Gray Matter

A girl in a coma, A mother's betrayal

Gray Matter

She stood in white, on air it seemed. Then darkness, white again. Darkness. Over and over it went. She was all alone, she didn’t understand what was going on. Why was she here?

Her mother sat in the hospital next to her. “I’m sorry.” She said. “ I should have been a better mother. I should have told you.”

White, but how there was someone else, a shadow of black. It moved not towards her but around her, almost dancing. It frightened her although it didn’t seem to care that she was there. She felt it in her bones, its darkness.

“I wasn’t trying to hurt you, but I did.” Her mother’s voice broke “Look at you; I did this to you. It wouldn’t have happened, you wouldn’t have been… have been driving so fast. You wouldn’t have crashed. You wouldn’t be here.” Her mother’s words turned to sobs.

The ground turned red below her, first relief went through her, ground this had to be good, an improvement over the nothing of before. But then blood red, why did the color and the shadow man make her feel sick?

“I don’t expect you to understand or forgive me, I’m not sure I understand myself. But I loved him, what am I saying? I still love him.”

An angel, pure white, wings like a dove, beautiful. Light shown off her almost blinding.

“I wasn’t trying to hurt anyone, it’s been a long time since your father and I have loved each other, you have to understand. I should have just asked for a divorce, but I didn’t want to hurt you kids.”

The Angel descended towards the shadow man. The Angel reached out her hand and as she touched the shadow’s her hand began to blacken, rot seeming to climb up her arm. The angel pulled away.

“But I loved him so much I couldn’t stay away. We kept meeting I didn’t mean for anything to come of it. But I guess you’re not always in control of yourself.”

The Angel circled around the shadow once more. Then reached out and touched the shadow, slowly she began to lower herself into the shadow’s arms. The Angel began to turn into shadow. The sky began to turn red as the Angel’s wings began to blacken and crumble. She fell into the shadow’s arms, and they began to dance.

“I’m so sorry.”

They are both shadows now. She watches as blackness spreads from where they dance, spreading out over the whole land creeping up like spiders on walls, up to cover the sky until all that is left was blackness.