{Chapter 1}
The mirror this morning showed something. A girl standing there, looking at herself; only that she doesn’t feel like herself. She thought everything would change, but somehow she keeps coming back to what haunted her the most. Only time can truly tell whether or not she will strive from this. All she has to do is break free from that mirror. Break free from what traps her. Break free from the darkness within that has kept her from the light. Only time will tell.
It does not take a lot of strength, just courage. Courage to stand up for what seems to be right, courage to fight for what is right. It may not all make sense in the beginning, but it will in the outcome. The only difference is, the girl in the mirror will vanish and become so much more. The only difference from her escape is that she was not alone. She had a guardian angel beside her, and it only took her a year to realize that true happiness, true acceptance is seen when viewed from another perspective. Courage, determination, strength…words that were brought back to her.
As I walked away from the girl inside the mirror, I could feel despair rising. Her eyes gazing upon me felt like a weight was being put on my shoulders. The weight of facing another day in this world could not have felt more disappointing. Not because I wanted to end everything, but because I could not look at myself knowing that I felt lost. I was just another person lost and alone, and I didn’t know how to handle the situation.
School seemed like the only escape from my nightmare, from the nightmare that kept coming every day and night. The problem was that no one else seemed to notice the darkness that was taking over. No one seemed to notice the despair, the heartbreak, the desperation for a new change. No one was looking. No one seemed to care.
Little by little the girl’s screams and cries for help were unheard. There was no voice to turn to; no one to save her from what trapped her, no one there to help her rise from her misery. If only, she thought, there was someone out there that could see what she was going through. That wanting, the desire that her cries would be heard before it was too late. She never thought of taking her life, since it was already being taken by her own sadness, her own judgment. Little by little her world seemed to diminish, waiting for a sign. A sign that could save her after all.
Once school was over, she had to accompany both her parents and little sister to a practice. It wasn’t for her or her parents, it was for her sister. The girl whose reflection was an embarrassment had to find a new form of entertainment. She was forced that day to accompany them since her parents wanted her to get out of the house for once.
As she walked into the building, her sister went inside the classroom while her parents greeted the other parents that were waiting. She looked through the glass, only to notice her own reflection. Though this reflection was not clear, she still saw the same image. A stranger looking straight at her, someone she could not recognize. As the girl tried to ignore the stranger in the reflection, her eyes caught sight of a movement. At first she could not understand what she had seen, for it was unexplainable. As she looked closely, she was cautious and tried to be unnoticeable for she wanted to see for herself if what she had seen was real.
A movement which seemed both delicate and powerful was lifted in the air and then came back to the ground. She could not understand the sight for she had only seen it in movies. For a while, time to time, she stared through the looking glass but only to see if the movement would reappear; this time the stranger in the reflection would not disturb her view.
Towards the end of the class, she could not see the movement for it seemed to have vanished. As she was about to walk out of the building, something came upon her; a sense that someone was watching. Though it seemed ridiculous at the time, the girl did not realize the eyes that followed her. She only had to take one look, one quick look, and her curiosity would be answered. For some reason, however, she decided to ignore that curiosity.
Chapter 2
As I waited to leave the new place, I overheard the conversations that the more adults were having. They were talking about the first tournament of the year, a tournament where the new members of the team would compete for the first time.
I seemed to have had a confused expression at the time because my father kept staring at me. It took me only five seconds to realize that the tournament would be held on the day of my birthday, the day in which I would turn eighteen.
I felt rage inside of me, since my birthday was supposed to be the day that I felt true happiness in my opinion. I knew that my parents would make up for it, maybe a special dinner like the other years. The rage quickly diminished since I saw how excited my parents were, and the truth of the matter was that part of me did feel quite happy.
As my parents and my sister headed out the door, I was behind them when I felt somewhat uneasy. The feeling that someone was watching came over me once again, and this time I wanted to make sure whether or not my feelings were true.
I looked through the looking glass one more time, and I saw them. The gaze that seemed to have followed my every move that night was watching. I turned my head and kept walking. I was not going to take notice of the eyes, at least, not for a long time. As I got into the car I began to wonder about those eyes. They appeared sincere but at the same time curious. My parents and my little sister talked the whole drive back home, and yet I stared out the window looking at the stars in the pitch blackness of the sky.
That night I dreamt of a wandering person. She seemed lost, trying to find her way back, but yet she seemed to be waiting for someone. She stops, only to see a small concrete bench. She sits on the bench, waiting, waiting for something. Possibly waiting for someone, and she doesn’t even know it.
She stares at her surroundings, but nothing is there. Only the light shining towards her and the bench. As she feels that it is time to give up on waiting for a new hope, she feels a presence nearby. She was not the only person sitting on the bench.
A face which she could not tell who it was sat next to her on the bench, and what the person did next surprised the girl. He took her hand and whispered “I’m right here…it’s all going to be okay. I promise.” As the girl looked away, she noticed what she had dreamt of for a while now: the colors started to appear in her world, and the darkness that had surrounded her started to vanish.
