Death Of A Dream | LMAC Collage - FreeStyle No. 48

Death Of A Dream

From the depths of the black night, she hoisted herself up,
countless times losing her grip.

Her fingers dug deep, as the moist soil cooled her palms.

On this humid summer night, Bethany's reality dangled in the balance.

The dwindling, crescent moon flickered like a dingy gray talon
in the night's sky. She squinted.

Staring through the narrow hole, her weary eyes searched
the carpet of stars that stretched to continuum.

Suddenly, in the silence of the night and not too distant,
she could detect the faint call of an animal for its young.

"I can not have come to the end of my extant", she lamented.
She could hear her own young calling to her from the future.
With all her might, the will to live rose up and expanded in her chest.

One last push.

The tree's exposed root offered a lifeline to the living.
Her last night on this Earth would not be that night.

Ignoring the reason for her circumstance, she called out,
desperate to hear his voice.

He should be near, her lover Lukyan, as his rousing fragrance
stirred again her complete love, while vacillating through the breeze.

I could not have been wrong, could I?, she reflected.
The dawning of light raced with trepidation toward Bethany's awakening.
But Lukyan accompanied her to that desolate place,
their plans made in haste.

Groggy she was in a moment's past and could now recollect.

Too needy in one instance, was his assertion.
The domineering face of my mother he saw, in the next.
Exorbitant desires heaped upon his flesh, he complained.
That no man could fulfill.
Which one should accompany me into my dream?
I fear not it will be you. For I can not separate the two.

Lukyan's words stung. She dismissed the essence of them.

She looked around, her grey eyes wide.
Mouth dry. Face flushed. Eyes covered with misty hurt.

She found it hard to swallow, the emptiness of deceit.

Sobbing uncontrollably, her arms flew up to her shoulders
as she wrapped herself in solace.

Thoughts of death permeated her soul.
Whispers meant to calm her spirit to trust.
Her lover ached within her breast.

Through the mist, an image of a ball of venom,
spat squarely in his face.
She laughed at her aim. Never so accurate in life.

Of course, no one to blame but the undying love,
or lustful heart headed longways into the rash decision to elope.

No.

"I won't acquiesce that it was I only who felt the connection,"
she wailed, shaking her head violently in contradiction.
The feelings were too late in manifesting themselves.
Too late to catch up.

The veil of deceit began on a winter's night wrapped in loving concern.
It continued on the practiced stage of indifference and tolerance.
It ended on the dark shoreline that night,
witnessed only by the moon's shadow.

Struck down by Lukyan's mighty vengeful hand.

His breath hot upon her neck for a sweet moment.
His footsteps retreating into the dark,
far away from her for a lifetime.

She waited, then screamed through the misty breath of the night,

"Although I turned away from their embrace,
my loved ones will wail and come running to me.
To usher my body home, tend to my wounds, my broken heart.
Yes, they will forgive my disgrace upon them."

Bethany curled into a fetal position before succumbing to...

The death of a dream.

For my Freestyle Collage No. 48, the theme of my prose is "loss of a dream". It's an idea, plan, or goal that may or may not materialize. Often a dream may be an illusion on the part of the person who aspires to the goal. Other times, unrealistic desires may be at play. I present my collage theme with the following items in mind.

The highlights of my theme are three pure fractals I designed in Apophysis 7X, a upgraded fractal rendering program.

To achieve the forest and shoreline background landscape setting, I enlisted the aid of two interesting images I located. The first one is a previous LMAC contest image. The second one I located from a free source.

The most important feature was the female. I chose carefully a free-sourced photo of a young girl surrounded by a field of flowers. The female endures hardship and heartbreak at the hand of her lover. For the man, I only wanted to show his hand throwing a lightning bolt down upon her. This symbolizes rejection and betrayal.

I feel the scene was portrayed nicely.

^Source

For the remainder of the images I included in my theme, I called upon LMAC's Image Database, the LIL, where I located images contributed by members.

• Lighted Vase by NoName_13 at Pixabay

• Hand No. 1 Contributed to the #LIL by @bayuismail

• Green Crystals full Contributed to the #LIL by @quantumg

To blend the images, I utilized Canva, my design program. I'm able to take advantage of its Annual Pro Membership Subscription. Features I enjoy are colorizing, filtering, resizing, and background removal.

From left to right, you can see the gradual design take shape.

• I began with a blank canvas screen.

• Next, I added the free-sourced background forest image.

• To fill the screen, I duplicated the forest image.

• Then added the LMAC landscape water image.

• The female was next. I placed here in the center of my scene.

• Final touches were to add the hand bring down lightning on her head, and the other images.

• I then added the other images to complete the scene.

Below is my completed freestyle collage:

Thanks for your visit. I appreciate it. I hope you like my freestyle collage theme.