Purify

  I.  To be staggering through the woods at night 
             with no flashlight
       is daunting.

            One night in early summer, October found herself in the woods surrounded by tall, looming trees.  They looked placed as though someone carefully bore giant holes in the ground with electric stakes and strategically nestled these tall creatures into the earth in an intricate pattern that was designed for this very moment in time to prevent October from finding her way out.
            "This is a test," she decided when noticing that she could walk for exactly 50 paces between each tree.  "It's just too perfect not to be."
              She stood for a moment leaning her head against the crooked trunks and held out her hand to see only a faint glow emerge from her indigo skin.  It matched the dark night.  With new determination, she looked up, curving her frail neck as far back as possible and searched for the sky.  The branches of the trees formed an impenetrable canopy that she couldn't see past.
              There was a constant hum in the distance.
            She craved fire, a glint of starlit sky, the glow of a deer's eyes.  Anything.  But there was no light. She took comfort in a gentle breeze gracing her cheek.  She closed her eyes, counted to fifty, and walked again.