Peace comes in the room crying :
“I’m so bad at this. Everybody is just… fighting. I want them to stop ! Nothing worked ! I-I don’t know what to do anymore. I tried everything !
War sat at the table and scoffed.
“What ? Are you happy about this disaster ? People, children, are dying ! Families get torn apart and you scoff ?! How heartless can you be ?!“
“This has nothing to do with heartless Peace. Some people desire war, there is nothing you can do about that so suck it up and stop crying“, replied War calmly sipping on his ale.
Peace looked at him, i disbelief :
“No, I will not stop. This has to end !“
“Oh please. War is the natural order of the world, kid. That’s how it is“, explained War starting to get annoyed.
“War isn’t what the humans need. They need me ! Peace !“
War slammed his glass on the table that it shattered.
“No ! Peace makes them weak ! What the world actually needs are strong men and no peace ! I give it to them ! Look at this world, is this the kind of peace that you want, huh ?!“ he yelled coming closer to her.
“Yes ! You make everything worse, with you comes disease and death ! Love and understanding are the key. I know it. Right Love ?“, asked Peace looking at Love who just entered the room. The others behind him, all attracted by the yelling.
He only sighed and entered fully the room and sat down at the table.
“Right ?“, she asked again, this time with more emphasis.
“Hope ? Good ? Happiness ? This is what the world needs, right ?“.
“This isn’t as easy as you may think Peace“, Hope tried to explain.
“In the world of men, there is Light and Darkness, Happiness and Sadness, Hope and Despair, Love and Hate, Fear and Courage, Peace and War“, Hope started to explain pointing at each and one of them.
“There is a balance. Where there is Darkness, there must be Light, that is the natural order of thing“, continued Happiness.
“But sometimes one of them gets too strong and there is war, like right now, you understand ?“, finished Love.
“I know that, but my job is it to give them peace, to spread my light, but they didn’t take it. Why ?“, asked Peace with tears in her eyes.
“There aren’t only good people out there“, said Hate, “you are too inexperienced to understand that“.
After a long pause, Peace continued : “I can’t accept this. I won’t accept this. I have to keep trying.“
War let out a humorless laugh. Peace wipped her head around : “What’s so funny ?“
“There are people who want war, kid. Try as hard as you like, you will not change that. Dealt with it !“ With that War walked away.
Love came over to Peace and hugged her tightly : “I know this is very hard for you, but it is our reality.“
That night Peace went to bed early, but she couldn’t sleep. The hurt she felt deep insider of her tugged at her heart. ‘ I can’t give up now, I have to try harder’, she thought, but there was a feeling of doubt that has been lingering there for months now. Peace was the way, that’s what everybody was telling her then, but now ? Peace is what the humans need and want, but now ? She spread her positive aura around the world thinking this problem would be fixed in no time, but it didn’t work. The war only spread and spread. At first, she was so confused, because Peace is what the humans want, right ? So she tried again, again to no avail, but how. Peace is what the humans need, so why won’t they take it ? That’s when the doubt crept in slowly like a disease of which you can sense something wrong with you, but the disease has not yet quite manifested itself. Slowly the doubt began to poison her soul, like a parasite hiding from destruction until it was strong enough to resist and take over the body.
She ignored it for months, told herself it was only imagination and the humans would come to their senses eventually, except they didn’t, quite the opposite, it only grew worse. And now the parasite has taken over her body. The doubt flooding her soul, the words of War ringing insider her head. Is what he said true ? Do the humans really want war ? No, of course not, that can’t be. You just have to try harder.
The doubt stayed and Peace fell into an uneasy sleep full of uncertainty.
The next day, she decided to go down to earth and look at the situation at hand. The situation was worse than the last time she went down. She started in Ukraine.
She didn’t know the name of the city she was in, but remembered it from before. She looked around and tried to imagine how it looked like before. Faintly, she could hear the laughter of the children of the nearby school, the cars passing by, the people talking to each other at the cafés. The warm sun tickling her skin, the smell of spring, the singing of the birds. It all brought tears to her eyes.
Now, it was in the middle of the night. Everything was so peaceful like before. The night air was mild for once not so immensely cold like a month ago and one could smell the spring in the air. The stars were shining bright in the sky, it was beautiful. There were some birds left singing into the night and filling the empty space. It would have been peaceful if not for the destroyed buildings, the burnt cars and the bodies and the blood. Peace couldn’t make out where the school once stood, there was nothing left. The windows in the cafés were shattered, and the shards lay on the ground, mirroring the shattered lives of so many people. She tried not to walk on them, almost hearing their terrified screams. She had to hold back a sob, tears burning at her eyes, trying no to let them fall.
Peace walked forward carefully as if scared to disturb the dead in their forever sleep, when she suddenly stepped on something soft with her right foot. Carefully, she bent down and picked it up. It was very soft and…cuddly ? That’s when it hit her, this was a teddy of a child. Small drops fell on the little plushie in her hands. Her knees buckled, and she fell sobbing to the floor crying pressing the lost teddy without someone to love him to her chest.
Suddenly she heard a sound that broke the silence of the night. It was loud and only grew louder. Then it mixed with another sound. Sirens, she realized with a start- The howling siren screamed at everyone to take cover. Almost immediately, people were running around screaming. A place that was only moments before deserted and so calm, now was buzzing with people and fear. Peace could feel, almost taste it on the tip of her tongue.
Somebody ran into her, that brought her out oh her daydream-. The person didn’t even look back, only kept going. The first explosion illuminated the night with it’s enormous fireball. Finally, Peace seemed to realize what was happening and took action. She closed her eyes and concentrated on her aura and tried to send it off to the world, spread it around to calm the people. But somehow it didn’t quite work. She looked around puzzled. That always worked, why isn’t it working?, she thought. She tried again, this time harder, but still it didn’t do anything. Still people were screaming and running.
“Why isn’t it working?“, she said this time aloud. Suddenly a little girl stood before her. She had to be around 6 or 7. Her curious eyes taking her in.
“Hey, little one. Are you alright? You should probably take cover“, Peace said while looking around for a parent or so. Her eyes. Peace looked at them again. They were of a rich brown color, but … how? They were lightning up?! That’s when she realized her positive aura was still pooling out of her. It reaches the little girl? Then the girl pointed with a finger at her and said : “Peace”. Peace was so taken aback by it. She could only gape at that little creature in front of her.
Behind them a rocket blew the building up, and it got an enormous boom.
“Run!”, she yelled at the little girl, but she was already gone.
Peace could feel the heat from the fire and the dust cloud enveloped her. She coughed, it smelled chemical and a bit moldy, and it smelt like … death.
I can’t breathe! Peace started to panic and coughed and coughed as if to cough up her whole lung. Faintly through the dust cloud she could see Death standing there looking at her. Tears came to her eyes and closed them and teleported back.
In her room she fell to her knees still coughing and still clutching the plushie to her chest. Once calmed down she looked back at the toy.
“How can anyone agree with this. This is horrible”, she whispered.
Peace tried again to summon her positive aura, but again it was a lot weaker than a few months before.
“What is happening?”
She decided to go ask Love.
“Love, I-I can’t summon my aura anymore. Well I still can, but it is so… so weak. What’s wrong with me?”, Peace asked with a worried tone.
Love looked at her with a sad expression before answering.
“That’s what happens when the negative emotions get stronger. They consume the spirits of the humans and our auras can’t reach them anymore. It will only get worse“, Love explained.
“But-But I have to do something. I-I mean it’s my job to bring peace. How can I do that when I-”, Peace stopped talking.
“Your light will always be there Peace. It will just be weaker. You can always try, you know?”, Love tried to reason with her.
Peace didn’t answer, she knew that it wouldn’t matter anyway.
It will only get worse, Love’s words rang inside of her head. How much worse?
She thanked Love for the insight left. She had to go to Palestina-Israel next to assess the situation there. The doubt grew, clutched at her heart, but she would never give in. There were still people believing in peace, she could feel it. And for as long she will fight. With new spirit she went down again.
She stood in a field and could hear music. She’s never been there, but it didn’t seem at all like a war zone. Am I right here? The positive energy was so strong here, weird.
Peace followed the sound of the music and soon saw a big group of young people jumping on the spot. Instantly she had to smile. They seemed happy, singing with the singer and laughing. It eased her heart to finally see people happy. Her smile only grew, until she heard the screams. Instantly she felt dread pool insider her stomach. The shots followed. More screams. The group in front of her stopped jumping. The lead singer hasn’t noticed yet what was happening. They looked to the direction of the screams all tense. Then one of them yelled: “Gun, run!”
They all started to run past her, more shots fell. People bumped into her, but didn’t quite notice her presence.
A young man in his early twenties came running in her direction. A man behind him took a shot to his leg. Hit in the thigh he fell to the ground screaming and clutching his leg. Peace’s breath hitched.
“No please, don’t kill me. I’m begging you! I-I have family!”, he yelled with tears streaming down his face. The gunman didn’t even seem to register his words. Only reloaded the gun and pointed at him.
“No! Please no-”, the shot fell, the man couldn’t even finish his sentence. She flinched at the sound. A shiver run down her spine and she clutched her arms and hugged herself tightly as if she could protect herself from all the evil of this world. The…evil, she thought with a realization.
“Oh my God”, Peace whispered in shock. The gunman turned to her and reloaded, he seemed to be the only one acknowledging her presence. Her eyes grew wide and she started to run. She run as fast as her legs could carry her. The man shooting at her, but always missing. Her heart was beating so hard in her chest as if it would want to break out of her chest, her breath heaving. Her ears were ringing, and she could hear her heartbeat. The shots sounded like if she were underwater. For a moment everything didn’t even seem real. That all of this was only a dream, a nightmare of which she could wake up easily and realize it was a dream, and she would be relieved.
Everything came back to her at once when a bullet flew right pass her ear. She flinched at the feeling of the wind and the sniffling of the bullet, almost tripping and falling. At the last moment she caught herself and kept on running.
She ran across a wide field. No cover, she thought with terror. The people before and behind her getting shot and falling to the ground, either only injured or…dead. Peace couldn’t even think about it.
So many people were screaming and begging. Pleads that fell to deaf ears. She closed her eyes trying to blend it all out. This couldn’t be real !
Then before her a group of people. Cars screeched to a halt before them, gunmen came out and brutally grabbing them and starting to beat them.
It was horrible. These people did not show any mercy. They beat mercilessly women, me and teenagers, making no difference in their gender or age. Then they forced into cars and some drove off.
Suddenly somebody grabbed her from behind covering her mouth, so she couldn’t scream. It felt like her heart stopped, she couldn’t breathe for a second. Her grabber threw her to the ground, and before she could actually react to the situation, he started beating her, first to her stomach that her breath was forcibly expelled from her lungs. Before she could regain her breath he gave her a fist to the cheek, she tried in vain to protect herself with her arms.
Finally, she teleported back.
Back in her room she still sat on the floor paralyzed with fear and shaking. Slowly she lifted a shaking hand to her cheek where the guy hit her. It stung when she touched it. It almost felt so unreal. I was lucky I got away. All the others…-, she couldn’t even finish her thoughts. And this is supposed to be the natural order of the world ?! Only pain and suffering ! No, I won’t accept this. War was wrong.
After some time she finally calmed down enough to get up from the floor without tipping over even though her knees still felt like jello. She went to the bathroom and splashed some cold water in her face and went on her search for War. Peace found him in his room. She didn’t even knock upon entering only opened the door and pointed her finger at him shouting :
“Is this supposed to be the natural order of the world ?!“, pointing at her injured cheek.
“Is this supposed to be the way, traumatizing people, children ?!“
“I see you’ve been down to Earth“, War replied calmly.
“Yes, I was !“, she continued hysterically.
“And I see, you do not share my opinion of these…humans ?“, he asked rhetorically.
Peace couldn’t ignore his behavior :
“How can you be so calm ?! It is because of you that all these people get hurt ! I got hurt ! And you are proud of that !“
“Of course not, but you are just too thickheaded to see the truth“, he replied trying to keep his cool.
“Oh, so I am thickheaded, right, of course“, she said mockingly and continued “No, I saw the truth today. The truth that you make these people do these horrible, horrendous things to each other. That’s what I saw !“
War finally lost his cool and stood up with a harsh motion and stalked over to his counterpart, shoved a finger to her chest and started shouting :
“You don’t get it, do you ?! You never got it ! How could ? You only see one side, but let me tell you, I didn’t make them like this, they created Me ! Same as they created You ! I wasn’t made For them, I was made By them !“
Peace looked at him shocked, angry tears streaming down her cheeks.
“But-but that can’t be ? We-we were made for them. Humanity can’t be that cruel. I-I don’t understand.“
War only huffed :
“Your oh so precious humanity is capable of many evil things, you only didn’t see them. If you saw what I saw then you wouldn’t think like you do.“
He continued :
“They are the only creatures on this planet who made torture machines for each other. They invented horrible tools to either inflict the most pain possible without being fatal or immensely cruel tools to kill them with more pain imaginable. They made these sceneries public so that everyone could by stand while a human was skinned alive, beaten to a pulp or burned alive. Even Children were there to witness this, Children ! These monsters are without mercy ! No other creature on this planet would invent something like this to hurt another animal especially of their own species. Do you understand now what they are ?“
Peace looked down in horror. It couldn’t be ! How could they ?!
“But they invented so many wondrous machines like moving vehicles and rectangular objects with they can speak“, she tried to argue, not giving up on her positive image on the world.
“Right, wondrous inventions“, he scoffed.
“Your wondrous humans used their “creativity“ to create a lot of other things than only moving vehicles. They created bombs, gases, torture machines to hurt each other. Everything to create the most casualties possible. For that they use their brains too.“
Peace couldn’t let go, and she continued to argue his point, to falter his vision on the world :
“What about their emotions ? They are capable of love and compassion and happiness. That makes them what they are.“
“Yeah, sure. And still they use these emotions to their advantages. They use the pity of other people to gain what they want. They pretend to love to get rich and powerful. That’s what they do with their oh so wonderful emotions.“
But Peaces had one last card to play :
“ What about their spirituality. They are capable to communicate with the dead and foresee the future.“
“Yeah, they can do that and that is a most formidable skill, but they burned all of these alive. They were called witches and had a pact with the devil even though they only intended to help. That was the thanks they got : torture than a brutal death by burning alive.“
Peace’s image of the wold crumbled away. All of what she called the truth was a lie, a sweet lie, a curtain before the evil that lay beneath. To invent torture machines to hurt intentionally others, to play with the feelings of others, to burn alive those who only intended to help. Why ? Why would they do that ?
As if War heard her thoughts he answered :
“Power, that’s the only thing for what these filthy humans thrive for, power and money. They are willing to walk over corpses to get there.“
But how could she be sure that this was indeed the truth and not again a twisted version of the truth ?
“But how do I know that you speak the truth ?“
“You really don’t want to see it, do you ? You are just like them. Every time you put the mirror in front of them they turn away. They are weak and can’t stand their own reflection“, War spat.
“No ! I am nothing like them, I-“
“See, you are just the same, not accepting the truth, you are weak“
Peace couldn’t say anything else but her guilt and doubt ate at her. How could she have been so blinded by this ideal she had ?! Not seeing this ! What meaning did Peace even have anymore in this world ?! Was there even any hope left for change ?!
“Show me please “, she whispered.
“What“, he retorted.
“This manipulative world“, she whispered silent tears streaming down.What about their spirituality. They are capable to communicate with the dead and foresee the future.“
“Yeah, they can do that and that is a most formidable skill, but they burned all of these alive. They were called witches and had a pact with the devil even though they only intended to help. That was the thanks they got : torture than a brutal death by burning alive.“
Peace’s image of the wold crumbled away. All of what she called the truth was a lie, a sweet lie, a curtain before the evil that lay beneath. To invent torture machines to hurt intentionally others, to play with the feelings of others, to burn alive those who only intended to help. Why ? Why would they do that ?
As if War heard her thoughts he answered :
“Power, that’s the only thing for what these filthy humans thrive for, power and money. They are willing to walk over corpses to get there.“
But how could she be sure that this was indeed the truth and not again a twisted version of the truth ?
“But how do I know that you speak the truth ?“
“You really don’t want to see it, do you ? You are just like them. Every time you put the mirror in front of them they turn away. They are weak and can’t stand their own reflection“, War spat.
“No ! I am nothing like them, I-“
“See, you are just the same, not accepting the truth, you are weak“
Peace couldn’t say anything else but her guilt and doubt ate at her. How could she have been so blinded by this ideal she had ?! Not seeing this ! What meaning did Peace even have anymore in this world ?! Was there even any hope left for change ?!
“Show me please “, she whispered.
“What“, he retorted.
“This manipulative world“, she whispered silent tears streaming down.
With a rotation movement of his hand everything around them blurred to another surrounding. They stood in the middle of a street with many many people around holding something like signs with something written on them. Peace was surprised to see mainly women among the crowd.
“What is this ?“, she asked her companion.
“This“, with his hand he showed the ensemble of the people,“is a protest. These women were prived of their right for their own body.“
“What do you mean ?“
“If you get pregnant with an infant, but you do not wish to birth it, you get rid of it“, War explained.
“How horrible ! Why would they do that ?!“, exclaimed Peace.
“Listen, some men in this world cannot control themselves, and they use the women here for their own pleasure. Would you wish to keep a child that reminds you of a horror you had to live through ?“, he explained calmly.
“I understand, but why would they be prived of that, is that not a right they call…human right ?“
“Indeed. Remember what I told you. These humans thrive for power. Like this they can control the female species who has always been suppressed“, he spat with disdain.
Peace had again this feeling of pure disgust of this species. How heartless can they be ?
“That is only one example“, War stated, and again he did the rotating motion with his hand.
Now it was a completely different scenery. They stood in a medieval castle. Peace looked around and saw two men talking to each other.
“What is-“
War shushed her :“Listen“
“What is my mission, sire ?“, asked one of the two males.
“Kill the King“, the other replied.
“Do you have any preference on the method, sire ?“
“Yes, use poison or something that is subtle.“
“Yes sire, what will be my loan ?“
“This man is the brother of the King, he wished to take up the throne and for that he was ready to kill his own brother with whom he grew up“, explained War.
Peace only looked at the exchange without words. The hope she held for mankind dwindled with every second.
“But there are still good people, are there not ?“, Peace asked sheepishly.
“Yes there are, but these good souls get diminished by their fellow humans.
Finally, he ended the scene, and they were back where they started.
“Do you understand now my view on this world ?“
Peace only nods, her throat having closed up, she couldn’t utter a word even if she wanted to. The light inside of her was so dim, it made her feel cold and empty and hallow.
“I leave you be“, War said softly and left.
Silent tears went down her cheeks and her knees crumpled under her, and she fell to the ground weeping. It hurt, it hurt so much. The suffering and the violence, everything, it just hurt. She cried for all the hurt and abandoned souls who suffered so much and for whom there was no end in sight. She cried for this horrible world. She felt hopeless. Peace cried until there were no tears left to cry, and she just felt empty.
She stood up and left to go to her room. She sat on her bed and for some reason she felt this strong need to go back to where her journey to enlightenment started, so she went.
Peace stood again on the same place where she stood the first time and looked around. It was still in the night, but the sky was brighter already. The buildings were even more destroyed than the last time. Some fires were still burning, it was dead silent, and it smelt like…death.
Suddenly the little girl was there again. She smiled up at her. Her face and clothes were filthy, but still she smiled. Odd, Peace thought. Then the little human pointed the finger at the horizon. When Peace looked over the sun was getting up slowly behind the ruins of the city. Slowly it crept upwards and illuminated the damaged buildings and cars. The rays already warmed her a little. It was only then that she realized something. Peace looked around. The sun was illuminating everything around her, it gave the whole situation a new light, a more…positive light somehow. Only now did she see that some things withstood the brutality of the war. A tree still stood proud on the sidewalk with its leaves still hanging on. A wall of a building that crumpled with graffiti on it that showed a beautiful man’s face. It wasn’t damaged at all.
The sun rose further and further, and she started to feel warmer inside of her. Maybe War was wrong, there are still good people out there who fight who will stand up and resist. There was still…hope. Suddenly she felt a hand on her shoulder, she turned around and there stood Hope smiling at her and her light erupted anew. There was Hope.