• Shayla steps into the archway. Up ahead there are beautiful trees and fields of green. She can smell what she thinks are flowers, a thing she has only read about. What stops her is the night. She fears the creatures in the distance who may be lurking. Their eyes must be watching her trembling silhouette and their noses must smell her fear.

    She starts to turn back to return to the bright world she came from, knowing the pain at her back will reach her face if she does. At least in her world she knows the pains she faces. She does not fear the creatures here because they are predictable. Before she can turn her face she looks down to see a pool of blood at her feet. The blood of the other world. In her world everyone bleeds. She realizes that the side facing this world is not covered in blood. She realizes this world does not have constant pain. As her blood makes its way through the archway it turns into honey. She reaches down to have a taste. She flinches waiting for it to burn her tongue. When it touches her tongue she feels nothing but warmth and sweetness. In this world there is sweetness, and comfort. In this world there is no more pain. In this world there are flowers, and honey. She steps her left foot into the new world and stops before it touches the ground. In this world she is alone.

    What does all this beauty mean to her if there is no one else to see it and share it with her? She would rather suffer in pain and have her friends for comfort.

    Maybe she will destroy this arch. The two worlds will be one. Is this possible?
    Shayla sees that under a beautiful tree there is a small cabin. She is afraid that if she leaves this archway it will close her in this world forever. She calls out to the house.

    "Hello! Someone! I need help! Please come out of your house!" She sees a woman exit the house. Her skin is luminescent. Not a single scar or blemish. Her face is perfection. The woman looks at Shayla without a change of expression. Her face is completely still with only her mouth moving as she yells, "Do not leave the archway! If you leave it your blood will turn to honey! You will never bleed or feel pain again. You will feel nothing. You will be alone because I will feel nothing for you and you will feel nothing for me."

    Shayla says, "I think we must destroy this archway." Suddenly the wind from the dark world begins to blow at Shayla. She is being blown back through the archway to her world.

    She grabs its sides and screams, "HURRY!!!" The woman slowly goes back in to her house and closes the door. Shayla believes that she will come back in a moment with a tool of some kind. Shayla waits holding on to the archway as tight as she can. The woman does not return.

    Shayla looks behind her. "FRIENDS! I need your help!" No one seems to be around, she just keeps screaming. "FRIENDS! I need your help!!!"
    Finally she feels a tug at her feet pulling her. "No! We must destroy this arch! Come through the archway and stand in my place!"

    Casimira, Shayla's closest friend, grabs hold of the archway with both arms yelling "Go Shayla! You must make the worlds whole!"

    Shayla, with much effort lets go of the arch and pushes into the dark world. Once inside the world she feels no more wind. Like the woman said, she does not feel anything. The honey now runs slowly through her veins. She feels like she is moving in slow motion. Everything seems to take too much effort. She feels like she could just sleep in this field as her dearest friend looks at her with fear and panic stricken eyes. 'I must not let this control me. I will do this...' She slowly walks to the house. She opens the door. The woman is lying on a bed, still, as if dead. But Shayla sees her chest rise and knows she is living. Shayla begins to search. She does not know what it is she is looking for.

    The woman mumbles something. Shayla ignores her and keeps looking. The woman says, "I told you not to come through."

    Shayla says, "I need a tool to break down that archway."

    "Outside." whispers the woman.

    Shayla goes to the back of the house and sees an ax. She grabs the ax and makes her way back up to the archway. Casimira has her whole body wrapped around the archway. Shayla slowly lifts her arms above Casimira.

    Casimira sees what is about to happen and yells, "Shayla! I am your friend! Do not destroy me with this archway!!!" Shayla brings down the ax hitting the bottom of the archway along with her friends leg. She could not bring herself to hit hard enough to make much of a dent but it was hard enough to make Casimira bleed honey and cry.

    With the one chip that Shayla made in the arch she began to feel her honey-blood flow slightly faster and realized she felt a twinge of regret at hitting Casimira, so she went to the other side of the arch. This time she hit a little harder. With each blow the faster Shayla's honey-blood ran and the harder she hit. Once she finally hit through the archway she began to cry and hit it to pieces. The arch came apart on the ground.

    Finally there was only one piece remaining. Casimira was attached to the reamaining piece. She needed to chop this part down or the two worlds would not be whole. But she loved Casimira too much to chop through her.

    "I will be the one." Said the woman behind her. Shayla looked at the woman. The woman was old now, and tears were flowing down her cheeks. This woman had lived a long time with nothing in her heart but honey. The woman walked up to the remaining arch and slid her arms under Casimira's body. Casimira, still crying, crawled to Shayla's feet...

    Shayla closed her eyes an raised the ax high with strength and brought it down. The woman never cried out... Her honey-blood was completely red in the end as it flowed out of her, and the sticky blood covered Shayla.

    When Shayla opened her eyes she felt the ache in her arms and shoulders and blood once again covered her body. She looked around at the many faces.

    People with amazed expressions looked at Shayla. Shayla was the only one covered in blood. People cried and laughed and screamed in awe, shock and amazement.

    The worlds were whole. The worlds were balanced. There was now light and darkness, pain and sweetness, blood and honey.
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