The Glass Palace

She worked so hard. Years of endurance and pain, just to be able to breathe; just to be able to live. All that was and all that had been, safely locked up into little boxes. Tucked away where it couldn’t be found. Things were better, she could move on. She forgot about it all, the past became a shadow. A shadow towering over her, but committed to her every move, enslaved by her mind.

Many years ago, there was a palace. It was a very beautiful palace, made of glass and crystal. The sun’s light shimmered off it, breaking into thousands of sparkles; rays of hope and prosperity. Building this palace had been an ordeal. Where it stood there was once darkness, but light had been cast on it and one by one the fragile pieces of a shattered land had been melded into splendor. All the darkness had been locked away into the cellar, and there it was, destined to remain.

One day, out of the blue and for no reason at all, she decided that she wanted to get rid of the shadow. She had gotten bored of its company and decided to free herself, once and for all. To do that it was necessary to let herself remember what she had so carefully removed. She acted on a whim; she had forgotten how fragile she was.

All was well, until one day, a young princess decided to wander into that very room. At first, she saw nothing. Nothing but an infinity of possibilities to explore. Shelves towered in the room and as she looked around, mesmerized by the idea of the unknown, she walked over to these shelves. She opened the dusty boxes that had been carefully placed. Tore away the tape that kept them closed, too curious to remember she had been warned against it.

She set the shadow free. Then she remembered, she remembered why she had a shadow. She remembered how hard she had fought to make it so that a shadow was all that was left of the pain she had felt. She realized that there was a reason why she had created that very shadow she could no longer stand, and instantly she knew that she had just made the biggest mistake of her life. She tried to run from the monster she had set free. She cried for help, screams of true despair. People ran to aid her and tried to fight it off, but it was too late. The shadow engulfed her into its realms. She was once again its slave. Everything she had so carefully constructed for herself was lost.

Darkness fled, covering all land and suffocating all hope. The palace fell. Its fragile walls shattered as they crashed to the ground. Screams and cries. Hopelessness and despair. That is what had been locked away so carefully. The palace was no more, and as it was shattering, the princess started to remember. The palace was her heart. And as it shattered, so did she. Falling apart until she was no more.

Dysfunctional Girl