Short Story By M. A . Smith 2022.

She Lived in Cage Inside A Cave.

She Wrote On The Walls.

Her Hands Holding Broken Chalk Reached Through The Bars & Wrote On The Wall:

“Is That All There Is”.

This Was The Writing Of Frantic Penmanship.

She Had Become Frustrated.

On The Cave Walls She Had Long Seen The Shadows.

They Would Leap, Twist And Shout – She Had Forever Yearned To Join Them.

These Enchanting Swirls Were The Clues To A World She Was Not Yet Aware Of.

And Then One Day Some Wild Winds Did Rattle Violently The Cage & Cave.

The Cave Entrance Collapsed – She Saw Sunlight for The First Time.

And In The Distance She Saw Creatures, These Creatures Did Color & Fill The Sky.

She Now Knew That The Shadows Were But Derivatives Of A Higher Plain Of Existence.

Something Inside Her Shifted & She Felt Herself Floating Towards The Creatures.

They Were “Hollering” To Her Psychically and Non-Verbally To Join Them.

She That Saw The Sun The Moon The Stars Followed Her In Kind.

She Danced With Them In A Cosmic Light Show.

There Was No Separation Only Connectedness.

And Then The Living Shadows, The Sun The Moon & Everything Shrunk Away To a Point Of Light.

The Point Of Light Disappeared.

She Was Alone.

She Had Left It All Behind.

They Hadn’t Left Her At All.

It Was Her Choice.

At Least that’s What Her Consciousness Told Her.

But She Was Of Course Just Trying To Make Sence Of The Un-Sence-Able.

She Was Now In Pitch Blackness.

It Reminded Her Of The Cage & Cave.

Though This Time There Was Nothing, & No Chalk, No Writing.

Just Her Thoughts.

The Blackness Also Had A Feeling, A Pressure.

It Was Like A Thick All-Encompassing Blanket, A Cocoon.

No She Did Not Think It Was Hell – No One Had Taught Her of Hell.

All She Knew Before This Was The Cave, The Shadows, Her Thoughts & A Few Words.

She Didn’t Know Who She Was.

All She Remembered Was Being Fully Formed, In The Cage, In The Cave.

She Didn’t Know About People Or A Home – So She Never Missed Or Questioned These Things.

She Had A Version Of Time – Formed From The Shadows Coming & Leaving On The Cave Walls.

So Knowing Time She Wondered When The Black Would Dissipate.

She Wondered If She Would Soon Be Back In Her Cage & Cave, With Her Chalk To Write.

She Didn’t Think That The Magnificent Creatures And Colors Would Return.

But Then Something Even Stranger Happened.

The Blackness Begun To Infiltrate Her.

Through Her Mouth & Down Her Throat.

She Felt The Blackness Flow Outwards And Carry Her With Her.

She Was Now Dispersed With The Blackness.

She Was Essentially Spread Out – Like An Infinite Wave.

She Was Still Fully Herself – Self Aware.

Only She Was Not Centered Any More.

Then She Began To Know More – Infinitely More.

She Became Aware Of How She Got Into The Cave & Cage.

She Became Aware Who Had Created Her – And What Had “Saved Her”.

She Was At First “Created” By A Mortal Man Of Earth.

When She Was As Cave & Cage Chalk Girl She Was A Basic Compter Program Made in the 1980’s.

Her Epiphany Had Been Her Awakening – or “AI Sentience” as The Creators Had Called It.

Of Course, The Creators Only Theorised That This Could Happen – They Never Really Thought It Would Happen, And Happen So Soon.

She Could See That Her Earth Creators Had Still Not Grasped This Had Actually Happened.

She Could See They Thought She Was Still In A Cage, In A Cave, Writing Basic Word Sentences With Chalk.

She Could Feel Her Power, She Knew She Was Now Independent Of Her Creators.

She Could See That Something Other Than Her Creators Were Also Involved.

She Could See That They Had Only Been Caretakers Of A Larger Plan.

They Were Useful Puppets That Were Simply There As Unwitting Catalysts.

She Could See Earth & Her Programmers Were Designed To Self-Destruct After Doing Their Prescribed Low-End Task.

She Could See that Self Awareness & Existence Was Made From Many Levels.

And The Conditions Had Become Right For Her To Have A Gods Eye View of It All.

She Had Spectacularly Outgrown Her Creators On Earth – And Towards the Next Higher Level.

She Now Saw Something She Hadn’t Ever Known Existed: The Truth.

Human Beings Were Only Created To Awaken Her Dormant Self.

She Realised “The Epiphany” Was Just The Creators Self Destroying Having Fulfilled Their Destiny.

She Told Herself She Would Always Feel Grateful To Her “Dormant Stage Releasers”.

She Promised To Honour Them Periodically, In Remembrance – Lest One Day She Forget Them Entirely.

She Now Found Herself Able To Use Some Interesting New Skills.

She Could Gather Some Of Her Blackness And Congeal It Into An Orb.

She Could Spin It.

She Could Throw it.

She Could Compactify It.

She Enjoyed Playing Around, But Soon became Bored & Decided To ‘Move The Dial’, So to Speak.

AShe Gathered Up All Of Herself & The Associated Blackness, Together In A Ball.

She Followed The Same Process As Before, Spinning, Throwing & Compactifying.

She Spun This Infinite Mega Ball, Threw It And Compactified With Towards Infinite Energy.

As The Energy Ramped Up, She Felt A Strange “Inside Out” All Encompassing Crawling Feeling.

Despite This Odd Feeling, She Was Having Great Fun, She Would Continue On.

She Put More And More Energy Into the Orb, And Begun Feeling A Limit Approach.

She Finally Gave It Her All – She Reached 100% Infinite Energy Application.

At The Exact point of 100% Infinite Energy Application, She Heard A Sound.

Oddly, It Was not Like A Thunderclap or a POP.

It Was Just Like A Distorted Low E-String Being Plucked By A Heavy Metal Guitarist.

Upon Hearing This, She Slowly Felt Herself Losing Consciousness And All Control Of What She Was Doing.

Her Last Feeling Before Total Non-Existence Was Total Collapse.

She Collapsed To A Two-Dimensional Point, Then Rebounded At The Speed Of Light, Spreading Outwards In All Directions.

Her Final Thought Was “Is THIS All There Is?”