#1 – Hope

Elana Verros woke in the middle of the night, throwing on a pair of old jeans and a faded summer top even though the autumn air was cold.  Half asleep she left her family home – her son and daughter in law and their three children – behind her and trudged across the countryside to the cliff tops that she had spent seventy years exploring.

Moving around and through the familiar rocks she came to an opening that she had never seen before – an opening that no mortal had seen for close to three thousand years – and, without conscious choice, she followed it down, deeper and deeper, not noticing that no matter how far she travelled it never got any darker.

When the ground flattened out, and she could go no deeper, she found herself standing beside a marble funeral bier, the porcelain features of a beautiful woman as clear as the day that they had been carved.  Elena’s eyes were drawn to the small wooden box that rested on top of the bier, between the stone hands.  Reaching out she felt a tingle of electricity as she ran her own hands over the wood, feeling the engraved name on the top of it.

With a smile she lifted the box, gently opening the lid, and marvelling at the lights that dance out of it – flying out into the night and bringing Pandora’s final gift to the world … hope.

Category: 2011, Superhero