Shadows Of The Past

• Jessica Gibbons, Grade 12
• Short Story
• 2022

No one can escape from their problems. Sure they can be buried but even that is only temporary, they follow you and fester until they either address it or cause a catalyst. Hood up, head down, keep quiet and blend in was the philosophy Emily lived by. She refused to engage with society and their mediocre problems any more than she needed to, especially considering last year’s incident. Everything was considerably normal, in other words Emily had managed to keep out of everyone’s way and keep all the attention off of her well that was until she made her first mistake. She bumped into someone. “Hey watch it girl!”
“Watch it girl!” A loud gunshot.
She gasped, “Sorry sir” not looking him in the eye as she sprinted off. What happened next, she really should have seen coming, but she didn’t. Why? Because she was running from something that didn’t exist. She was running away from the impossible. A scream brought her to her senses, only a moment too late. A collision. An explosion of paint. The quiet second when the busy crowd stopped to glance at the mess before continuing on with their daily routine that was encrypted into them. Emily didn’t pay attention as she stared at her hands that for some reason had managed to get red paint on them.
Blood on her hands.
“Hey…hey…hey.”
“Hey!”
Startled Emily looked up at the source of the voice.
“Are you okay?”
“I’M PERFECTLY FINE” pushing herself up from the ground and storming off to the public restroom room. She looked in the mirror. She looked terrible. Her eyes are red with tears. She didn’t even know she had been crying. Her eyes flashed.
A body dropped dead right in front of her.
The next time Emily looks in the mirror she looks scared. No it’s not because of what happened, the past is the past it can’t hurt her. No she’s scared because she has just realised that what she is running from is worse than running from nothing. Much worse. At least when she was running from nothing she had the comfort knowing that it could never catch her. But what she is running from is something that will always catch her. Something that she will never escape from. She is running away from her own mind.