MM: Escape to Self

The prompt: They began their journey after nightfall.

What came out of my head:
They began their journey after nightfall. Stumbling over branches. Nicked by sharp limbs. Tripped by their urgency to escape. It was safest to travel while hiding under the opaque skirt of Mother Nature but that wasn't why they ran. They were born nocturnal beings. Running in the dark wasn't scary. See, they had no choice. Sleep by day, work by night. This was what came naturally to them. Alicia would always say, "Anybody can be a day person. Heck, everybody's doing it! It takes someone with skill and stamina to sleep in the midst of all that noise and to not be driven mad by the silence of the night." For years Alicia thought herself a loaner because she could never find a kindred spirit who understood how it felt to be energized by the stars and moon. Solar energy? Pish posh! Try celestial energy, my friend. In the night you could wish upon a star or sing by the light of the silvery moon. Try that with the sun. You'd just put an eye out!

She found that friend, but Alicia got tired of defending herself. She was tired of over caffeinating in order to stay awake. She was beginning to fool no one and it was getting dangerous. In her world, everyone needed their "full sleep" and God had made it clear that that sleep should commence when the sun was fully in it's sleeping chamber, hidden away just over the horizon, and cease when it was fully visible once again. Of course sometimes you did not actually see the sun. So the Daytrippers made it easy. When the sky was no longer bright, it was time to say good night. Anyone not abiding by this law would be prosecuted, persecuted, then executed. No exceptions.

So she ran. To where, she wasn't sure. She was just tired of people asking her, "Why do you sleep so late? How can you be so alert at the end of the day? What's wrong with you, anyway?" They were beginning to suspect. They were a society of like-minded people and they would not know how to live with anyone not of like mind.

And she ran. They could survive out "there" wherever there was, right? They could do it. It wasn't going to be easy.

And she ran. Away from the torment of 9 to 5. Away from the day time soaps and talk shows that dominated television. Away from the top of the morning until she saw the expanse of sky, the looming moon that lit her way, the shimmery pathway that looked slippery but felt soft as air, and she embraced the freedom of that dark space, her breath catching in the wind making it hard to breathe out, yet the soft strokes on her cheeks were welcoming.

And she ran to a place where the night never ends.

She was unrecognizable when they found her body at the bottom of the cliff. Her running companion had no choice but to lead them to her and by doing so he sentenced himself to life under the watchful eye of the Daytrippers who were determined to get him to conform.

Then there was Alicia. The mortician did his best to put the pieces back together again and he did. She was a work of art. So he framed her, sealed her in a special solution that would preserve her for all eternity and displayed her in a place of honor in his facility where she could be admired day and night, forever in the light.

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What's this about, Monica?

You don't know? Why, it's my own March Madness!

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