The Unforgiving Moon

7.

Everything was gone. The Temple had vanished, my parents had dissipated, the water had evaporated or flowed away. I was standing, floating, lying, sitting, running in darkness. I had nothing to hold onto, yet I was still grounded, I didn't need something to center my core.

I was stuck in an endlessness, and I didn't know where I was.

"Is anyone here?" I asked with a small voice. I didn't know why I even asked the question, I never expected an answer.

Which is why my head spinned uncontrollably when someone did answer. "Who disturbs me now?" The words echoed through this nothingness, yet I didn't find the source.

Until in the distance, I saw a bright silver light coming closer, illuminating this darkness in a small dome around it.

And once the silver light had reached me close enough, I could've sworn my heart stopped beating, as my eyes took in a surreal creature that resembled a woman, but was much more than that.

The glow came from her silver skin, that was shimmering all over. Her hair was pitch black, long and wavy, floating around her head as if it was dancing around in water. Other locks of hair reminded me of burning flames.

Her face was lined with sharp features; cutting cheekbones that cast a dark shadowed line underneath, a fine, pointed nose; even her black eyebrows were fierce, yet soft at the same time.

Her voluminous lips were colored in that same pitch-black color I found everywhere around, but I somehow got the feeling that was the natural color, that she hadn't put on any lip taint before appearing to me.

Her eyes were entirely filled with pitch-black endlessness, and almond shaped. Though black usually reminded me of Death, those eyes were filled with life. They were overflown with an energy I couldn't quite name, and it unsettled a deep, primal part of me.

Her core in her chest glowed even more brightly than the rest of her.

Whatever she was, she was breathtaking, surreal, divine-like. She reminded me of everything and nothing, of smoke and bones, of life and death, of air and living.

"Have you lost your tongue, child?" she inquired, and her voice sounded ethereal, reverberating in my deepest core, echoing in my head and dancing around in this black emptiness until the addicting sound died out completely and left me feeling cold. There was a slight accent in her tongue, one I had never heard before. It was sharp and soft, rolling and tumbling; yet steady all the same.

She snaked closer to me—worming through the air, swimming in this nothingness like a serpent before she appeared inches from me. I didn't dare look down to see if she had legs, but even if she did had them, they wouldn't be needed.

"I, uhm," I stuttered, nearly losing my voice at her closeness. I felt calm, at ease in her presence, yet wild and restless all the same.

"Who are you, and why are you here?" she asked again, and her voice was as hypnotizing and intimidating as it had been before.

Could it be her? "My name is Sari," I responded, trying my best to cover my nerves with a strong voice. "I do not know why I am here, or where I even am. Who are you?"

She laughed. It was the kind of laughter that made all the hairs on my body stand up straight, the kind of laughter that sent shivers down my spine and made my insides twirl. As her lips curled, a set of bright white, flaming sharp teeth uncovered and taunted me, daring me to defy her.

"I am Sariranyasa," she answered, and the blackness in her eyes sharpened even more. "I am the Goddess of Death and Life." Her eyes were lustful with pride as she said this, and another emotion flashed in them—one I couldn't place.