It was, without doubt, the brightest and the coldest night of her life.

All Aurora could do was stare at the moon, slack-jawed and wide-eyed. 

Her body was unnaturally light as she pulled herself up from the ground and leaned against the trunk of a teak. Her breaths came out in an invisible steam as she blinked at the fog surrounding her. It was thick and milky, limiting her visibility to the trees right in front of her. Yet she decided to move, to walk through the undergrowth, guided by nothing but the moonlight and the faint glow of fireflies. Her feet carried her gracefully, never tripping or stumbling. 

She must've walked about ten feet before entering a flowerfield.

So, Aurora thought, this is what they call a wonder of nature.

She drifted past wildflowers and yellow daisies, button roses and freesia, before stopping at a section of a bewitching flower with many petals. She crouched down to face a flower, and pulled it by the stem towards her. She stared at it for a long time. Until the periwinkle petals rippled like waves, until the purple corona furled and unfurled its tendrils, and the lilac stigmas circled each other like ants walking around in a circle of doom. Aurora felt an unseen force pull her hand holding the flower up, like a marionette being lifted up by a string. The flower came free from its plant, looking out of place in Aurora's warm hand. It shuddered as if being hit with a strong breeze and crumpled.

And then it crumbled into ash and dissolved into the air.

Aurora screamed, and stood up hurriedly. She wiped her palm on her battered gown but the black stain left by the flower didn't disappear. The leaves and the rest of the plant's body became ash, too. The wind carried it like a phantom swirl through the field and toward the other side of it. A tug of curiosity pulled Aurora through the field and towards the line of trees sheltering the red flowers in the corner from the other side. She passed the vivid blooms and touched the trunk of a tree lightly. She turned one last time to gaze at the red flowers, and with a sparkling sensation in her heart, she recognized them as red poppies. 

The other side of the coconut trees was fine, pale sand, and a...beach. Aurora was so surprised that she laughed out loud. Clutching her stomach, she leaned forward and laughed harder. All that came out of her mouth were ugly snorts and grunts. 

I am going crazy, she thought. Maybe all these years have gotten to me.

It was strange that her stomach did not hurt by the time she stopped laughing. Maybe it was because she'd laughed for the first time in a decade. She decided to get closer to the beach. 

She hadn't noticed the glow emanating from the waves. The blue, almost luminescent glow. It was luminescent, actually. Bioluminescent, she realized. Something to do with some bacteria that glowed in the dark. The waves lapped at her shoes, transforming from whitish foam to liquid crystal. She crouched down and placed her hands on the wet sand, shells scraping her palms and the pads of her fingers. The glowing water washed over her hands. It was warm, as if the light had stripped its coldness away. A pale, pointed shell settled gently between her hands. She picked it up and tilted her head to hold it up to her ear.

That was when she saw it.

The sky.

The beauty about Aurora was that she was easily impressed. Flowers, dewy grass, a shiny piece of cloth, a perfectly hot cup of tea...simple things made her happy. Not a day went by for Aurora without appreciating the little things in her life. She was grateful to the universe for everything. Everyone loved her, even if they only pretended to. Her presence was considered divine, and her touch was said to cure diseases. If only it had lasted. 

Being born in a superstitious society was a lifetime curse. Everything was a hierarchy. If you were born in the wrong place, your life was not in your control. They pick on you for walking the wrong way and tear you apart for existing as a human with humanlike qualities. Sadness, anger, joy, envy, greed, hunger. Every little emotion is a sin if you feel it in your heart. You should live as a community, and one step out of line makes you a target. Sometimes she wondered if they were a harmonious community, or just a cult.

Aurora had always wished she was never born. That she was the one who had died of disease and not her mother. That her father had abandoned her, instead of giving her to the aristocrats to be raised as a goddess. Oh, she had been a glorified slave. She wished that she didn't grow up being in the spotlight for half her life and being forced into the dark for the other half. It had been a careless mistake; she did not mean to trip, breaking the glass jar and spilling the holy liquid onto the stairs. But it had been enough for them, it seemed. She had been loved and praised ever since she was born, and now she will be hated for the same thing. 

The people did their best to make her life miserable. They spat on her, made her wash the dirty roads, used her as a dummy to throw stones at. They dehumanized her. She worked day to night, cleaning up after the monsters who called her one. Her father was not the best but he did help her. Once. A moth bitten blanket thrown at her freezing body. While she tried not to die on the street. And where did it lead him? To become a body that floated in a well that his daughter frequented. When Aurora went there the next morning to fetch water for yet another master, she found her father inside. A funeral was the only thing she could give him, it seemed. And when his body burned in the vacant graveyard, what little hope she had left her. 

It had been easy, falling down the cliff. All she had to do was follow the light of the night. The painful part had been hitting the bottom. Her body had settled in skewed angles. She couldn't move for a long time. The pain had been too much that she'd gone numb. She'd laid there for what felt like lifetimes before she found the moon glaring down upon her. 

And now, she was gazing at the ablaze sky. The sky she was named after by her loving mother. 

She had never seen the sky like this. Glittering with stars and radiant with streaks of lights. It seemed endless. And wonderfully, the sea matched the sky. Was it her imagination? Or was it a dream? Is this what heaven looked like? She laughed again, this time falling over on the sand. The waves tried to swallow her. She smiled, and tears flowed out of her eyes. Maybe miracles do happen to her. What a night for her to break from the prison that was her life. What a rarity that she gained the courage to end a decade of suffering. She was content. She was warm. She was free. 

*

Under the cliff, the police found a body. A young woman, they said to the reporters, about 25 years old. Looks like she had slipped from the cliff and fallen down, and the canopy had broken her fall. She should've survived, but she didn't. We are investigating if this was a suicide or a murder.