I think we can all agree that the world is a very cold and indifferent place. However, that does not mean one cannot create their own light; some do so by strongly relying on an object of great emotional significance to them, others find it in fulfilling their own goals, and still others rely on their relationships to generate that light within themselves.

I, well, I acquired it from a dream, in a time I now only remember vaguely, through sensations and emotions. But that dream, I remember it so vividly, as if it were today, that dream that created my light and completely changed my being. My entire life revolved around that light, it helped me get up and gave meaning to the days. Little by little, it grew inside me, and my worries increased. I began to despise and fear the influence the light had gained over me, an influence I had allowed it to gain. It reached the point where it was starting to consume everything else in my mind and soul, yet I couldn’t help but feel proud and happy about it, because that light was something of mine, it was the only thing I possessed, and its development was the fruit of my great effort, so I couldn’t help but feel happy when I saw it.

It wasn’t all bad, because when my strength faltered and I doubted myself, the light was there for me. But when I didn’t even trust the light, my friends were there to restore the strength I had lost, reinforcing the brightness of my soul with their dawns. It seemed I no longer felt I could live without that glow inside me, and maybe it was true. Slowly, that brightness had become the only beacon guiding me through the unfathomable sea of darkness that was life.

But just as lighthouses can fail and roses have thorns, the terror and anxiety my light generated filled my soul with dense, viscous shadows. But nothing could disturb or diminish its brightness; that glow had grown so great that not even the densest of shadows could obscure it.

Fearful, I shunned all other lights and locked myself in my own world, to prevent the flame that gave me life from continuing to grow and eventually consuming me; but I could only watch as the glow of my selfish and foolish childhood dreams grew monstrously, little by little becoming all I thought about, all I longed for.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

That was no longer a guiding light; it was a disease, a chain, a master that forced me to follow its path. I couldn’t escape; I couldn’t refuse; I couldn’t look away; because it was always there, with me, surrounding me with its glow; that cursed light that I loved so much, that I hated so much; that I feared and respected.

What once gave meaning to my life consumed me and became everything I was and would ever be. Now I can only live for the light, wishing for the shadows to come for me and lessen the influence of that source of infinite brilliance. But it was already too late; it had grown so far out of my control that not even the most terrible and dark of shadows could contend with that monstrous, beautiful, and horrifying light that I loved so much.

I could only resign myself; not even the shadows others could offer could help me now, all of them ending up as mere food for the glow that boiled deep in my soul, making it grow even more. I was no longer a person; I was now just a bearer of the flame that had long consumed the soul of the dreamer who didn’t know when to stop.

The life I had tried so hard to guide, that was consumed by its own glow either by accident or on purpose, that happened so many years ago that it wasn’t worth trying to remember. Now, I did nothing but fulfill a goal, the goal of the glow that devoured me, imprinting its light with my mortal hands in the ephemeral ether of the corporeal world, so it could grow and develop.

Flooding the world with its brightness, it made it a better place, but unfortunately, the light didn’t like imperfections. Or was it the child? It didn’t matter anymore; the young boy who dreamed of bringing happiness and prosperity to the world, eliminating the shadows with that light of rebirth, had fulfilled my long-cherished dream, but I let myself be carried away by the seductive temptation of the light, no longer able to control it, causing the world to be consumed by the brightness I had created many years ago.

I had become the emissary of the apocalypse; now I live for the light, die for the light, act and think for the light; I love the light, hate it and fear it; I respect it… and miss the shadows.

But there is only light.