Unchained

• Selina Tan, Grade 8
• Short Story
• 2016

Rain pours down on me, soaking my clothes. But I’m used to it now.
I’m chained to the ground on my wrists, ankles and my chest: unable to move, unable to seek shelter.

I used to think that everyone saw the world in fractured pieces of black and white. But I was wrong. It turned out that it was just I. There was a time when I could see like others, a time when I wasn’t alone. But that was in the past.

How many days has passed like this? I wish that I could go back to when everything was fine, when there was happiness in my life; when I made the most out of each day. But now the seasons pass by one by one, without me noticing. I sigh and think back, torturing myself with memories.

“It’s easy, just lift up the corners of your mouth,” she had said while trying to make me smile. She sighed and said, “I guess we’ll have to do it the hard way.” She reached and attempted to tickle me but crashed to the floor when I sidestepped to avoid her. “Aaah- hey!”
For the first time, I felt at ease.

I laughed.

It was cloudy that day but after that, the sky started to clear.

The more time I spent with her, the clearer I could see my surroundings. Raindrops, petals, slithers of sunlight, and all the small things I’d never noticed before. Shades of blue, yellow, green, pink- I could see them all now.

“Thank you.” I told her one day.
“What are thanking me for? I should actually be thanking you, for not killing me when I tried to do weird stuff for you,” she answered.
“Well then thank you for believing in me.”
“I’ll always believe in you. Forever.”
She smiled, lighting up everything around her.

As weeks passed, I fell for her. But I never got the chance to tell her. Before I knew it, she was gone.

When she left, everything started to fade back to black and white. Everything spiralled downhill, to the point I am now. I don’t want to live this way anymore… I want to go back, back to when I had something to live for. I want to live, not just survive.

Slowly, I walk forwards, feet scraping against the dirt, chains working to pull me back. The chains get uprooted, dragging me as I make my way back. I don’t know where I’m going but there’s something telling me I’m going the right way. It feels like I’m being stabbed every time I move. And yet I still do.

Step by painful step, I get closer, the final chain, the one in my chest, is ripped out, my bottled up feelings come out with it. I breakdown when I see her in front of me.

“I’ll always believe in you.”

At that moment, the sky clears and colours bloom. Just like they did the last time.

“Forever.”