Original Story
Title: You Are (NOT) Alone
Author: Inao Yuuri
Language: English
Category: Fiction (Psychological)
You Are (NOT ) Alone.
Are you? Yes you are. Alone. Completely alone. And even if you seek warmth, you don't try much. Because even if you are alone, you don't necessarily feel loneliness. Why is that? Because you chose it yourself...to be alone. It may be that you were alone once because there was no one, but not it's different. You can go to your friends every time you like. And still, you don't do it that often.
Are you just selfish? Half-truth. It is a fact that you are selfish and only live for yourself. You blame other people on your misfortune, but on the inside the one you blame the most is yourself. There are people you hate. But the strongest hate you feel is still exclusively for yourself.
You feel strong. You feel like you can't lose to anyone. You feel that if you felt like it, you could conquer the world. Then you look into the water. And you hate what you see. You turn around, run. Running so fast and so long, until you collapse with your ragged breath and tears stream down your eyes.
You lose all your powers and fall into the water. Despair is eating at you. You try to breathe, but water fills your lungs. It's cold, so cold. The only thing you see is the darkness below you. You clothes hang heavy on your unmoving limbs and drag you further into the dark cold water.
You no longer try to breath. You don't feel the necessity anymore. Everything becomes ultimately black. You don't care. Why? Because the cold has long numbed your body. Why? Because there lies security in this numbness.
You don't feel the pain from before. You don't have to cry. Why? Because this water are your tears. Your don't need light anymore. Nothing can hurt you. Why? Because there is no one. Why? Because this is your water. You don't permit anything else in this space, so nothing else can exist. You rule over your kingdom here. Underneath in the darkest waters there lies a golden city in the water. You build it. There is a throne. You sit on it.
You look around. Everything here is beautiful. But the joy over seeing this beauty has long left your heart. It get's colder. The temperature is sinking. And you realize, this city is completely empty. But you thought, there were people here once. They abandoned this place? No. Because they never were in this empty city.
Still, you didn't leave the castle. You knew there was the possibility that there were others in the open water. But you still didn't leave. Why? Because you could barely move anymore. And even if you found anyone, you could never fully trust them. What if they betrayed you?
Also, this kingdom was convenient for you, because there were no mirrors. You couldn't move, but you also didn't have to worry about anything. You wouldn't have to do anything and nothing would happen. You couldn't be killed here.
So, you were living on. For a long time. Then, one day as you reached for your throat, you felt something strange on it. You tried to look what it is, but you couldn't see it. You became scared at it and the golden city became grey. What was it? Why did it feel so strange? Bother was the first feeling that you felt for a long time.
Then, one day, you couldn't stand it anymore. You couldn't stand this boring grey city, this air and not knowing what was the thing at your throat. Suddenly, the buildings in your kingdom that had fallen from being of pure gold, to blocs of concrete, turned into buildings of glass now. You became very scared, because it would reflect yourself, but still, you had to know what it was at your throat. So you looked into the glass of one of the skyscrapers.
And what you saw was-
Gills at your throat. And then you realized, you hadn't taken a breath from your mouth or your nose for a long time.
You became scared. Panic started to disturb the waters and suddenly you also became afraid of the darkness around you. You looked out of the city, but all was pitch-black. Suddenly the water was disturbed and you were pushed back at a skyscraper. The torrent that pushed you against the building went through the whole city and eerie sounds, like screams echoed everywhere. But still, it was dark, you couldn't see anything!
A crowbar came at you, almost smashing your head in, but missing you by a hair's breadth, smashing into the glass. You are under shock, but then you grab it and try to go to the entrance of the building. You are running, but the water pressure slows you down and you almost can't move, as much as you may struggle. You finally reach the entrance, it is closed. You smash the door in with the crowbar and hysterically run into the building.
Still, inside the building the torrent chases you. The elevator is out of order, you take the stairs. You climb them up with the power of your fear of death and then you notice...the more you get up, the weaker the torrent gets. But you still can't stop. It is still chasing you. You run. Running, so fast and so long, until you are finally able to see something. You run further up, and suddenly, you are blinded.
Everything is white. Then...slowly, your eyes become accustomed and you start to see something. You look around, and for the first time for thousands of years you see...
You are standing in a garden with a variety of flowers in full bloom. Next to you is a small pond with water lilies. You are seeing the sun again and....there is something strange...
You feel. You feel the warmth of the sunrays on your skin, and they heat you up. You can feel again.
You decide.
You will never fall into the pond again. Because even if it's such a small pond, from the inside, it can become a sea.
You make a few steps to the pond and look into it. You look at your reflection at the surface of the water. But now your realize, your reflection is distorted by the moving water.
"So that's what it was?", you laugh out loud and turn to go your way and not to stop at any obstacle every again.