100TC #5 - Break Away

Hello everyone, here is my fifth entry for the 100 Themes writing challenge. I know I am late and I did not respect the one post a day last week and I am very sorry for it. But now I am on summer break until september and so I will have time to post a lot more so please expect a new text every day from now on, I will try to respect it as much as I can :) Anyway, I will not make you wait any longer, so here is today's short story based on the theme "Break Away". Enjoy! 

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- BREAK AWAY -

6:00 AM

6:00 in the morning. So early to wake up, she thinks as she makes her way to her bathroom. Half-asleep, she gets in the shower. The warm water caresses her skin, making her think about the warmth of her bed to which she would gladly go back to. She stays in the shower for a while... too long of a while actually. Realizing she is late, she quickly gets out of it, grabs a towel and does a fast prep; no time to get her full make up on this morning, sadly. While she looks at the mirror, a strange feeling bothers her. It feels like the one she is looking at, is not her. It feels like, through the mirror, it is someone else glancing back at her and not herself. Probably the lack of sleep, she thinks, not having time to worry about pointless philosophical questions like “who’s on the other side of the mirror?” Being late as she is, she does not take time to eat her breakfast and leaves for work straight away. Her day goes as usual, nothing new, just the same old everyday routine. After her work shift she comes back home and exhausted, falls on the couch. She wished she had someone to come back home to, alas, a couple of weeks ago she had found her beloved boyfriend in bed with none other than her brother. She felt so betrayed, by the man she trusted with all her heart and by her family, both at the same time. Her ex and she were to get married not long ago and this obviously put a bitter end to their plans. And so she was now living alone, going through her every day routine, doing the same and coming back home at the end of her days to find herself alone. Everyone told her things would get better, that she had to be strong. But she is tired of playing strong, she is tired of this life, it is as if her dreams, her world had collapsed in one night. Every day she wishes she could break away from this life and start a new one, somewhere far away where she would not be constantly reminded of all she had lost. But all she could do right now is go on and wait. After a lonely evening, she goes to bed, feeling her cold bed is way too large for someone alone.

6:00 in the morning. Her alarm sets off and all she wants to do is to pick it up and throw it against the wall. She really could not be bothered about going to work today. It would be the same as always, not that she hated her job, but she had no real interest in it. She feels like staying in bed, sleeping her dark thoughts away. But she knows she cannot do this and so with a superhuman effort she leaves her cozy bed to get to the bathroom. Half-asleep, she gets in the shower. The warm water caresses her skin, making her think about the warmth of her bed to which she would gladly go back to. She stays in the shower for a while... too long of a while actually. Realizing she is late, she quickly gets out of it, grabs a towel and does a fast prep; no time to get her full make up on this morning, sadly. She takes a quick look at the mirror to see if she is presentable. The condensation in the mirror prevents her to see clearly, but she still has that strange feeling when she looks at herself. The woman on the other side of the mirror seems so different, as if she is gazing at someone else... but whom? No time to worry about that, she is way too late. She does not take time to eat her breakfast and leaves for work straight away. Her day goes as usual, nothing new, just the same old routine. After her work shift, she comes back home and exhausted, falls on the couch. “Always the same old boring shit”, she thinks to herself as she browses the TV channels. With nothing to do, she decides to go to bed. She feels exhausted not only physically, but mentally, and she thinks to herself an early night would do her good. Even then, she cannot fall asleep and the night feels like it will never end.

6:00 in the morning. Her alarm sets off. She wants to snooze it, but knows how late she always is so she gets out of bed as quick as she can and heads straight to her bathroom. Half-asleep, she gets in the shower. The warm water caresses her skin, making her think about the warmth of her bed to which she would gladly go back to. She stays in the shower for a while... too long of a while actually. Realizing she is late, she quickly gets out of it, grabs a towel an does a fast prep; not time to get her full make up on this morning, sadly. While doing her hair, she has a strange feeling, as if she is being watched. Her mirror is covered in condensation so she cannot fully see, but what is on the other side is clearly not her. She grabs her tower and starts rubbing it against the mirror. When she is done, she screams at what she sees. The woman on the other side of the mirror does not scream back, she stays there, cold, standing still. She does not understand who it is. How could she see a different reflection on the other side, how is that even possible? She asks herself is she is even awake, but she knows for a fact that she is. The woman on the other side of the mirror looks dead. She looks like her, but 50 years older. Her skin is wrinkled and dry, her hair grey, her eyes glassy. Around her neck is tied a rope, of which she could not see the end. The girl closes her eyes in terror. When she opens them, what she sees in the mirror is her reflection, the reflection of her normal self.

She very well knows what all of this means. Is it her brain sending her a message? Or some spirits? It does not matter, she got the message. She needs to break free from this life. This daily routine is not bringing her anything good. Every day is the same and every single second she spends here only reminds her of how miserable she is and of the past times she will never get back. Idleness is Death, that is what she got from the woman in the mirror. She needs to do something about it, she knows it. She needs to leave this life which cannot bring her anything good anymore. What she needs is a new life, far from here, very far, if she does not want to end like the image of death she had seen. She would not be going to work today. Not today, not ever again. She packs a small suitcase, takes her car and drives to the airport. She does not care about leaving everything behind, there is nothing left for her here. And so she books tickets for the country she had always dreamed of going to. She would worry about the consequences later, for now she is just moving away. A new life is waiting for her. A fresh start, far from all the bad memories. Waiting at the airport, a warm feeling shakes her whole soul. Hearing the boarding announcement, she smiles. 

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(C) Copyright 2014 Hope Alexander aka David Giroux for the text

Source for the picture unknown