“What is happening?” Danyana asked no one in particular, “Where am I?” She tried to remember all that had happened, but felt as if there was a gaping hole in her memories. She remembered running, and she remembered feeling soft grass, nothing more. Fear of Sariel kept her eyes shut at first, but the warm air and sun’s rays peacefully tickling her skin calmed her. Her eyelids lifted and unveiled a world unlike her expectations. It was simple, yet lacked nothing. Blue skies, green grass, colorful flowers, and a crystal stream met her gaze, as if from a child’s story.
However, she was not as carefree and innocent as a child. Her black garments stood out against the land. Her memories still haunted her. She first felt anger toward Sariel, for she saw that he was responsible for Iasmin and Aerek’s deaths. Yet she did not want to taint her memories of them with such images as her visions had shown, and forced them out of her mind. They had been true images of their deaths, this she knew with more certainty than ever, for they came from the world in which she now grieved for them. She at first hoped that they had found their way into a heaven, so she could see them again. Within moments, she realized that while she was, in some ways, in a heaven, and that Aerek and Iasmin were in it, also, she would not see them.
If it was the same world, then she must be dead. She must have died somehow, although she had no memory of it. It seemed Sariel caught her and she had not escaped. No, that was not true. She did not die by his knife. Her death was more subtle. She had given up her humanity, hoping to stay alive. It was the instant she chose to become a vampire, even if only pretending, that she began dying. Why had she tried so hard to become someone she was not?
Those people that were following her were people like her, organized by even more such creatures. Creatures of the dark, entranced by the existence of the windows, recruited into hostile circles, chose destructive paths that led to a single end. Once they approached this end, they would infect others with the curiosity, whether consciously or not. It was an endless, vicious cycle, and she had fallen victim to it. If she had not crossed into this world, she would have murdered other people, just like Sariel.
She had that one thing for which to be thankful; she had ended so quickly that she had not had time to hurt anyone else, to infect them. That was the irony. She had thought to become a vampire to escape, pretended to be one. She even bit her enemy to go along with it. She had not realized that she really was becoming a vampire. She thought she could outwit them, but she was the one getting tricked!
However, something specific had caused her to die. It was all clear now. Mentor had been right. This was a world of no war. It was a world where understanding came, lies did not exist, and so war was not possible. People quickly became at peace with themselves. That was the heaven aspect.
On the other hand, they had the knowledge of all their sins. That was the hell, the inferno. Nobody, not Pluto, not Hades, not God, needed to judge them. It was Truth. It was truth that they discovered, and from which they could no longer hide. Truth made it heaven or hell for them. Complete understanding was not simply given to them. The impossibility of lies made them find it!
~.~.~.~.~
She took off the black clothes to mark that she had found her peace; they bled on the ground. The blood seeped into the earth, leaving a mark, but eventually it ceased.
She was finally free of all the lies and confusion, as of all the physical restrictions of life. Whether for good or evil, she now knew the truth. Death had brought her knowledge, and knowledge had brought her freedom. After so many wars fought for a lie of liberty, was one life such a high price to pay for true freedom?