Either a long time ago or in a faraway future, there was a girl sitting at the top of a green, grassy hill at the edge of the universe. There was a slight breeze in the air, gently blowing her silky, dark hair about. She was waiting, just like she did every day.

   “There you are,” A voice from behind her muttered, followed by a swift thump as the figure sat down next to her. Casting a shadow across the girl’s small body, the Silhouette joined in on the comfortable silence.

   “I’m always here,” The girl said simply with a shrug.

   Absentmindedly, the girl dug her nails into the wet soil underneath the grass, looking down at the valley between her hill and the hill opposite of her. The valley contained a village and the village was her home. “The village” was truthfully only a cluster of homes and dirt roads. A few people could be seen from her location at the top of the hill, walking about the small settlement. They wore honest, beige clothing, their expressions clear and open, free of worry. They had little to be troubled about, for it was springtime, pronounced by the bright flecks of blooming, red flowers amidst the dark, rich greens of the flora.

   “Tell me a story,” The girl said after silence had become boring, trying to scrape the dirt out from underneath her nails.

 “Is that all you ever ask for, girl?” The Silhouette chuckled with amusement.

   “Yes. Now please tell me a story,” The girl said impatiently, pouting a bit.

   Oh yes, this was her favorite story. The Silhouette would arrive upon the hill every late afternoon, eventually being persuaded into telling some sort of story. The best part of the girl’s day was when the Silhouette would tell her a story in the serenity the hill fostered. She would feel the blades of grass softly tickling her skin, enjoying the aroma of sunshine in the air. These rendezvous had been established long enough that the Silhouette had run out of stories, yet this one was still the young girl’s favorite. It had a gut-wrenching quality she couldn’t quite discern. The Silhouette would purposefully never tell the end of this story particularly, only making it more enthralling.

   “-They would build structures so great they could have been made for immortals. So very tall, towering much higher than that hill,” The Silhouette dramatized, pointing across the valley to the opposite hill.

   “Made, not of sturdy wood, but thin planes of clear matter. They thought they were going to achieve great things,” The Silhouette said with a weight the girl knew hinted to something, perhaps a theme or the end of the story. She continued to listen intemntly.

   “-Many thought their actions against Nature would be the reason for their demise. Others believed their actions against one another would do the trick. And some never had to worry, despite the inevitable truth they, together, shared their one world.” The Silhouette said, speaking with a tone of warning. This was why the Silhouette’s stories intrigued the girl so much. It was as if the Silhouette were from another world- A world where they had all the answers.

   “These people had become numbed to their actions. They were so easily hurt, becoming lost in their own thoughts, and their narrative becoming the only to exist in their minds,” The Silhouette chuckled, almost broodingly. The girl often didn’t grasp the things the Silhouette found funny but she had also learned that the Silhouette was much wiser than her. Perhaps one day she would understand as well.

    Drifting into her own world, the girl considered what a colossal, pellucid structure would look like in the valley, perhaps even shadowing over the two hills that held the village like a pocket. Before first encountering the Silhouette, she had only known her village. It had been her whole world. She had come to digest everything the village had to offer. From the grooves in the walls of her room to the trickle of the stream beside her house, she had perhaps discovered everything. She knew what time of day the sparrows lingered in the thick groves at the edge of the valley, where the hedges of bright, red berries were hidden, and even how to distinguish the different footsteps of her neighbors. The concept of a civilization that was capable of such feats like transparent materials was rather overwhelming, let alone a life beyond her village.

   “-Others were selfish. Hiding from unbearable truths behind their own fictions they wanted to believe,” The girl, though already silent, quieted. She was afraid to acknowledge her unwillingly resonation with some part of the dark heed the Silhouette gave. She couldn’t help but feel like a liar, listening quietly to a story that depicted her own flaws.

   “They would have wars, the concept of death no longer meant much. They endeavored for new ways to hurt one another. Pointless, it was. They thought exploring their world was only a parallel to developing new, advanced methods of killing. Eventually, it was too much. Their world of wonders collapsed into a society alike to their first primitive strides,”

   “And then what?” The girl asked quietly, afraid her companion would sense her own darkness and imperfections. The Silhouette was not oblivious to the girl’s worries but knew the girl had nothing to fret about. After all, the girl was clearly good hearted, her integrity and honesty allowed to thrive in these simpler times.  

   “And then…” The Silhouette paused, for the story had never been told past this point. The girl peered at the figure with her round, curious eyes. She could sense a sudden cold aura from the figure beside her. So she glanced away, hoping to ease the noticeable tension.  She noticed the sun beginning to set. The hues of tangerines, pinks, and lavenders blushing as another velvety night of glistening speckles neared.

   “The Divinity’s only choice was to revive them by wiping their existence blank,” The Silhouette said cautiously, looking away as their eyes met when the girl turned back around from the sky with an incredulous expression.

   “What does that mean?” The girl whispered, almost frightened of an answer. “The Divinity” was a common character in all of the Silhouette’s stories. From what the girl had gathered, the Divinity was more of a prescence than a person, almost a higher power.

   “Humanity was too fragile. Every time the Divinity gave them another chance, it was only another to take advantage of everything they could get their hands on. They considered forgiveness as a born right and perhaps it was, and is. But instead, they used it as a system to excuse their iniquitous intentions. They existed aimlessly with seemingly rooted manners of hypocrisy. And that was only the start of it. The endless cycle of humanity’s flaws lead the Divinity to desperately rescue them by allowing them another chance. Over and over and over again. Sometimes they make it far enough to escape the boundaries of the sky. Sometimes they never even make it to the see-through structures. Either way, their mistakes are always too consequential. Their paths start rather similar, easier to predict in the beginning. But in the end, regardless of which faults they have, they always need another chance,” The Silhouette spoke rather fervently, an untamed anger poorly hidden. It was as if the girl were no longer the audience. The girl said nothing, unsure if the story was finished.

   “Where would our village be?” She asked nervously, wondering if her own world might be following the same timeline.

   “I wouldn’t know, I’ve lost track,” The Divinity said with a sigh, a shadow still cast across the girl’s pale complexion.