Light

First of all, I would like to thank whoever did this beautiful art that I used for my cover. You are super talented. Secondly, I wanted to remind you all to check out Key_to_Irezia, where this story is also posted. And, check out AlexaOfIrezia's motivational short story called "Hope." 

I wrote this story one day to add a little more positivity into my life when I was feeling down. I hope it also helps you get through any hardships in your life. <3 - Key 

Sobs escaped from her lips. Choked, rasping coughs, causing her to bend double and clutch her chest. Her eyes were wide, her body shaking - it was all encased in so much fear, so much pain. So much regret, so much sadness. She had told herself, tried to convince herself so many times that she was okay, that things would get better, that she was here for a reason. That fate and destiny had guided her here, that something special was waiting, that happiness could be found.

And though she had reached the point of belief in that, was even excited only seconds before, she should have known. Any kind of happiness that she got closed to was ripped from her in a second. It caused her another outburst. Another fit of crying. A sense of no reason to live, that nothing good would come in the world.

Tears leaked from her eyes, and she stared at the ground. The seconds progressed, and she knew that everything went on - that life went on. That people would go about their day, animals frolicking in the bushes, the sun shining down, oblivious to the pain and misery of a girl sitting in her room. How she longed to escape, longed to go somewhere where she would feel whole. Sometimes, that place was home, when she believed in happiness. But right then, it was nothing but cold. Icy hands gripping her and squeezing out her soul.

She turned to the ceiling, watching the light. Light. The opposite of darkness. The key to happiness, to feeling whole again, happy and unafraid. Hope, it was, that drove people away from the depths of blackness, from the monsters waiting to chew her at the bottom. The skinny, freezing hands that had gripped her belonged to those monsters, she knew. They were dragging her down, closer to nothingness. To loneliness. To nothing but darkness.

Could she fight back?

She had tried so many times to call the light, and even let it sometimes encase her, but had it really filled her? Filled her to the core, to the heart - belief that something better was to come? She had to hold onto hope, but how could she believe it, when there was no evidence?

There was.

All the little good things in life, even the smallest things. Her friends, her family, the people that loved her - or so she believed. But if she kept telling herself that they didn't, that there was nothing but misery, she'd break. She knew that.

She felt she was close to breaking now.

She was falling, falling down the conjured waterfall in her head, the one that she had slowly been pushed to. Each sharp pain nudged her closer, and she had reached the edge months ago. But now she could feel herself falling.

Just what was at the bottom?

Was it the pit of darkness, of monsters and misery?

Or was it something else?

She closed her eyes and took a breath, then lay down on the bed behind her. She could see it now, through her closed lids, the waterfall - black as night, with ice-cold water. Full of rapids that frothed at the edge, then fell vertically. She had followed that path, hadn't been able to prevent herself from going down.

Then she saw it - the light.

It was blinding in front of her eyes, like the sun shining onto her bed in the morning. It was coming from the bottom of the waterfall, where the water was not black but crystal blue, clear. Lush, green vegetation grew at its edges, smiling flowers all multicoloured. What was this place? And how was it that it was at the edge of the waterfall?

She could see them then - people and things that she loved. Her family and friends, her favourite books, movies, and TV shows. They were all waiting at the bottom, characters and real people waving and smiling. They had been waiting at the edge of the waterfall. And she had been wondering why, dreading what was to come when she reached the bottom. But now she understood.

In order for her to reach that true sense of happiness, she had to overcome her fears. Had to fall away from them, leave them behind. Of course, they would still be there, since the river was pumped by the waterfall, but there was still a huge sense of hope in that blue water. And there were people waiting to give it to her, new friends and old, reaching out their hands.

She took them, and light burst forth. Her body was illuminated by the sheer thought of warmth, of welcome, of happiness. She was overjoyed, almost all of the darkness gone. But everyone still had emotions in them, she knew. And at times, she would still feel upset. But in the end, she had to remember the things that were important to her, had to hold onto the good. For hope could drive her forth. What was the point of living in misery, when one could believe in the opposite of just that?

And so, that was what she did. And when she opened her eyes, she could almost feel her body glow. She emerged, got to her feet, stood up straight with her head high.

She had defeated the darkness. She had harnessed the hope.

She could do it.