By JOANNA LIVIERATOU

A short story

Suddenly everything went black. She didn’t have the faintest idea about where she was. “What on earth happened?” she wondered. She looked around. It felt like a terrible dream, an everlasting nightmare. There was no sign of her family or her friends. Her friends… “That’s it!” she thought. “I was with a group of girls from university. But,” she looked around once more, “how did I end up here?” Her head felt numb and she started trembling. “It’s quite cold in here…I better find a way out of this stupid place, as soon as possible.”

But of course it’s always easier said than done. The young girl walked and walked, until her feet started hurting, she was calling for her parents without a pause, without even noticing that her voice was slowly becoming weaker and weaker. Or maybe… she was completely aware of the situation she was in. Nevertheless, she had no intention of letting fear stop her. She was determined to find a way back to her family.

“But… what about my friends?”, she suddenly asked herself. “Shouldn’t I be looking for them, too?” She stopped walking. It was as if time stood still. “You know they were never really your friends”, a voice in her head answered out of the blue. “They never wanted you for your true self. They just liked to make fun of you.” Then it came to her. It was like a pile of memories jumped into her head; memories with her so-called “friends”. “But wait…I don’t feel happy or excited, when I think of them.”

Before she could realize what was happening in her head, another bunch of memories and personal moments “jumped in”. But this time, it was different. Now she felt light-hearted and joyful. Pictures of her parents and her old friends came into view. How she missed them all. “Everything has indeed changed since high school”, she thought with nostalgia. “I should have dedicated my time to the people that genuinely loved me and cared for me”, she realized. “I have to make things right”.

And as these words came out of her mouth, this awful place she was in became illuminated and far more warm than before…