It was an ordinary day, dull as the one before...
A beautiful young woman lay sprawled across the couch, aimlessly scrolling through her phone,
a heavy tightness pressing against her chest
one she could not name.
Her family thought her mood was simply bad, But it was deeper than that.
" We've never understood you! What is it that you want? "
her mother would repeat, like someone knocking on a door that had long been sealed shut.
She was twenty years old, an age meant for beginnings, for accomplishments...
Yet, she had achieved nothing.
She'd gone to an ordinary school, had friends until high school, then,
silence.
Not because they had hurt her, but because life itself had become exhausting, Everyone had gone their own way.
And though she knew they still kept in touch,
she never felt like she belonged... anywhere.
Belonging...
such a distant light, always out of reach, She felt like an extra, unneeded, invisible.
She would cut ties, retreat into herself, then ache in the silence,
and the cycle would begin again...
Her family?
They had a hidden face, a secret shade no one outside had ever seen.
She had no room of her own, She slept in the guest room with her younger sisters,
fleeing from a brother's senseless violence.
She was the eldest daughter in a poor, dignified family, Her father worked every job imaginable to give them a decent life,
He was drowning in debt,
but he never showed it,
Her younger brother had special needs,
and his way of coping was anger and violent outbursts.
Her mother?
Constantly irritable, always on edge, the weight of life pressing down on her.
As for her siblings..
they were detached, floating through the household, unbothered by the storm that brewed under their own roof.
And she...
She bore it all, She carried a weight that would've crushed the strongest.
In her teenage years,
she was a silent victim abused by a relative,
The assaults only stopped when she finally told her mother,
Her mother's answer..
" Forget it ever happened "
And so, she did, Or tried.
But her skin still shivered at the memory.
She constantly felt under pressure, as if the world sat on her shoulders, She longed to escape, to break free.
That's why she turned to books..
to other worlds, to other lives, to silence.
She graduated from high school at seventeen, She didn't get into university,
Her qualifications weren't enough.
Depression swallowed her whole...
a year of darkness.
She shut everyone out, Her weight increased, her hair fell, her habits crumbled,
and her moods soured.
But one night, she stared into her reflection... and decided to fight.
She joined a gym, made a new routine, and chose to return to her studies.
But life had other plans, Her bad habits returned, She missed the university application deadline.
" It's fine, I can do it! "
she whispered to herself,
and tried again, this time, she wasn't accepted...
" I'll try once more "
And she did.
She studied for an important test...
one that could increase her chances, she passed, with a high score!
And she was thrilled.
Three months left until registration opens.
But then...
Why did she feel so empty?
So unbearably bored?
She was frustrated, angry, sad and still, bored.
She loved reading...
philosophy, history, religions, geography
even internet novels... nothing escaped her eyes.
But still,
the void inside her stretched wider…
Her sleep was chaotic, she stayed up through the night, only to fall asleep after dawn.
One night, she opened a book, got excited,
read until sunrise...
But when she awoke, she wasn't in her bed.
She was lying on a cracked floor,
in a place that resembled the eerie, broken down shack from her hometown memories.
She panicked!
' Only half a month left until university registration opens '
That was her first thought.
Then, a whisper in he mind..
' What is happening? '