EMOTIONLESS:

A Haunting & Sorrowful Tale, As Told By The Talented Hetanshi:

She watched. All she could do was watch. The smoke made circles around her. Tears trickled down her soot-covered face, not from the smoke, but from sadness. All her dreams and hopes had gone up in flames, along with everything else she had. She laboured to lift her hand. When she did she wiped her face with her sleeve. She stood there for a few seconds more, then turned and walked into the forest. She let the darkness envelop her, fill her now-empty heart.

Three lonely years had passed since she entered the forest, and she had found a way to survive. It wasn’t surprising that she was able to find food, water and shelter. Everything she wanted was handed to her, on nothing less than a sliver platter. To think when she first came here she had no understanding of this place, but now she was the only one in the universe who truly understood it. Of all those people who had tried to find its secrets, she was the one chosen to uncover them. Now that she had, she could have anything and everything she longed for. Still, she wished for nothing.

Slowly time slipped by, and the forest remained empty of people. Friendship -- that was the one thing she desired, but it was also the one thing the forest could not give her. With her heart filled with loneliness she was not able to revel within the beauty that the forest was allowing her to see. The magnificent colours, plants and animals which were there only for her joy, but since she was not able take pleasure in them she did not notice when they started gradually to die.

She would spend her days walking through the forest, with her head hung low. She would drag her feet to the lake where she would bathe herself, and sip some of the refreshing water, only still to look dull and not the least bit refreshed. Next would be her visit to the meadow, where she would eat a new delicacy every day. She could do a hundred different things; a hundred new and stimulating things every day, but this way the routine she chose to follow, day in and day out.

On one marvellous day, she was following her routine when she heard a muffled, scratchy voice calling her name. Her first thought was that it was just the wind. Until she heard it again. Her next notion was that it was one of the animals, but she had never heard an animal like this before. The voice embedded itself in her head whenever she tried to forget it. It kept calling for her.

After much deliberation she decided to try and find the voice. She listened carefully; spending three years in the forest had given her extremely acute hearing. She cut right into the forest, trampling flowers, trying to follow the voice as best she could. It took her quite a while to track the voice, but she finally found the source of it; a humongous tree, three times the size of those around it.

‘Seo... Seo,” it called.

“Why have you been calling me, tree?” She asked.

“You are destroying us,” it hissed. “You were chosen to enter the forest because you had an empty heart. We have tried to fill it, but you will not let us, as a result, you are destroying us. You must leave.” It boomed.

Even after what she had just heard, no sign of emotion came to her face. She remained there glaring at the tree. Finally she said, “What I want, you cannot give me.”

“And what is it you want?” Asked the tree.

“I want my life back.”

“I cannot give you that.”

“I know,” she replied. “What will happen if I do not leave the forest?”

“It will die.” The tree whispered.

“Let it die,” and with those final words she turned and walked away.

The next few weeks were spent with animals begging her to leave because they didn’t want to die, but she dismissed them easily. Now her days were spent in a different way, she would walk through the whole forest and watch it slowly rot. Watch the grass turn brown, watch the leaves fall form the trees, watch the smaller animals die, followed then by the bigger ones. She watch all that had helped her live slowly die, and still she remained emotionless.

As the forest died, she became thinner and thinner; yet she did not notice, or she did not care. As the days gradually passed, more things would parish. Until one day the only living thing left was a single flower. It was the most beautiful flower she had ever seen; it was dressed in all the colours of the rainbow, and many more besides. She knelt by the flower, watching as it slowly withered. As the stunning petals fell dead to the ground, she heard the low voice of the flower whispering to her.

“Just because you have suffered, does not mean you have the right to make everything else suffer with you. Why have we not made you happy?” It asked. To her surprise, she did not know the answer.

“I do not know,” she replied, showing her first sign of emotion.

“If you truly do not know the answer, are you yet willing to allow this magical place die?”

“But it cannot bring me happiness; why then should it survive?” She asked, deeply swallowing her regret.

“You have never brought us happiness, yet we let you survive at our own cost. A selfish girl you are, it seems we chose unwisely.” She had no answer for the flower. She began to think about what she was like before the fire. She was a happy child; she had family, friends, and everything else she wanted.

“Because of your selfishness no one else will be able to share in this forest’s beauty.” A single tear slid down the girl’s face, landing upon the flower. Slowly the flower began to open, as the girl sat, staring and astonished. She looked around her; the whole forest was slowly beginning to replenish itself.

“Thank you. Now we will give you what you want,” the flower said.

“But the tree said you couldn’t give me back my life!” The girl cried.

“Is that what you really want? Or do you just want to be with the family and friends you've lost?” The flower asked. Before the girl could answer, a single petal fell from the flower.

“Eat this,” the flower ordered, and the girl did as she was told. The minute it was on her tongue she closed her eyes and fell backwards.

She felt something soft beneath her. She opened her eyes, surprised to see her family around her. “I was told I could never have my life back,” she gasped.

“You can’t, my child, you’re with your family now; that’s all you need to know.”