|| "Thumbalina was so small, her problems so great. She sat on my finger once and told me how it was to be so helpless. She told me that she wasn't really, because her heart was strong and she believed in herself. It didn't make her any taller, but it did make her problems a little smaller. If only she were here now to give me an ounce of her courage." ||
My aunt wouldn't hear of my stories, wouldn't listen. She locked me away in my room, making sure my window was secure. That is where I stayed, alone in the horrible darkness until the day rolled around she'd finally let me out. I'd have let my hair down outside before then, like Repunzel, if it hadn't been sealed shut, or I'd have shrunk down small like a mouse and squeezed out under the door if I were a genie.
Usually when the world bothered me most and my heart ached, my friends would find me and help heal it up. Only this time I was left with my thoughts. It was scarier than the darkness I kept my room in. I wouldn't let myself think, wouldn't let myself remember. Instead I brooded over my phone, praying for it to go off and for Perseus to tell me he's going to come and get me and take me away from here.
I willed for my friends to come and see me. Tried to summon them out of the shadows where they often hid. All I got was silence. They hadn't come back to me. They were gone.
I curled up on the floor under the light cast in by the window and cried.
I cried as I fought not to see flames rise up around me. Lighting the room. Still none of them touched me. I told myself they weren't real, but they were real... once.