The Last Sunbeam

Trapped inside a transparent box was the last sunbeam. It was kept in the grandest room in the National Museum of Pangesia. After passing through none the less than three security points stripping you bare of armor, weapons and finally unpure thoughts the heavy metal doors would open slowly to a church like hall almost completely engulfed in darkness. A few artificial torches would cover the walls on either side as you entered. In the center of the dark room you would see it. Sometimes it flickered, often it bounced from side to side and sometimes it spread like fog filling the entire box. A prisoner shining its warm, soft, light.

People had to spend the equivalent of a whole month's pay to afford the entry. No matter how rich or poor you were - a month's paycheck was the entrance fee. Some people fell to their knees and cried before they even reached the sunbeam. Others studied it in awe until they had to be dragged out of the room screaming like a heartbroken child. The removal of unpure thoughts meant that no one had tried to break the enclosure nor steal the sunbeam for decades. Only a few people dared to stretch out their fingers near the glass to feel the warmth radiating through.

The last sunbeam was caught by a professor of science in 2490. Her name would remain unknown throughout history. The professor did not want to face the wrath of the people who found it horrifying to keep something that was meant to be free trapped even if letting it go meant losing it forever. She had made a statement about the sunbeam the year after it had been captured and critics had demanded in quite violent manners an explanation. The short statement had been embedded on a silver plate placed on the pillar supporting the sunbeam's prison.

"May it serve you as a reminder of what has been lost

and as a hope of what can one day once again be found."

Darkness had engulfed the Earth for centuries now. Life expectancy had dropped from a record high of 200 years to 45 - if you should be that lucky. Artificial sunlight had been invented years before but it could only provide for so many people. Resources were scarce and the human mind crumbled under the clenched grip of the never ending nights. Something near anarchy raged the streets of the common people and "Every Man For Himself" was the new 'Amen' preached in schools and churches. There was hope and rumours that scientists would find a way out or a figure out a way to bring back what had been lost. But it was nothing more than speculations and for many people sunlight was nothing but a fairy tale you told children to comfort them when they saw monsters in the eternal night.

But for now, all humans had was that quiet, little sunbeam in a dark room. Flickering, radiating, pushing. Silently telling its tale of a different time.