Return

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The crunch of her feet on the gravelled walkway echoed in her ears.

The streets were kind of lonely, she noticed clutching tighter at the too long sleeves of her shirt feeling right at home. It was cold, very cold. But compared to what she was about to face, the cold seemed like a warmer companion. So cheating time like a reluctant kid on the first day of school, she stretched the distance between outside, where the cold was a warmer companion and her destination inside, where the warmth was coldly alien.

Maybe she'd be rewarded for it later with a cold, and it suited her fine. Because, well, who didn't like warm blankets and hot cups of chocolate, far away from the world? She chuckled sadly, remembering someone who really didn't like a hot cup of chocolate.

A duo of elementary school kids, huddled in raincoats, passed her that same moment in a hurry, shooting her a look as if sauntering and chuckling to herself was a crime. She could've laughed at their agitation but they weren't the only ones running late either. So she settled on a bored look, towering over their small figures with an icy blank stare which did just the trick. Right until a light drizzle showered them that had the kids sprinting into a jog.

The rains had come. All around replenished greenery and brighter colours, little plants struggling out their new green clothes and learning to take baby steps out of their growing new roots.

The redemptive rain had come to wash everything pure, to take away the dirt and grime and the blasted heat. And nature had began to heal, the colour of life slowly creeping outwards the earth.

Everything looked greener, brighter, newer, maybe except her but that was a story for another day.

Anyways it left her wondering if she could also be washed clean, if she was as fixable as nature. She herself could admit that indeed she was a far cry from nature but still she wondered whether she would ever heal.

Besides a little hope not hurting, the idea of comparing herself with nature seemed horrendous.
Nature was this everlasting innocent and primitive beauty she knew she could never be. And even if she one day managed to be beautiful, it would be a different kind of beautiful, one with damage and scars.

Besides, nature had more brighter colours than she could ever have in her life. It might have seemed overrated to the telepath looking through the contents of her mind, but how she saw it, nature was a blushing carefree woman with a glow she would be never able to pull off. She was the sour, icy girl in the shadows with a deathly parlour.

Where nature built, she was its destructive touch. And she was supposedly to be considered as a part and being of this entity she bore no resemblance to.

Somehow that made her feel left out. Hell! A whole bunch of things made her feel that too. She knew she should be used to it but she hated how sick that thought in particular made her feel.

Like a failed lab experiment.

Suddenly angered, she stormed towards the entrance, a punishing army of a solitary frail girl, and she crushed underfoot any growth that stood in her way.

Nearing the entrance, she shivered, more from nerves than the cold her precious bravado faltering.

But she didn't stop walking, couldn't stop putting one foot before the other. She'd come too far to return. Bracing herself for whatever was to come, she entered. She didn't want to but she knew she'd have to face it eventually and like they say, better sooner than later.

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