HANA

When she awoke, the first thing she saw was a dark colored ceiling of someone's home above her. It was warm. She can hear the crackling of fire from a near distance and also that certain roar inside her that demands food. She can feel her stomach crumbling. She is in hunger.

She can't move her hands and her feet seems to be weak. She feels as if her head is going in circles and the more she tried to move, the more her body seems to be painful. Her eyes, as well are stinging in pain as if she is using them for the first time. Her throat is dry and she yearns for water to quench her thirst. But her body is in so much pain, she couldn't explain it. She can't move even she wanted to. Restricted by the confinement of torturing pain, she can't seem to think of a way to get out of it.

What is happening? she asked herself but even her thoughts are blank. Who am I? What am I doing here? The more she tried to think, the more her body wanted to succumb to sleep. She can't remember anything and she doesn't know what is life anymore.

It was just a matter of time when she could no longer pull herself together and once again, she lost herself in an unconsciousness she could not control and she swam deeper in the darkness that seemed to pull her; in the unknown that tried to comfort her and she gave in to more sleep, to more rest, to more of that tiring and somehow satisfying whirlwind that seem to ease all the pain away.

And beyond that darkness rose little flashes of light that outnumbered each other until they all grew beyond control to fill the vast ocean of darkness. Stars- they shone in that limitless unknown and even if they could not take and overcome all that darkness away, they filled it with their light until in every spot of blacks, they are all there as the accompanying whites.

It was so surreal. Her body was carried away by someone's hand and she feels as if she is floating in the galaxies beyond the world that she once knew. But she knew nothing of who she is and what world she can be. What is the world she once knew? What is the life that was past before her? What are the stars doing before her? Who is she?

One thing was for sure, there was warmth. First was ice cold darkness but when the stars came, she felt someone's embrace and someone's tears pouring down on her. What is it? Who is it that extends out to her? Inside a seemingly cage of darkness, the stars reached out to her. They opened their hands for her rescue and all she needs to do is reach that someone's hand. Who is she? What is her name?

"Hana," she heard from a distance.

"Live, Hana," she heard it spoke again.

"Hana," she whispered. Is that her name? Hana. Oh, it calls out to her. It is such a gentle voice. "Hana. Hana. Hana, "she heard it speak to her over and over. It was such a wonderful voice, like a satisfying music to her hears that lulls her to sleep.

But this voice is waking her up. The voice of someone she does not know. The voice she cannot see and that voice, she had no idea where it's coming from. But that voice is life and she heard more of it.

"Thank you. Thank you for raising her back to life," she heard it say. It was someone so kind. It was someone who seemed to care for her. It was so warm that she yearned for it.

She felt that warmth and she wanted it to stay. She felt something inside of her that wanted to live. She felt a jolt inside her heart that empowered her hand to touch that help that was reaching out to her aid and to hear the voice that calls out her name. She can see it-that vision of light that invites her to come. That unexplainable white glimmering flash that is filled with so much warmth and so much kindness.

And so her hand seemed to move on its own to reach out that light. To look beyond her narrow cage and explore a world outside the windows. Her hand extended to the light before her and then she was dragged into it. Before she knew it, she is inside a light and she is filled with so much of the stars. Her eyes couldn't take the blinding force of it and before she knew it, her eyes opened again.

A ceiling of someone's room, the sound of crackling fire nearby and the warmth she had dreamt of. Before she knew it, the pain was gone. That tiring and succumbing sleep no longer pulled her. The darkness that seemed to encage her was broken and her eyes opened to the world.

She was like a rusty and old ancient book that had been dormant and unused. No information. No knowledge. Just a set of papers that knew nothing of the succeeding pages that came before it. But now, what she saw before her is someone's home and another chapter of her life unfolds.