They stood; thousands of them, packed together in ankle deep fog with sweat pouring down their faces and arms waving frantically towards a pinkish brown sky. A thunderous boom echoed through the air leaving their bones quivering, and before the end of that boom, a second followed and then a third to joined by a chorus of howls. Fire shot up towards the sky, a billow of smoke coiled from the earth, and out of the clouds she immerged.

Her head was low, but there was no mistaking her long midnight black hair as it snapped in the wind like a living flame. She made three determined strides forward and stopped, timing it so that her feet planted a shoulder’s length apart. She snapped her head up, lifted her hands and the thunder stopped. She surveyed the crowd. All eyes were upon her. She opened her mouth and screamed, falling to one knee and raising one arm towards the sky.

The crowd went wild! You could barely hear the words she began to form as she slowly lifted herself from the ground. This was it, the moment she had been waiting for, the stars were aligned, the moon was full and the weather was perfect for August. She fed upon the crowd as they did her; it was a symbiotic relationship of sights and sounds.

“That night he came… into my life… stealing away the way I saw my innocence! Like a midnight star, you only see at twilight, my heart was gone but my soul lived on…”

Her words raced through the audience, powerful, enigmatic almost ethereal!

“The many tears I cried, no one around to see… revenge of the heart, my destiny… and like a midnight star, you only see at twilight… my heart was gone but my soul… my soul lived on!”

She finished her set the way it began, and as she turned to leave the stage the perfect sky was blackened with cumulous clouds.

She reveled in the sounds the crowd made for her. They loved the Sanchez Seven, and they were chanting her name!

Maricela! Maricela! Maricela!

She looked up, just as a bolt of searing light tore through her body!

Everyone screamed as her body was ripped to shreds and burned to ashes.

Her last thoughts, “The best performance of my life can’t be my last!” Then she knew no more.

* * *

Her long silk black hair flowed on the evening breeze, causing strands to whip into her face. She took in deep breaths and sighed. Six months have passed since that fateful day, the day her life ended on earth and began in this new wondrous and strange world. But it was for the better. On earth, she was tormented by that obsessive stalker Javier Rosenthal, her number one fan and he kept sending her flowers; candy and somehow showing up at her dressing room door. She had a restraining order on him, but he didn’t care. He kept harassing her. She remembered being afraid for her life, but that kind of fear is gone now. Now she was a singer for God, the One God, in a world where her songs wove true magic. She was the Raven Princess, the one and only Maricela Sanchez.

fin

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