The Red Cave
Fire-Breathing Forgiveness
Emily felt it even before she opened her eyes. The ruby glow suffused everything. Blood-red sheets tangled around her body and blood-red drapes covering the windows exacerbated the heat. Had she napped, or was this another morning in an endless string of days?
Startled out of her latest round of night terrors, she almost shouted aloud as she struggled to free herself from the sheets. “No, no! no! Not those realities! I will NOT slide off into one of those! Stuck in effing hell worlds for effing ever! Enough!” I will not leave my body and drift off into that!
Kali made her appearance first, stomping out her fiery dance. Each time Emily opened her eyes, her head rang with a new transgression. In her mind she heard every mean, thoughtless, or unkind thing she had ever said to anyone… and some things she had done which she had never forgiven. She could hear and feel and taste and smell each situation as though it happened yesterday, each scene more visceral than the last. Oh, how awful, how unloving, how…Stomp! Stomp! As Kali danced, the thought-forms crumbled into sand, dissolved into ash, leaving only vague imprints of pain.
Over and over, Emily’s horror at her thoughts, words, and deeds played out and vanished, until all that seemed left of her was a scattering of particles, tossed to the winds…
