Quitetly, Quiggly stepped into the darkness as he stealthily approached and steeled himself for his most dangerous mission yet; stealing the plans to an invention from the inventor himself, the Quiggley. He crept past the many guards outside of the inventor’s room, until he could finally hear his target talking on the phone. “But, I need to stay there to make sure the machine works. It’s not safe to return here.” “Fine. Where should I meet you?” “Just don’t stop talking on the phone. I’ll let you know when I’m on the way.” “Well, it’s just going to take us a minute to get here.” With a quick thought of one of his many escape routes Quiggly disappeared into the shadows, silently creeping back into the darkness with his stolen plans. As he crossed through the shadows he began to see hints of the shadows around him. The shadows looked like a child’s finger painting, they had different shapes, angles, and colors. Quiggly would look to the area in front of him and see a white line that seemed to form the ground, but then look further and see a strange purple shape. As he began to lose focus on what lay ahead of him he would look closer and the purple shape would shrink, then suddenly, right in front of him, would be a square which would grow back to its original shape. Finally he would look to his left, or his right, and the shadows would just go around and around, changing each other. Quiggly stared into the shadows, mesmerized by the patterns. But then, as if trying to grab the attention of someone watching, a finger print would appear, and when it passed over his head the shadows would disappear leaving a trail of the fingerprints into the darkness. Quiggly, mesmerized by this, soon found himself at a fork in the road. Which way would he go? He could go left, but to his right, he could go down the road of hope. “Why not just hope for a miracle,” he thought. “Why did they call this a trap? Maybe this is just an old test to see if they are watching. Maybe I should go the other way.” Quiggly turned to head in the opposite direction and took the first step towards the right. But as he looked down he saw a pile of blackness which was a cloud of darkness; it grew slowly as if pouring up from the ground and as it grew it began to swallow up the street in front of him. “Maybe this is just a big black hole, maybe if I just sit here, it will swallow me up.” Quiggly sat down on the curb, unsure what to do next. Just then he heard a voice over the din. “Excuse me, where do you think you are going?” ~~~ At first, the inventor was frightened by the voice and the darkness as he looked up and saw a dark silhouette, but as he gazed at it, he could feel his heart warming with the soft glow that emanated from his being. “Hello there,” said the being in a gentle voice. “Are you lost?” “Do you know where this is?” asked the inventor. “Not really,” said the being. “But if you will tell me where you came from I may be able to find out.” “I came from a place of light.” “A place of light?” asked the inventor. “Oh, you mean this place? I do not think I would enjoy it there. Why would you want to get lost in a place of light?” “Because,” answered the inventor. “I would like to take this invention to a place of darkness.” “Take this invention?” “Yes,” said the being. “But you’re not sure how to do that.” “Yes,” said the inventor. “I did not mean to wander around in the dark.” “Of course not,” said the being. “I am right here.” “I don’t understand,” said the inventor. “That is not the best way to do things. Here is where I want to go, and if I can get there, I’ll have light.” “What do you mean you want to take this invention to a place of darkness?” asked the being. “This one,” said the inventor, as he pointed to himself. “You mean you want to go to a place of darkness.” “Yes,” said the inventor. “You want to go to a place of darkness?” “Yes,” said the inventor. “Then take me there.” The inventor began to walk towards the direction of the light. “The way I want to go is right here,” said the inventor. “I can tell you are only going to confuse yourself.” ~~~ The following day was a Thursday and Quiggly was ready for his third assignment for the day. As he came out of the door the first thing he saw was a long black line which seemed to be forming at the bottom of a long dark hole which was just inches from the concrete. Quiggly thought to himself, “The inventor was wrong. This is just a hole of darkness.” But then he saw what looked like light, at first it just seemed like light, but then he saw things through it, people, the streets, the world. The line just seemed to stop, when the line first appeared. The moment of light was a blink, and the second one, it was longer. But then, just as soon as the light was gone the line began to disappear, and as it went the darkness and the hole grew, and the line kept going. “What is going on,” thought Quiggly. “Are they trying to make a test? And I took the wrong way.” As Quiggly walked closer to the hole he could see some of the people, they were dressed in a dark color, but then he could also see some other people in the dark but it appeared to be a light. And then Quiggly, mesmerized by the lights and the people came to the edge of the hole and stood there. He looked down and saw that it was like a hole which had become a lake in front of him. The line which came from the black hole grew to the point where it touched the edge of the lake and as it touched it, the water below started to boil. The boiling became violent and a wave appeared and started to rise up. But just as the wave was about to touch Quiggly, he jumped in the lake. “No,” he thought. “That is a terrible place. No, I will go to the other place.” As he was swimming towards the other place he looked up and could see the hole through the darkness, and he could see people and the light coming through the hole. “It’s a beautiful place. It’s like a garden in the sky,” he thought to himself. He swam closer to the hole and when he was close enough he got a hold of a person, the wave had destroyed the people in the water. The people floated on the surface of the lake, and Quiggly grabbed the person which was the inventor and the inventor grabbed Quiggly. “What a nice lake,” thought the inventor. “Is it that way because I am going to a place of darkness?” “Not exactly,” said Quiggly. “Are you ready for our next challenge?” “Of course, I am,” said the inventor. “We are going to walk up to the light, and I’ll take your hand, and we will jump into the light. But as soon as I let go of your hand I won’t be able to follow you, so I need you to let go of me first.” “Ok,” said Quiggly. The inventor looked up at the light, “It’s so beautiful.” “This is as close as you can get to the light,” said Quiggly. “Are you ready?” “Yes,” said the inventor. Quiggly grasped the inventor’s hand, and looked at his face as the inventor looked at the light. “Let’s go,” he said. The two stepped into the light. The light was so bright that they could hardly see anything. A few seconds later, as they were walking in the light Quiggly began to feel strange, it was like the light was pushing into him. “Did I get in the way,” thought Quiggly. As they continued to walk Quiggly stopped. The light seemed to push into his chest. The inventor could see the silhouette of Quiggly’s body silhouetted against the light, and was unsure if it was really Quiggly or just a shadow, but then he saw Quiggly’s eyes. The eyes were so bright, brighter than the sun. And as he looked into Quiggly’s eyes he could