The Garden of Loneliness

He woke up amidst darkness. It seemed to be a clearing in a forest. The trees flanked the clearing from all sides. They were tall and dense in their leaf cover with a dark green coat. Though he could see (what appeared) as the sky over their towering heads, he could not guess the size of the forest, it appeared to span on for leagues altogether.

There was no sound. There was absolute silence akin to that within a morgue. The trees, the blades of grass, the shrubbery in between - everything was still. Nothing moved. It was cold inside the clearing. Though it did not frighten him or appear to threaten him with horrors, he felt melancholic. There was no familiar fragrance of the forest. Something appeared amiss.

He wondered. Where was he? How did he end up here?

He saw a lady afar. She was walking towards him without any haste. She was convinced that there was nowhere for him to run. Barefoot she walked, pressing the grass with her white feet. She was a fair lady; fair of skin, delicate yet sharp in features, well defined jawbone, piercing black eyes yet slender in frame and graceful in her gait. Long flowing black hair which matched her eyes. She was clad in white. Her face shone with a ghastly brightness. He would have have termed her as exceedingly beautiful. However, she appeared surreal. He could not decide if she was evil though she did not seem to be.

They both stood facing each other. She gazed at him as if penetrating his form with her eyes through a thousand spears as she searched. She smiled at him fully in control of herself. He had not seen such beauty before (nor such majesty as she wielded). But there was a thaw in that smile, something uncanny. 

He asked her, "What is this place? How did I get here? Who are you lady? What is your business here?"

She nodded understandingly as if she had anticipated this. "You are in a garden. I am the lady of this garden. I am known as Loneliness." She replied with a firm voice which matched the coldness of her appearance. "This place is my garden. The Garden of Loneliness. It is impossible to enter this garden except if you have strongly wished to enter it or if you truly deserve to be alone."

He asked her again, "I wish to leave this place at once. Please point me the way towards the exit. I don't know how I ended up here. I cannot remember anything." 

She laughed hoarsely. "Nothing could have brought you here except a true desire to enter my garden. The size of this garden as it appears to you is a direct culmination of your desire. You must have truly desired to enter this garden. I have never beheld such an enormous extent of the forest."

He gazed at her truly perplexed "you mean I created this garden? You call this a garden?"

She replied, "For yourself, yes. You did play a role. The size of the forest, the deafening silence, the absence of any motion or in other words, any hint of life - These bear testimony to the fact that your desire to enter this garden was far beyond normal. There is no way out of this place." 

He stared at her, shocked with disbelief. "Are you for real?" He asked.

"You still don't get it, do you? I am a projection of your own self. I am the projection of your deepest desires which even you do not fathom completely. My form reflects the being which you desired the most. But then if you crave for something (or someone) that strongly, you have to go till the very edge to obtain that object. In the world of humans, this is termed as obsession or in simple words - madness. However, you can only go so far. In your case, you went beyond all realms. Even madness is too light a word to describe the ends to which you went. In your search, you left everyone behind, everything behind. Now you are secured here with me till the end of time. Isn't that which you always wanted?" She solemnly quipped.

"I wanted beauty. I wanted truth. I wanted sincerity. In their absolute terms. I wanted to repel mediocrity, hypocrisy, ignorance. I did not wish for all this." He gasped.

"Now meditate again on what you just said. You will understand that your presence here is not unwarranted for. Your quest would lead a person only to this path alone - to the garden of Loneliness." She smiled.

He stared around him, as if searching for a path - a path which could point him to an exit. She amusingly observed him. "There is no way out. The Sun does not dawn here. The darkness grows with each moment and will slowly, very slowly consume you. I leave you here now. I can't be seen as giving you company and therefore violating the basis of my garden's existence. Enjoy (or endure) your stay here. You have earned it. No one escapes ever the garden of Loneliness. No one dies here. No one lives here." She started moving away.

"Hey. Tell me one thing. Is this real or is it only going on in my head?" He pleaded.

"Ofcourse it is going on in your head. But why should it not be real" She winked and walked off.