Pandora's Box

- written by Sukhmani Singh

I sit at the edge of the sky, the part where it is closest to the ocean. I let

my foot dangle just a few inches away from the dark water. I look up at the rest of

the sky. This would be the last time I would see the whales floating in the sky, the

school of fish swimming beside them, desperately trying to avoid their open,

hungry mouths; the colorful jellyfish pushing their way to wherever. The humans

were further away in the sky, they had adapted. I loved watching the whales move,

it hurts knowing that this will be the last time. I feel the warm air against my face.

This is the last time I will see the bright, orange-pink sky. The last time I will feel

peace like this. Reluctantly, I push myself into the water, it’s cold, so cold. Not at

all what it once was. My foot is submerged in water, then my knees, then my torso,

then my shoulders. It’s so cold.

My head came under the water, and as soon as it did, I was clawing to go

back up again, every fiber in my being screamed at me to go back up, to leave, but

I refused. I looked before the horrors in front of me, being even more aware of

what I have to do. Black shapes whirled around the vast space in front of me.

People, who were once like me, but did not make it out alive, I have to do this for

them. I step closer, avoiding anything that may grab onto me and make me one of

them. The cold wraps around me, it suffocates me, but I move forward. Avoiding

these monsters is no easy feat, they scream and cry and sob. Their wails echo

through the ocean. Each sound piercing my ear makes me wish I could still see the

whales and jellyfish floating above me. I try not to think about how much they

miss their true home, the one currently covered by monsters. I wonder how much

they blame me.

The further I trudge, the more monsters I pass, each more terrifying than

the last. I pass by envy, anger, and wrath. I suppress a chill as I walk past them,

hoping that they fall for my disguise. I wrap the baggy black cloak closer around

me and look through the black veil covering my face. Envy, anger, and wrath souls

were some of the minor Evils, they were common, almost everywhere. I almost fall

when passing by a few anguish, despair, and sorrow souls. The Evils were getting

worse. While anguish, despair, and sorrow are smaller in number, they were cruler,

more dangerous. I continued walking.

A despair soul floated past me, slightly brushing against my back. I

freeze in place, fighting an overwhelmingly large urge to fall to my knees and

break down in sobs. I begin shaking as tears come into my eyes and my breath

quickens. I feel sad, so terribly sad. That's what a despair soul does. I clasp my

hand across my mouth, hoping to muffle any sounds that might come before

shakily turning my head. The despair soul wasn't moving, it just floated in place,

its gnarly, bony hands and long back fingers dripping with blood came towards me.

With each centimeter it creeped towards me, the stronger the urge to drop to my

knees and weep grew stronger. But if I let it get any closer, I will fail. I refuse to

fail.

In one quick motion I sharply turn away from it. Anger was the easiest

soul to imitate. It is so easy to get angry, anger is a tool in many ways. Anger can

motivate you to work yourself to the brink of death, or it can freeze you in place

for hours, you never know which. Sometimes it's both. Anger is what drives the

world. Even if the Evils never came, anger would exist in us all. There is no way to

escape it once it comes. So I imitate anger. It isn't difficult. I am angry, who isn’t? I

straighten my back, hold my head high, and storm off, avoiding everything in my

path, the despair soul doesn't follow.

Famine, war, death, age, disease, greed, madness, vice, sin, insanity,

poverty, pain, anger, anguish, despair, wrath, sorrow, envy, sadness, disgust, vanity,

and hunger were just some of the souls I passed in my search for the box. All the

Evils of the world, they now have souls. Not their own souls, but rather the souls of

living beings, whether human or animal, as their servants. When the Evils were

released, they claimed every soul which had the misfortune of simply existing in

their vicinity. Villages near the ocean were claimed first. No one survived as Greed

took over. The souls of those villagers now forever exist in the ocean, as servants

of Greed. After Greed took over, it paved the way for more of the Evils to try their

luck. Famine started with taking over larger populations. The sudden loss of food

made things very difficult, but it became even more so when Hunger came. The

Evils then began claiming souls as their servants. The world was in disarray. There

needed to be a safe place. And so my father decided we would go to the sky. Every

living creature, every human, every animal, whether land or ocean, every plant or

tree; anything living whose soul hadn’t been stolen by an Evil was evacuated to the

sky. It almost killed my father, having to hold the doors to the sky for so long, it

almost killed my family and I, having to hold the bridge to the sky up, it did kill

many others trying to fight off evil souls trying to get in. When every creature was

afloat in the sky, my father permanently shut the doors to the sky, and the rest of

the living watched as their land and ocean was torn apart. It has been four winters

since then. Four winters since I opened the box. Four winters since I let the Evils

out.

I continue making my way to the heart of the ocean. That's when I

remember last winter, when I found a rip at the edge of the sky leading to the

ocean, I remember running to my father, I needed to tell him. I ran past guards,

ministers, workers, and pushed myself into his office. ‘Father!’ I cried, but he

wouldn't even look at me, much less acknowledge I was there. He hadn’t in three

winters by that point. He refused to acknowledge me, his daughter, his only child.

That was when I knew he would never love me the way he did before. He hated

me. He hated me for releasing the Evils, everyone did, even I did. What right do I

have to be upset with him for something that I, too, am angry with myself for? That

was when I decided to do this. It would undo what I did, but it would never undo

the mark it had left on the world.

The box is more visible now. It is surrounded by servants of vanity.

Vanity would always fall victim to one thing, themselves. I slowly pull out a small

mirror from my cloak, I then throw it to one of the vanity souls' directions. When

the souls bloody, thin hands grab hold of the mirror, I know my plan worked. The

souls began clawing at each other, desperately trying to grab hold of the mirror, it

was being thrown and tossed about around all of them, one of the vanity souls

ripped another in half. Then another sliced someone's head off. All in an attempt to

see their own reflection. When the last vanity soul stood tall, with the mirror in

hand as it disintegrated into a pile of sand. The poison worked.

I walk past the dead, bloody vanity souls, and to the box. It is the only

bright thing in the sea anymore. Beauty can still be found here, as shocking as that

is, it can, you just need to look past all the ugliness in order to see it. There is

beauty in ugliness. You just need to know where to look, but light, on the other

hand, that is harder to find. That box, my box, is the only bright thing left here. My

box has the only thing that can help us. My box holds Hope. When I opened my

box, even when told not to, the Evils shoot out, terrifying me. I tried to fix my

mistake, I closed the box again, but it was too late. I let the Evils out, and I locked

Hope in. My fingers gripped my box's beautiful lid. My body shook in pain as I

opened it. The last thing I saw was Hope, a beautiful dove, flying away as my eyes

finally closed

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