The Berlin Wall fell this day, November 9th, 1989.

It took just one night for its pieces to shatter.

The walls that surround hearts can take a lifetime to break.

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50-year-old Thomas Weiss stood before a crumbling wall, wielding a hammer he wasn’t sure he wanted to use. His wife, Hannah, and twin sons had resided in the free zone for years–because she wanted to.

The wall had come down in 1989–ten years to this day. The shattered pieces lay on the ground, waiting to come together.

Thomas wondered if they would–but some walls sealed hearts.

And stood taller.

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Youngsters still came to hack at the bricks that hadn’t yet given way, breaking out in raucous hollers as they did.

Thomas watched them, his memories more dislodged with each blow of the hammer. Each cheer he heard felt like an accusation—like Hannah’s last words to him.

He wasn’t sure he envied the wall for coming down.

Before he slammed the door of the family home–sharper than the barbed wire that accompanied the bricks.

A young man spotted him standing, still in a reverie. He stretched out his hand–a small piece of the wall lay in his palm.

Thomas hesitated. He wasn’t sure if it was just unwanted history coming apart, or a piece of his own heart.

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His wife appeared amidst the dust and fallen wall splinters.

Older.

Strange.

The shadow of the wall that was, stood between them–too real.

Freedom felt foreign–the hardest reunions were the ones one didn’t prepare for.

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He dropped his hammer, the crowd’s joy flooding over him. He and Hannah didn’t embrace–but stood together.

Breathing the air of freedom for the first time–

In decades.

Their unity had begun—in silence.

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As dawn broke, the wall had nearly crumbled completely. The crowd had vanished, save for a few stragglers.

The bricks had come apart in just one night in 1989. His peace with Hannah would take a lifetime of rebuilding.

The Berlin wall had finally fallen. The one in his heart–still solid brick.

And had to shatter–within.

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William Long was put out. The disgruntled electrician lacked a social life–the thirty-something-year-old spent most of his days in a garage, fiddling with light bulbs that flickered at will and lamps that emitted buzzing noises that grated on the ears.

Still, he kept the lights on–literally. Not for profit–

But for love.

Of his eleven-year-old daughter, whose giggles had once turned the atmosphere in the garage from mere electric static into sparkling fireworks.  

He was a craftsman consumed by glow.

And memory.  

Each flicker spoke of her.

The divorce.

No interaction in years.

So he couldn’t keep the garage silent–the quietness hummed, flooding his mind with tears he couldn’t shed.

At least not openly.

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One evening, the cats and dogs came down in humongous litters.The buzz of half-reparied bulbs flooded the garage.  William scrambled from his desk to answer a frantic knock on the door.

He opened it to a teen girl, soaked to the skin. Her parka and umbrella offered no protection.

Something in her eyes stirred something in William.

In her slender young hands was a battered desk lamp.

Dark. Obviously not functioning.

The girl held it up with a sheepish grin.

“Sir, could you get this working again? I’m sorry that I can’t pay you. All I ask is that it works again.”

William noticed how gently she held the lamp.

He took it from her, albeit unwillingly.

As he tinkered with it, he observed her eyes on him.

Watchful and meticulous, as though offering guidance.

With a knowing gentleness.

The lamp flickered as William continued his work, but the girl was a picture of calm.

Finally, a faint hum.

“I know this lamp isn’t the best, ” It was as though she was reading his mind. ” I onlywant it to shine.”

At that moment, William knew what the lamp was for–not its steadiness or quality, but its presence.

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Some tweaking from the electrician, and steady light.

Though it wasn’t the brightest.

William hissed under his breath, ready to admit defeat. But the teen stepped closer.

She patted him on the shoulder. A familiar touch.

“It’s glowing. That’s all you needed to do for me. All it needed to do. All I needed.”

She left the garage with the lamp, turning back with a nod and a smile that he knew–

But couldn’t place.

Then, on a shelf behind his workbench, a photograph.

Of the girl.

He still didn’t know her. But felt her.

Tugging at his heart in ways too knowing.

Weeks, later, the teen girl returned.

The same knowing presence.

She showed him how she placed the lamp on her desk so she could study.

She left again, not telling him who she was.

Or about the photograph she had left on the shelf.

He smiled, somehow content—

With acceptance–and a little unconfirmed mystery.

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Please find a book of my horror microfiction, Echoes in the Dark, free for download here.

Nature gives, yet some forget its cost.

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The moon’s glow absorbed the night sky in the village of Lunardom.

A constant presence.

Lunardom couldn’t recall what kept it there.

What kept it strong.

The villagers revelled in its beauty, then—

The sky opened in eerie silence.

No moon.

Or rising tides,  with the pulse of its gravity.

But everything felt—wrong.

The night forgot itself—

Becoming restless—and so did the rest of the sleeping world.

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The forest near Lyra teemed with wildlife—not wild in the way we knew.

Birds didn’t chirp—they whispered. Howls replaced the croak of frogs. Wolves sang—humanlike tones that crept up spines and froze them.

A silver glow teased the surfaces of mirrors and puddles—but it wasn’t the light of the moon.

But its mimic.

Lyra was out collecting firewood one afternoon when on her wrist—

A mark.

It moved.

Syncing with the rhythmic movements of something—

Unseen.

And so the path to the unknown opened—in ways that would unsettle and shape Lyra’s—and the forest’s core.  

The shifting mark unnerved the typically stoic Lyra-

Who, ever the heroine, embarked on a quest to settle it.

Then, an old journal in the attic.

One with pages that told of—the Lunarkin.

Ancient guardians of the moon.

Her mind—and all she knew-unravelled like spools of tangled thread.

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Lyra followed the mark’s irresistible pull to the lake.

It too, behaved erratically, rippling upward to the surface instead of outward, defying and reconstructing gravity.

Then, she caught sight of herself.

Not her.

But a creature of light and bone

The guardian—or captor—of the Moon.

The being spoke, its voice thundering and gravelly.

“The Lunarkin have damaged the ancient tether beyond repair.” It intoned to the trembling girl.

“The void must have one descendant before it will be satisfied.”

The mark on Lyra’s arm spread—and pulled her.

Toward the water.

The void had made clear which descendant it wanted.

But the brave girl wasn’t about to let history repeat itself.

With a quick, practiced flick of her wrist, she sliced off her palm.

And offered it to the omnipresent, sentient being.

Then, a petrifying burst of silver.

Shards flew.

The surrounding light did an upward pirouette, and—a new moon pieced itself against the dark skyline.

Lyra’s reflection—gone.

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The moon steadied itself in the night sky, its light now pale and flickering.

As if recalling its shattering.

Tides surged once more. Birds called with resounding chirps. Wolves howled, hailing the moon’s presence.

But their rhythm broke through the forest in distended fragments.

Nature’s poor mimicry of normalcy.

Lyra’s reflection was no more. But ripples formed in puddles at the sound of her name.

The village cheered the moon’s return, welcoming it with feasts and dances—forgetting the girl who gave.

Beneath the surface of the lake, a gentle, silver shimmer, shaped in a palm.

Throbbing intently with the moon’s rise.

Paying what was due the Moon.

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The world continued, but lighter.

Lonelier.

The moon always graced Lunardom’s sky, but with a familiar face that took on its dim, sad glow.

Forgotten

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If you like this story, do join me on Patreon! Buy this blog a coffee — it keeps the words flowing and the lights Your kind donation via Paypal would be greatly appreciated!

Please find a book of my horror microfiction, Echoes in the Dark, free for download here.