Fading Fantasy
She loved stories. She grew up with books as a constant companion, and knew she would continue to do so. Their heroes, heroines, and villains became friends to her, friends she could call on whenever she needed someone to talk to.
As she grew up, her love spread even wider. Manga, comics, video games, cartoons and animé. . . she drowned herself in them. It was as if she no longer lived in reality. She seemed to be someone who let her fantasies float her off the face of the earth and into a galaxy only she understood.
It was true, actually. She was someone who was well aware of the pain and suffering that went on around her; she could feel the tears that filled her eyes every night; she could hear her quivering voice whenever she had to speak in public.
But just because someone knew reality, didn't mean that someone would want to stay in that hell above hell.
So she didn't.
Every night, when the insecurities, anxieties, and pressures of the world threatened to crush her soul, she grabbed the pink, princess themed pillow her mother had given her back when she still cared, and lie in bed, weaving stories in her mind.
They were like any traditional love story. A guy who loved a girl who'd been entangled in thorny vines and cursed for many years. Except the dragon, the curse, and the witch weren't. They were her troubles, the belief that she didn't matter, the belief that she was never enough. He fought through them, despite not being perfect, he fought through the monsters in her, and gave her happiness again. Every night, for a brief minute, she was a princess loved by all, a princess with friends aplenty. For a brief moment, she could smile.
But recently, she started to lose her grip on that fantastic fantasy.
One night, as she lay down clutching the pillow she'd named Fluffy and tried to create another escape from reality, the storyline suddenly changed. He was still there, the princely antihero of her dreams, but he wasn't there either. He was her hero no more, he was the villain.
She tried to regain control over the story, making the friends she had stand up for her, tell her villain that he'd done wrong. She tried to make him realize that he was wrong.
But again, the tale changed. He scoffed when he was told, believing it a lie, and convinced her friends of the same belief. They were in shock, and willingly betrayed their friend when a more kingly, powerful man asked them to.
Again and again she tried, and again and again she failed.
Tears escaped her eyes. She would cry herself to sleep that night, as gone were the tales that gave her life light.
Comments