Cathedral

Getting trapped inside your mind.

I heard about a girl once.

She lived in a cathedral. Large, ornate, the type you would see in a history book or painted in one of those exquisite museums. Sanctuaries with stained glass windows that told stories from another time. Grand halls that echoed when you walked in loud shoes. Beautiful, reverent.

She arrived wide eyed, a young innocent thing, gazing in wonder at the spectacles surrounding her. Initially, she stayed in the largest room, by the stone carved door open to the public, and the hall with the stained glass colored ambient light.

As time wore on, she went further into the depths of the cathedral. Into the hallways that once made her uneasy, the hidden corners left untouched by time.

She found large, winding staircases that led her deeper, to the dark passages underneath the grand halls. She found the gargoyles with the twisted faces and malicious grins,concealed from the public eye. She came upon the tombs of saints and priests long forgotten, their names in stone obscured by the passage of time.

The girl buried herself further and further into the bellies of the cathedral, her sanctuary. And there she stayed. Her candles were running out, yet there she remained, growing accustomed to the encroaching darkness as the lights burned out.

The gargoyles became as familiar as friends. The haunting carvings on the wall entranced her, taking her to another place.

Time passed. Seasons changed.

The girl was still in the chasms, in the dark.

One day in her wanderings, she stumbled upon an old staircase she had never encountered before. It was twisting, cracked steps and ivy, the end not visible.

She saw something. A brightness, a warmth, a substance that had become foreign to her.

Something stirred within her, a feeling that she had almost forgotten about, a feeling from long ago.

A calling to the light.