Echoes of Darkness and Time

Short Story

Three thousand years after the world changed according to ancient prophecies, a little girl named Monrisa was born.

By the age of nine, she had already become an accomplished artist, painting portraits that seemed drawn from the memories of others. She utilized her gift of accessing foreign memories to refine her art, and the entire city admired her.

Sixty-seven years later, when art no longer meant anything to anyone, Monrisa felt useless. She was considered an eccentric, the last vestige of the old artistic circles.

Even in her youth, a woman had seen the darkness gathering around and within her. Monrisa’s visions grew increasingly oppressive: terrifying images that, as time passed, turned into reality. The chains of the past were closing in, and an immeasurable fear of death plagued her.

As the world decayed, human voices vanished, replaced by an infinite, insidious, and malevolent voice. Cold and pain spread everywhere. Everything was covered in mud, blood, and filth, but through an almost incomprehensible effort, Monrisa managed to restore the timeline to its original form.

Long after her disappearance, a manuscript attributed to Monrisa was discovered and published. It included descriptions of the visions and events in her life. Many puzzles remained unsolved.

In the midst of the nightmares and troubling predictions, Monrisa frequently pictured herself painting and writing about a better world.

A world that no one would ever see.