Sarah rubbed her eyes and stared at the ceiling for about twenty minutes. She hated getting up; she didn’t really know why, but in the morning she never wanted to leave her bed. Maybe it was because she knew that every day she would be doing the same things she did the day before. Maybe she preferred her dreams, where she was blown in random directions like a leaf in the wind. Or maybe it was because her bed was so comfortable. She thought about it for a while, and then slowly dragged herself onto the floor.
Today was the day where, at school, the kids would present their plants they had grown. They were given three coins, and very long instructions about how to bury the coins in dirt, and how you needed to mix certain liquids with the dirt depending on what kind of plant you wanted. Sarah had chosen several liquids, and as the plant came to fruition, she was sure that this would be the most beautiful plant the teacher had ever seen. The branches and leaves all shone a bright shade of silver, and the berries were every color imaginable. After showering and eating, she looked at this plant like she usually did, and finally made her way to school.
Sarah was anxious. She truly hoped that her plant would make a big impact; she had always had trouble making friends. Her blue hair stood out like a sore thumb against the brown hair of the other children, and she seemed to have problems talking to people. She always knew what she wanted to say, but for some reason she never could. However, always ambitious and optimistic, Sarah managed to find beauty in her uniqueness, and hoped that one day she could convince others to see it as well.
On the way to school Sarah passed, as she always did, a large black gate. Behind that gate there was a swirling green fog. She had always been told that this gate was dangerous; that was where the ones who couldn’t do their jobs ended up. That was where the failures and the lazy ones went. Where they went there was nothing to work for; they were animals. Sarah was curious, though: what did that place look like? How big was it? How many people have gone there?
As with every other day, these thoughts left as quick as they came; Sarah was never one to dwell for too long on any one topic. Her mind went straight back to her plant, and all the impressed glances the others would give her. She continued to walk the path she walked every day, half in a trance; the city was simply too noisy to listen to. All the strange whirling and grinding machines and factories made horrible sounds that quickly became very annoying and wore you out. So Sarah instead focused on how awestruck the other students would be.
But Sarah’s day went terribly. The other students had followed their instructions to a tee, and they all came in with plants which all looked alike; dark gray plants with berries that looked like diamonds. Fairly pretty, but Sarah found them very boring compared to hers. But the teacher told her she had done it wrong, and after that, everything he said to her blended together. Her beautiful work of art was “wrong.”
Sarah slowly walked home, head hung low. The world turned dripping shades of brown and gray, and she was overcome with the emptiest of feelings. However, when she walked back by the gate, she noticed that the green fog seemed far more vivid against the dull surroundings than usual. The fog seemed to form into a womanly shape. It stared at her invitingly, and at this moment Sarah could no longer deny it. For once, she decided to think about something for a very long time. She looked at the one colorful thing in her world right now, and tried to figure out what she would do next.
It was too much. Sarah had always been able to convince herself that this life was meant for her… she desperately tried to summon those feelings again, but nothing happened. No matter what she told herself, no matter what lessons from school she tried to recall, all of her thoughts shrank away, leaving one simple fact: in this world she would be a servant, a faceless worker constantly making the same gray plant. She would always receive instruction from somewhere, no matter how important she got. In defiance or perhaps in foolishness, she became certain she didn’t want to live like that… she didn’t want to rule the world, but she wanted to rule her own life.
“If I’m making a mistake… at least I made a choice,” Sarah thought to herself.
She took the hand of the shadow and, in a flash of blinding light, appeared on the other side of the gate. She found herself in a field, which appeared to be in the midst of a forest. She checked her surroundings to see if anyone else was here, but she saw nothing. Nothing but the gently swaying trees. What she saw before her was unlike anything she had seen before; it seemed that everything was green. Even the sky, which she had previously known to be gray—or, sometimes, bluish-gray—seemed rather green. The grass reached her knees, and it felt extremely soft.
There was nothing but the soft westward-blowing breeze in that place. Sarah was fighting numerous feelings in her mind, trying her best to find one that was right. The silence around her was entirely foreign, yet welcoming. However, she was uncertain whether to take the quiet as simple pleasantness, or as a warning that something terrible would happen. Everything she had been taught informed her that this place was dangerous, but she could not for the life of her understand why. She lay down in the grass, just to see if she could make sense of anything.
She wasn’t there for too long before she thought that she should leave.
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