next moments were all her decision.
Nightmare stood atop of the hill and realised as she stood shakily on her own two feet that at the bottom of the hill was her brother and surrounding him were the villagers, they all looked on in shock and her breathing increased as she saw the betrayed look on Dreams face. Tears burned at her eyes as her vision blurred again, the world around her turning black, like everything else, all of the life had been torn out, like a page in a book. All that was left was her and the apple she held in her hands.
Scared and confused, she lifted the apple up to her mouth and bit into it, just hoping that she would never have to see the light again, wishing and dreaming that this would be the end. It was terrifying and it was painful, she felt herself being torn apart, a strange substance erupting from any place in her body, her pores, eyes, mouth as well as the scars that lined her body, it all erupting at once and replacing her with someone else.
She seemed to watch herself as everything was destroyed, she observed her replacement, someone that looked exactly like her but swallowed whole by grief and destruction, a monster of rage and aggression. She turned to her brother, oh sweet Dream, and wept, in his place stood a stone statue, tears of gold streaming down his frozen face and all around were broken statues, all disposed of and dusty, covered in vines and overgrowth, now long gone.
It only seemed like a second, all of the life torn from the landscape and replaced with grief and sadness. In reality it has been years, Nightmare but a ghost over the landscape and her replacement lonely and still so very angered, all of this time and she is still not satisfied with the damage she has done.
As her anger and resentment walks the land she sits inside and wonders what she did wrong, her guilt and anxiety clouded her thoughts even after a millenia, one thing her and her replacement had in common. They were one in the same but she knew that they were completely different people and that nothing would ever be the same again.
~fin