12 June 2012
*just an idea that formed into a story. Please met me know if its any good or not! Your critique-ing is what helps me up off the pavement!*
A young girl sat on the pavement on the border of the land of the living.
Alone. Hopeless. In despair.
She had fallen earlier and now sat ignored, left to die as another lost soul.
But there were others around her.
All walks of life sat along the pavement, watching the living go about life. Children trying to let go of childhood innocence. Adults trying to retain it. Old men who looked like they lived in the gutter and women straight from ladies' lunch. Hippies and hooligans, the young and the yearning. All watching the living.
All silent. Unable to get up.
The girl tried. She tried a lot. All day and night, but try as she may, she could not get back up from the land of the lost.
Admitting defeat, a single tear rolled down the girls face. This quickly turned into a steady stream, then a torrent of despair, flooding from her empty eyes, devoid of life. A wail emerged from rosy lips, echoing across the land of the living.
But no one heard. Too busy with importance, no one looked over at the lost soul on the pavement.
Until many moons later, a young man heard the wail of despair. Glancing towards the lost, he saw the young girl in a flood of despair. Fresh out of school, the man was full of life and positivity oozed from his very core.
He approached the girl with care. "Whatever has happened to make you so sad?" he asked the girl. With many a sniffle (and a hiccup or two) the girl relied. " I've fallen over" she explained, "and just can't seem to get back up!"
With this the girl let out another wail of despair. Anguish overwhelmed her, wracking her body with shakes of deep and utter helplessness. She had given up.
The man looked at her in disbelief. Who could have let this poor lost soul remain in this foul land of the lost? How could the living have let her go unnoticed for so long?
He stretched out a hand to the girl. She stared at it in amazement before grasping it with both hands. She gasped as she felt the heat from his skin seep into her cold body, warming up her very being. With a smile, the man pulled her up.
The girl wobbled, unsteady on her feet. Thinking she was about to fall, the man put out his hand. But the lost soul stayed upright and stepped back into the land of the living.
With a smile, she looked back at the man. He wondered again how she was missed for so many for so long; her smile held such joy and purity it was a beauty to behold.
The two walked together through the steady stream of the living, stopping to reach out a hand to others on their way. The soul once lost and that pulled her together.
For it was kindness and courage that saved her.
And so, the lost soul was found.
~Kirsty~
The Lost Soul • Opuss № I