Alone

I push aside the curtain
  My dress is hot and heavy
  I raise my mask to my face


The masquerade ball is warm and crowded
  I feel the perspiration growing on the nape of my neck
  Masked women push past me
  To greet their friends

The dresses swirl around me
  As woman dance with others
  I step on the hem of a dress
  The fabric tears beneath my heel

I reach down for the scrap
The rosy red velvet is soft to the touch
  The air is suddenly suffocating
  I can barely breath

Down I fall
  I black out before I can hit the ground
  Falling down into the darkness
  Swimming through the dark

With a thud
  I hit the ground
  But not the ballroom floor
  Cold stone lies beneath me

I pull myself to my feet
  And look around the floor
  Stone pillars tower around me
  Their peaks reaching to the moon

Geometric shapes made of stone
  Lay around the floor
  I see a doorway
  I rush to it praying for a way out

Beyond that doorway
  I will find a way
  To get back to the ball
  Before anyone noticed my absence

Reaching the door
  I find it a disappointment
  Outside there is a cold grey sky
  And a pyramid who's peak reaches to the sky


I rush around the room
  Looking for the way I came
  In a dark shadowy corner
  A woman lays crying

It is the woman whose dress I stepped on
  Her dress is just the same
  But the tears soak her dress
  Causing it to moisten

She is alone
  No one is around
  Except for me
  We are alone


I walked slowly over to her
Slowly so I do not startle her
  She does not stir or make a sound
  Besides her quiet sobbing

My heart is sadden by this sight
  She is sad and alone
  I reach out to comfort her
  But as my reach to touch her shoulder

I feel myself falling
  Down and down
  Into the black
  Swimming in the darkness

I wake once again on the hard ballroom floor
  Everyone is laughing and milling around
  As if nothing has happened
  I must find that woman

I need to know her story
  I need to help her with her pain
  I must find her
  But when I look around she is nowhere to be found


Pushing past others
  I search the room
  For a sight of that pained woman
  But I cannot find her anywhere


I must know her story
  I must know why she cried
  Where I was, why she was there
  Why she was
  Alone