Before She Fell by Vennie Kocsis acrylic on canvas Purchase at: vennie-kocsis.pixels.com
They are standing at the opening of the portal. The inside is covered in shimmering red, glistening like fresh, wet blood. Knowing’s body is a dancing synergy of color. Her face occasionally emerges, what appears to be a human imitated smile, or an occasional soft glimpse of eyes.
“She is ready.” Knowing thinks to them.
Maude Seven nods in agreement.
“She is indeed.”
Maude’s long black hair waves gently, like a layer of silk. She is tall. At least 6 feet. She has porcelain skin. Her eyes are as midnight as her hair. She is wearing a deep blue dress, floor length and regal. It almost blends into the mineral on the inside of the portal, which shimmers with silver flecks.
Knowing floats around Maude as they observe the girl.
Serious. That is the best way to describe the child. Serious and focused. The girl is dressed in many layers of clothing, under garments layered over tights under loose fitting pants, covered by a thick long dress and finished off with a floor length overcoat. Her skin has been painted with a coating of plasma to protect her entrance.
“You are my beautiful daughter.” Maude smiles as she extends her hand to the girl.
“Yes. I am.” The girl replies, wrapping her Mother’s fingers in hers.
Knowing moves between their bodies, floating and submerging them with her brilliant, colorful light.
“She will be an anomaly they have never encountered.” Maude holds her daughter’s face between her hands.
“You, my precious princess, will lend yourself to the humans. It is time. They need our kind. You will not be long. You will let them extract what they must. Then return to us.”
A solitary tear slips down each side of the girl’s eyes. She is already changing, showing human characteristics, yet she doesn’t feel the emotion matching the liquid running from her eyes. It is foreign and she feels disconnected from the watery substance. She is keenly aware that she is heading into an unknown dimension for which she has trained through mazes, with feet for hands and hands for feet, shifting and shaping, leaping walls inside the darkest dimensions. She has slain creatures inside the blackness and once curled beside a beast who sheltered her from rain which was thick as tar.
She has learned of the seen and unseen. She has studied the movement of the humanoids like small spiders, ants, these creatures who destroy one another with their very steps. To become one of them. She wonders what it will look like. What it will smell like. More, what they will do to it. It matters not. Ultimately, in the end, Mother will always be waiting. Knowing will be inside of her. These humanoids, their evolving, is the next level.
Maude has explained pain. The girl nods but does not know this feeling. Maude explains that she will survive. Maude uses words like “hard” and “daunting“. The girl looks into her eyes with silence and acceptance. She listens. She knows that soon, she will come to understand the meanings of Mother’s words so she files them into the categories to be opened throughout the mission.
Knowing is reading the girl’s thoughts. Knowing projects her own simultaneously to Maude and the girl.
“They will attempt to destroy it. They will enact the horrors which humanoids do. They will study it, watch it, follow it, but we have all in place, for it will be a girl child who will endure and rise. Unknown to them we send a sovereign. The DNA they will use to recreate what they hope will find the memory of her own and contact home when it is time, will actually open the portal. There is no doubt of this. First, the mission, to deliver your specimen to them and return. Then your anomaly will take over from there.”
The girl gazes out of the entrance of the cliff portal. She sees where she will dive, first into this dimension’s moon portal, through the blazing of the gold sun fire and finally behind the Earth’s moon. She has seen the docking station hovering, massive and surrounded with constantly swirling energy. There, she will remain until her aberration is no longer human, at which time, the energy will re-enter her as they depart for home.
“You look so beautiful.” Knowing thinks to the girl. “You are glowing peaceful and serene. Do you feel this?”
“I do.” The girl nods.
They stand quiet at the edge of the opening. The ball of fire glowing behind the jump portal is vast. The girl’s eyes are focused on the center. There. Right there. That is where she will leap, straight into the swirling light that the humanoids believe to be fire. She will land lightly, inside of a perfectly created room where she will be prepared for the next phase of this mission.
She stands between her Mothers, Maude on her left, Protector and Trainer, holding her hand gently. Knowing slides as mist around the girl, kissing her face, lifting her hands and kissing the girl’s palms. Knowing hums softly, a joyous song, tranquil as the reverb slides off the cave walls with the sound of a slow violin. There is no sense of time in this place. Only until she is ready, will she jump into the place where timelessness will no longer exist.
“We will be with you always. Always. Know this.” Maude and Knowing are telepathically speaking to her together. Their voices harmonize with each other.
“There will never be a time you are alone. You will not always sense us. We will appear and disappear. You will sometimes forget we are in you. You will eventually remember, as you know now. You may return home at any time. It is always within your reason and your divine choice.”
The girl steps forward, her feet balanced on the edge of the portal. The silence settles around her like a still storm. With a brief glance backwards, she raises her arms, her coat becoming wide dark wings, and she leaps up, diving forward into the center of the sun portal.
Knowing materializes into standing light, a hologram reflection of Maude Seven. They are two of one, morphing together.
“It is done.” Knowing thinks.
“It is.” Maude replies.
~
The girl awakens inside of a soft room, filled with pillows of assorted designs, rich burgundies and purples accented with varying shades of gold. She has been changed of her layers of jump clothing and is wearing a light, floor length sleeping gown. She does not know how long she has been in sleep, but she feels rested, curious and safe.
She glances over and notices a wooden table against the wall. It is carved with the etchings of her language, the carvings of the Ogham, mixed with hieroglyphics and representations of mnemonic beginnings. The table is adorned with a cream colored, lace cover. On top of the table sits silver platters piled with berries and slices of melons, cucumber and a silver carafe of water.
She sits up, stretching her arms over her head. She has slept on a platform holding a soft, thick cushion. Her body feels different. It is heavier than before. Thicker. More solid. She feels her hands, sensing pressure there. She waves them, waiting to see the holographic colors shifting through her fingers, but there are none. She finds this peculiar yet, Maude had explained to her that this would happen, the materializing of her form.
She stands and begins to walk across the plush rug covered floor. Her legs feel odd as she takes steps. She moves slow, getting used to having to lift them higher due to the weight. She stands at the table, her palette soaking in the refreshing gush of blueberries she is popping in her mouth. There is only one doorway into the room which has ornate curtains hanging down all of the walls. This room is decorated to accommodate its guest in comfort and visual pleasure.
There is movement through the curtain that covers the doorway. A blue being glides into the room. It does not speak. It is shimmering with specks of white light dancing across its skin. Its eyes are large and green. The girl is mesmerized with the energy exuding from this being. Each movement is lithe, as if it is dancing. It holds in its hands a silver tray with a glass of clear liquid. The blue sits the tray down, looking at the girl with eyes that permeate her with kindness. Then it speaks to her with telepathically.
“Relax. Eat slowly. Enjoy the taste of the fruit. This is water. Let it soak into your body, which has de-evolved to mimic human form. This is why you feel heavy. You must drink much of this, as it is important inside of this dimension. Welcome here. It is so nice to finally meet you. We have decided to call you Sila. Is this a name you feel one with?”
The girl smiles, letting her thoughts speak back.
“Yes, dear blue. I am honored to be in your presence. You inspire an odd sensation which is emerging inside of my throat.”
The blue smiles back. She doesn’t part her hollow lips, which glow light when open. Her skin is soft like satin, as if it is always moving or being illuminated by a moving light within it. Sila reaches out and slides her hand across the blue’s arm. The blue extends its hands to hold Sila’s, allowing her to feel the shimmering skin.
“You are pure beauty.” Sila thinks. “Thank you for gracing me.”
Sila kisses the blue’s palms.
The blue bows.
“Thank you, Sister Queen. After you rest today, and eat more of the fruit and drink more of the water, sleeping through one more cycle, you will be ready to let the extraction begin.”
“I will.” Sila thinks back. “I am eager to begin this experience.”
She sleeps in spells, waking to find more fruit and fresh vegetables on the table beside her soft bed. She enjoys the respite. Timelessness whispers the dreams away as she floats inside of absence of space. She is in a chasm of sheer blackness, suspended by nothingness. She is in limbo, peacefully.
Vennie Kocsis is the best-selling author of CULT CHILD, and hostess of Survivor Voices radio show every Sunday at Freedom Slips.
