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Living in Paradise
Remember the dark shadow that used to chase you in your dreams, the one who shaped your nightmares. As a child, you cowered in its/his presence. He or it, or whatever it was who drained the energy out of you. Sometimes you flew to escape an inevitable fate.
In the small living room, you stood, trying to hold the door to stop him from breaking in. You recited the Lord’s Prayer and Hail Marys in the hope that would prevent him from coming in. That, you were lead to believe, was the way of fighting off evil. (If prayer and religion are not the solutions, then what is?*). However, this sometimes failed. His presence was so overpowering that he was able to overwhelm your prayers. You felt this evil entity was going to extinguish your light. You fled to hide under the bed where you assumed that he would not find you. Your grandmother was always there, yet you felt alone, her heart entombed in a graphene casket as he tried to steal your soul.
Under the starlights, you recited those Hail Mary’s. You silently asked what was she afraid of? You walked, two lonely figures and a touch light craving your way through the darkness. And, you used to wonder, holding your eyes to the skies, and somehow this took away your fears. In the presence of such marvel, how could one possibly fear the darkness? The words you recited, the Hail Mary’s, full of grace, protect…
