A Nefarious Sky

         
         She awoke from her slumber, dewy blades of grass caressing the side of her face. As her violet irises looked towards the sky, watching as the green lights began their intricate dances with the fleeting fuschia night, it took her a moment to realize she was unsure of where she was, but her enchantment with the sky she saw took her to a different world. It was only when she felt the ground below her begin to pull her in that she realized she needed to stand. Despite willing her legs to bend and her fingers to move, nothing worked. She was now a scar on the earth, unmoving, and a constant reminder of past injury. She felt the dryness creep up her eyes as she realized minutes had passed since she had blinked. She swiftly closed her eyes, not wanting to miss a step of the performance that was being put on by the sun and the stars. This went on for hours, days even, as the earth continued to swallow her, yet still she watched.
         Eventually the day came where she would look down at her body: emaciated. She noticed the way her once glowing brown skin was grey and clung to her bones. She stared at her right hand, commanding her fingers to touch, and yet still they refused to move. Her chest felt heavy as her breasts were the only bit of flesh remaining, and thus she fought to breathe. She realized it was the sky who was the culprit, for he had forced her unending attention. He had dried her eyes and skin, he had starved her, he told the earth to open its jaws and steal her body. With the realization that this sky in all his beauty, was in fact a vortex of her happiness, she closed her eyes. The feeling was almost overwhelming as she begged the tears to fall down her face in validation of her feelings, she wanted to feed the blades of grass the remainder of her fascination, exposing the grass to the evil that was the sky, yet nothing fell. Fighting the pressure on her chest, she continued her labored breaths and fought back at the earth pulling her in.
         She felt the bones of her fingers scrape against each other as she fought the earth with her fingernails. Despite what others would see as a twitch she was battling each bit of dirt in a vicious war that took more and more effort with each movement. "Let me go" she thought, but she was unable to move her lips. Her arms were engulfed by the earth, but her fingers desperately tried to free them as she knew it would take her all to return her body to the grass, to stand, to breathe, to live. She managed to slowly shift her eyes to focus them on the dirt she moved, yet what she saw left her breathless. Nothing, she had made no dent in the earth that was swallowing her, despite fighting battle after battle with each grain that came in contact with her fingers. She painfully returned her eyes to their original position, shifting them so she stared at the sky once more. She felt helpless and overwhelmed by emotion, she closed her eyes and the last of her control fled in the form of two delicate tears, one on each side. The one on her left fell slower than the right, as it gathered each bead of sweat carrying her will to live down with it. Both tears hit the dirt surrounding her face, nourishing it with her hopes and her passions, finally settled in her fate, she took a final breath.
         Her final moments were halted by the sudden drops she felt on the last few exposed parts of her body. In those few moments the earth had swallowed everything but her chest, hips, and head, she felt the way the earth tugged at her hair in an attempt to finally drown her. The first drop hit slightly above her left breast, leaving a small wet spot on her skin. The next hit her upper thigh, before the third hit her bottom lip, and finally the sudden downpour became a striking waterfall of emotionful tears. The rain drops continued to fall and cover her body, in their hope. She knew these felt different, but feared opening her eyes as she had already accepted her fate and refused to let hope rally her in a useless battle. The raindrops soaked her forehead, drenching the few exposed pieces of her hair the earth had yet stolen. The raindrops kissed her lips and cheeks, gliding down the bridge of her nose, and caressed her forehead, and for a moment she felt relieved. Her chest began to feel lighter as the rain's cool drops continued to soak her skin. The raindrops pried her eyelashes apart and forced her eyes to open once more as they fell. She continued to breathe less restrictive breaths as the rain had gifted her with her sight once more and her fear began to dissipate. She looked down at her hips and noticed the grey skin that clung to her bones was no longer present, it had been replaced with her fullness and the hickory color of her skin returned with its gold shimmer. Her lips formed a gentle smile, for she feared that her skin would crack if she attempted anything more, yet she was greeted with no pain. She felt the raindrops giving her power back, her passion for life, her will to live, and most of all, her strength. She lifted her head, and forced the earth to release her hair and neck, she slid her thick arms out of the ground, discovering that they too had returned to their former color. She used her arms to life her torso and dig her legs out of the ground, noticing the color of the earth changed once it was off her body as it became a dull brown showing it was starving without her. Yet she did not care, she pulled herself out of the ground and stood, naked, on top of the earth. Letting the rain wash every bit of the dirt off her body, she stood with her arms open and her eyes closed to the sky.
         She smiled with joy, forming an oath with herself that neither the earth nor sky would ever control her again. Her skin radiated its joyful yellow as her stout body continued to grow as the rain washed away each leaching fragment of the earth. Her hair regained its fullness and she opened her palms to the raindrops to grasp them and give them her thanks. Reaching her head up to the sky, she opened her mouth and gently stuck out her tongue. The rain fell into her mouth, quickly restoring her joy back to what it was before she had decided to lay down on the grass and observe the sky. She laughed and wiggled her toes in the moist grass that surrounded her. She began to dance, twirling, dancing to the right and to the left, feeling the rhythm of the rain approving of each movement, all with her eyes closed. She knew she was free from the earth, and was determined to stay that way. Joyful that she had broken out, she looked up to thank the rain, but as her eyes opened, her movements stopped. Her lips slightly separated in disbelief and the rain fell harder on her hair and eyes, desperately trying to stop her from seeing what was around her. She attempted to push the hair away, yet the rain forcefully fought her, weighing down her hair in front of her eyes so all she was left to do was claw at her face in disbelief. The rain began to boil and burn her skin, forcing her to scream out in pain when suddenly it stopped. The rain no longer fell and she was left horrified. Stretched out as far as she could see were bodies, staring up at the sky, being engulfed by the earth. For she stood and turned, and everywhere she looked, brown bodies were in the ground. They were old and young, men and women, able bodied and not, she felt her body begin to shake. Feeling helpless, she laid down once more, letting the earth envelop her, no longer letting her incendiary body fight, for she would lay down in the earth with her brothers and sisters, and they would let the earth take them for there was no choice. Thus, she opened her eyes once more, and again was hypnotized by the sky, and with that, she let the earth engulf her with no other choice.