Untitled

Lights up

She spIns, round and round, her body a whirlwind of colourful fabric. In her mind an awestruck audience gazes at her gloWing form onstage. She smiles a brilliant smile and perfects another pIrouette. Then she sees him. He stands there, lurking in the shadows, haLf-hidden behind a bLood red curtain, watching her. His arms are crossed tightly agaiNst his chest and although his face rEflects the warm glow of the stage lights, his eyes are cold. "Chin up!" His voice booms across the theater. She stumbles and nearly falls, but catches herself just in time. She angles her face up towards the blinding lights. Even with her eyes closed she could see his disapproVal. "Keep your back straight! Lift your arms highEr! No! Don't lock your knees!" The commands fly at her, fast as shRapnel and just as sharp. She winces upon every word, feeling them like the swift taps of his metre stick whipping her body into position. "Faster!" She grits her teeth and spins faster. "Faster!" The world becomes a blur before her eyes. "FASTER!" Her limBs threaten to fall off, but she continues to wind hersElf tighter and tighter. Her crowd of admirers have lonG since disappeared, undoubtedly hOrrified by the uncontrollable hurricane that was once a girl, but they dOn't matter anymore. A thousand images flooD her mind, countless picturEs of her younger self biting back tears as he forced her to perfect stretches and splits, leaps and turNs, mercilessly mOlding her into a creatUre of grace and beauty. Hysteria invades her body. She screams. "Are you proud of me now!? Are you happy?" She explodes across the staGe in a series of indescribably fast movements, sHrieking. "Look at me! Are you watching? Are you proud of me yet!? Are you proud of me...."

A girl collapses on an empty stage. Her makeup is streaked with tears. Her hair, having long since escaped its once-neat bun, falls in ragged locks over her shoulders. Her clothing is ripped nearly to shreds. Her desperate cries echo from the stage, haunting the theater, but there is no one there to hear her.


Blackout

The End of the Tunnel

By 11pm that night she was sobbing uncontrollably. She had carelessly dropped her heart, and it had shattered into a million pieces. In her misery and desPeration, she pushed away the only person who could have heLped her put it back together. He was the only one who knew exactly how the piEces fit into each other, maybe because often times he knew her even better than she knew herself. But nonetheless, she tried to shove him away like he didn’t matter. Maybe it was pArtially his fault after all, but who’s to judge that? She didn’t know exactly how hard She’d pushed him back, but she knew she could expect him to walk away without a backward glance. So, she clutched the pieces of her heart in her hand and turned away, running into a tunnel of darkness, where she sat and drowned herselF in her own bitter tears, not knOwing what to do or how to do it. When her sobs subsided, she staRed down at the broken, lonely shards in her hands. Sighing, she slowly turned her head to look back at the entrance of the tunnel she sprinted throuGh. It was bright, almost too bright to see anything, but she could tell. He wasn’t there. ‘Understandable,’ she thought, ‘he had a rIght to leave. After everything that’s happened, he had eVery right.’ Even with these seemingly confident thoughts in her mind, she felt new tears well up in her eyes. And just when it almost became too blurry to see, a shadow appeared in the entryway of the tunnEl. It was a shadow she had come to know very well. The shadow silently stepped to the centre of the light and stopped, as if waiting for something. Disbelief paralyzed her entire body. The shadow spoke, quietly, but just enough for the walls of the tunnel to carry his words to her ears. “I am here. Don’t you ever forget that.” Awestruck, she rose slowly to her feet. His shadow shifted, and he opened his arMs towards her. She didn’t know what to say. Feelings of love and pain flooded her mind, colliding into each other in yet another heated battlE. They both had left scars there before, but which one would prevail this time? She looked back at entrance. He was still there, arms outstretched, waiting patiently. Taking in a deep breath, she raised her head and took step towards him.