AT Presents: Comfort Act 1

Act 1.

The news was the hardest thing Herbie could accept.

No, it was the only thing she will never accept. The green princess of the Olden Woods had known pain and suffering; she ventured into lands that would had scorched her dead, and met people who would had done horrid things to her, but she was born a fighter. She fought through and through life’s challenges, either alone, or not. But long ago, she realized that there are things in the universe that cannot be fought; that the universe will not care and that it will be cruel. It was called fate, and fate can be cruel. Very cruel. Just as it can be sweet, it will break its vows just as easily.

Herbie had tried to defy it once, but the forces answered back, and assured her hope. Hope that all will be good in the end, and everything shall be back to the way it was.
She never knew it’ll end up like this.

All her hoping, all her wishes. Gone. For a man she once loved, a man she gave up for his own love, defied of his own wishes when a girl he himself loved, a girl Herbie knew and befriended as well, was gone out of his life. She was alive, happy, healthy, but gone; and Herbie couldn’t accept it. The green princess thrashed and pounded, bore tears enough to fill a river, but all her crying had led to no comforting answer. So she ran that day.
She ran back to the forest, running back to confront the gods who gave her false hope. She stopped when the sky had blackened to night, and burnt red with rain. She lied there, cursing to the deities, to the fates, to the damned forces that runs everything in her world; she begged and wished for them all to turn it back. But she heard no answer.
At least, not immediately.

The dirt was damp with rain water, the grass bulbs with droplets, a cold wind brushed through Herbie’s back and she heard birds cried as heavy footsteps made their way behind her. Herbie does nothing but lay there, she felt no fear and she did not care if the creature behind her will be the end of her. She wanted to die, escape this cruel world, but a familiar voice called to her and she looked back to see the horned skull of a god.
“I see we meet again, child”

The God of The Lost stood there; she can see its eyes saddened, somewhat knowing why she was there. And how could it not? It is a GOD afterall, they’re all seeing and controlling, and for once, made things easier for her.

“ I came here looking for you, you sonova-“ Herbie cried “YOU LIED TO ME!”

“My child, please-“

“YOU PROMISED ME EVERYTHING WAS GOING TO BE OKAY! HAVE ‘HOPE’! WELL WHERE IS HOPE WHEN HE NEEDED IT?! WHERE WAS IT WHEN I PRAYED TO YOU?! YOU LYING BEAST!”
“LISTEN TO YOURSELF, CHILD, YOU HAD LEARNED NOTHING FROM THE LAST TIME WE’VE MET!” The god’s voiced echoed throughout the sleeping woods. Woodland lives hid back to their homes and left the two to talk. “I promised you a good end. But I never promised you it will be the way you wanted it. I told you this already, Herbie, everything in life is neither controlled nor owned. They work on a certain way that will balance everything.”

Herbie clenched her teeth and spat out at the deity “BULL!  There is no balance on what happened to Gordie. I gave up everything to make him happy, let him choose. I cared for him enough to root for everything he wanted; I sacrificed, the least you can do is to honor that-“

“You sacrificed?” answered the deity, “Yes, you sacrificed and HE honored it. HE made the choice, HE chooses Carmel over you and YOU honored it. This was never MY doing, or the doings by my brother and sister gods. We look after the world as a task that we carry on our backs, but whatever it is that you mortals do is never our business. You pray to us for support and we give you support, but it is up to you all to find it and use it, that is all.”

Herbie wiped her tears as it mixes with the rain. The sky was still red as it pours down heavily on them both. The green girl had heard enough and found no comfort from the words of the god; so she turn tail and began walking. The God of the Lost felt something wrong and called out to the mortal “Herbie! Herbie! Where are you going?”

Herbie turned at the god and answered back “You may try to defend yourself, god, but for me, you failed your duty. I’ll find my own way to fix this”. “BUT THERE IS NOTHING TO FIX, PRINCESS-“ The god couldn’t say more as Herbie had already disappeared beyond the thick rain.

“PRINCESS!”

Her vision blurred by the rain water, Herbie ran again. Passing through the thick branches of dead trees, her feet sank deep into the mud. She felt rocks pierced her footing, but she didn’t budge or winced, instead she ran, ran until the pain goes away. Ran until everything fixes itself. She believes in nothing anymore and she wants it all to end. Goodness will never last, so why live up to the charade?

The fates answered again, and for the first time, she felt the pain of smooth rocks bludgeoning the back of her head as she fell from a height. She looked up and saw a cliff that she slipped; it wasn’t so far, yet its height from her landing was enough to knock her out upon hitting. Herbie felt a warmness covered her back as her vision blurs further into blackness. She smelled it for a while, and it smells like rust.