Safe in here. I like this. I like how you hold me.

I know who you are. Where you must go. It is inevitable.

Whisper to me. Tell me your secrets. Safe in here.

You must leave this. It is time. Come.

Don’t let go… Don’t leave. Don’t leave!

Please: you are not lost—we await you—but we cannot tell you where to go. You must make your own path.

I don’t want this. You have forsaken me. Safe in here.

You’re close. Your obstacle is you now. Push past your fears.

Why?? Why do you leave? I need you… I’m dying.

Do you feel life? Come join us.

I’m scared!

Come closer.

Come back.

I see you. You are ready. You are a woman. You are purity. We all want to meet you.

I don’t recognize you.

Look at me. Look at you. Tell me what you see.

A fraction of my parents, and more. I want to go back.

We all want to go back. And you can… just not forever.

Is this your home?

No. This is your home. I say what I see, I tell no lies.

What is a lie?

Safe out here.

-by Ross Pruden

 

 

Lisa Coronado is an actress, writer and producer. She grew up in Washington and developed a love for theater at a young age. After several years performing on stage, she transitioned into film. She has played a wide range of roles over the last few years, most recently in the short films “All My Presidents” and “Revelation”, the pilot “The Divine Marigolds”, the web series “The Collectibles” and the feature film “Divination” (which is available on Amazon.) Most recently Lisa starred in the feature “Ghostlight”, currently in post production and slated to be finished Christmas 2012. When not performing, Lisa is writing and producing with her production company Corwood Productions. In her off-time she enjoys playing scrabble, fantasy football and relaxing with a plate of nachos and a good Irish whiskey.

 

The little girl sat, as still as a hat, and wondered and pondered and thought:

What’s that there, through my backyard lair, I see, I saw, a Gnot!

 

She paused for a bit, scared out of her wit, then stood and ran and leapt:

Into the forest greens, away from sun beams, to a land where secrets are kept.

As the darkness fell, she started to tell, herself to stop, to turn , to go back:

But the creature was near, so she swallowed her fear, and continued down the track.

The monsters were hiding, time they were biding, to grab and hurt and break:

But on the girl went, despite the torment, lured through curiosity’s wake.

Around a bend, the path came to an end, and she looked, and searched and cried out!

“This can’t be it, I refuse to quit”, and she plopped on her heels to pout.

Ripped was her dress, her pigtails a mess, she started to cry, weep and wail:

When that creature appeared, inside a glass mirror, and to her it did hail.

She wiped her face, regained her place, and stood, and stared and stepped:

To face what she sought, though scary now caught, but to which she must accept.

Curiously she took in, the blue eyes and fair skin, so similar yet different than her own:

Tall it stood, not bad not good, yet lacking youth it was grown.

Her hand slowly rose, to touch and expose, the mystery behind what she was seeing:

But to her fright, it grabbed her with might, and change slowly washed over her being.

Shaken to her core, a child no more, she forced her gaze upon:

The creature in the mirror, the thing that she feared, was quite beautiful all along.