Revive

• Ellyse Bridge, Grade 11, Rutherglen High School
• Short Story
• 2018

Excellence Award in the 'Horizon of Dreams 2018' competition

The world I was born into was not meant for me.
I knew it the moment I landed on the Earth’s plains, bound by mortal ties to a body of flesh and bone.
It felt wrong; I felt wrong. As though the human skin in which I now masqueraded was encompassing me like an ethereal cloak composed of molten blood. Somewhere deep within, a raging inferno was scorching me from the inside out.
How did I get here? Who was I? What was I? Think, think, think.
Brief flashes of distorted images flitted their way through the network of connections in my now human mind, and I lurched forward with a millennium’s worth of rage and desperation to claim the story I hoped was my own.
Darkness surrounded me; a stream of ebony liquid pooling in my veins, my eyes, until I ultimately surrendered to the vision attempting to reveal itself to me. This memory - the only one I had, the first and final moment of my existence - was the one that would determine the fate of the cosmos.
The voice I heard was like a silken night; a voice from another world entirely. A voice that was both young and old, thriving on blood and pain. All I could recall, all I had left to tether myself to as I emerged into the future’s foreign terrain, were the words of the celestial being who had given me life. She whispered, “Remember your name, for I can give you nothing more. My power is darkness; I cannot bring light, nor can I love. But for you, I make this gift. Remember.”
Stories akin to mine have been eternally condemned to myth and legend, for it was believed that if a human were to uncover the truth, it would alter their perception of their reality. They would cower in the face of a constant, unrelenting fear.
As they should - for I now remember my story, my life before this. My creation.
I am eternal. I am fire and starlight and destruction, forged from the ashes of a dying world, carved in the bowels of Hell by Death herself. I can tear apart the fabric of the universe and weave it back together with the mere whisper of a thought.
I was not born evil; I was born hollow. An empty void, a vessel, until darkness surged forth and laid claim to my soul.
Now I am ready; now the world will know the truth.
I have been kissed by Death and survived.
I am power. I am darkness. I am oblivion incarnate - but…I have a human heart.
And now I finally comprehend my meaning, my purpose… When the time comes, unlike my predecessors, I will show mercy.