Its damp.

Its cold.

Just where am I?

The girl looked around in a panic. Just a moment ago she was in her room which was faint of light yet warm with familiarity. She was now surrounded by dead trees that where warped, twisted into ineffable shapes, whose twigs reached toward the dark foreboding sky in a vain attempt to part the grim clouds that shrouded it. The ground was equally as dark and desolate, baring only dark patches of grass across the land. The rain that fell from the clouds were frigid, devoid of any sort of comfort or relief for the girl or the land.

This was the gloomy world that greeted the girl. She stood within its center frozen, paralyzed with fear. This obviously was a place of unfamiliarity…

That’s what it seemed like at first. But deep down she felt some sort of a connection, a link.

“That’s because this place was made for you dear.”

A muffled voice answered.

“Do you truly not remember?”

The girl turned to look at a particular twisted tree, from it cracks were forming from its base, and from it blue liquid began to slowly ooze outward.

Then, it emerged.

The tree suddenly lurched forward and split apart, splattering the blue liquid across the grass. A figure appeared before the girl. It was shrouded in a poncho that was darker than night but was also covered with sparkling blue dots that took the shape of tears.

“Goodness, goodness, what a messy entrance I have made, one absent of grace, one absent of manners, ill suited for both you and me.”

The girl, astonished, took in the sight before her, gulped, and then asked:

“W-who are you?”

Both her mouth and words were shaky, her legs tremoring before the figure, if it was one that meant harm, the girl had little chance against it. The figure, upon seeing the girl’s anxiety gave a small curtsy as the tears on its poncho shown ever brighter.

“My name is Rue.”

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The figure then straightened itself then gave a small bow, the tears briefly dimmed.

“Or you may call me Woe.”

“Rue, or Woe?” the girl asked nervously.

“Whichever one you feel is right dear.” The figure answered back.

The girl paused for a moment and then gave her answer.

“Rue.”

Upon hearing its name, the tears on the figure’s poncho glimmered with a hopeful light. It gave yet another courteous curtsy.

“Rue it is, Rue I am.”

The figure before her didn’t seem to have any harmful intent. Perhaps shrinking away in fear wasn’t the right way to go. The girl took a moment to calm herself and then asked:

“Rue, just what is this place?”

Rue quizzically tilted her head at the question, as if it was contemplating why such a question would be asked in the first place.

“As I said before… this is a place for you.”

“What do you mean by that Rue? This isn’t a place I would ever want to be in.”

“Mm. Are you sure dear? Often one may speak denial of what they’ve come to know so intimately.”

For the first time since landing in this place, the girl felt an emotion that wasn’t fear nor anxiety. Frustration quickly found its place within her.

“I’m sure of it! I don’t know what you mean about denial or knowing with intimacy, there’s no way I’m familiar with this place!”

The clouds grew darker, and the drops grew colder. The trees creaked and groaned as the wind blew harder.

“Who would ever want to be here? In this place? In this world where the trees are twisted with sorrow, the grass dark, mourning the loss of the clear sky shrouded by ever present grim clouds who drench the land with the sky’s tears?”

The girl cried out and fell to her knees, tears welling from her eyes. Rue stood there silently, its poncho still faintly glimmering with its hopeful light.

“Be truthful dear, and in doing so you will...”

Rue kneeled by the sobbing girl and embraced her.

“Find a way to stay afloat, until the clouds clear and the sun shines upon your face."

The girl held on tightly to Rue, and then began to confess.

“I… wanted to sink.”

“I wanted to sink below the depths of my sadness, to an abyss that can’t be found…”

“I’m all grown up now, I did what I was told, I pursued what was asked of me, with the promise that everything would be all right, that everything will fall into place… and that I would be happy with all the pain, the sacrifices I made to be there.”

“Yet…”

“I’m there? I’m here? But what I was told to seek was neither here nor there.”

“What stood in its place was an empty vastness, a void that promised nothing.”

“Nothing.”

“All those sleepless nights…”

“All those times I isolated myself to “get ahead” of the rest.”  

“All the pain I carelessly inflicted on my body, mind and even soul in my desperate, obsessive hopes of reaching there…”

“Only to reach nothing.”

“Those who told me, who pushed me there are nowhere to be found, rather they can’t be found because they in truth had no idea where my true destination had lain.”

“Only I knew where to truly go, yet I threw my compass away out of fear long ago and plunged myself into the depths of my despair.”

“So now I’m here.”

“In this tear soaked world.”

The girl continued to hold on tightly to Rue, who continued to embrace her wholeheartedly, the tears on its poncho shining brighter than ever. A small but resilient ray of light pierced through the gloomy clouds that covered this world and shone on the girl's head.

Perhaps this was a sign for better things to come?