Attached

<3

She slumped against the bathroom door. She had rushed in here, hoping it would provide solace from the demons spilling out from her phone and laptop, filling her room, making it a maze of emotions and feelings, nearly impossible to navigate. Dropping her head into her hands, one sentence ran through her mind over and over, deafening her. Filling her mind with thoughts, a constant regurgitation of feelings.

You're attached to fill the emotional emptiness you feel.

It was true. That's why it scared her so much. In fact, it terrified her. She was attached to the fictional romance, attached to the characters that helped bring it to life, not the actors that played them. Only the romance written, and drawn by millions of people.

Seeing so many people write about it, draw about it, made her wonder if she was alone in how she felt. If she was the only one who felt such a way about these characters. The attachment, the adoration for their romance, their smiles. Them.

They weren't real. They don't exist.

Why was it so hard for her to acknowledge that? Why was it so hard for her to accept their love wasn't real, that it was made up purely for the entertainment of her and other people? That they didn't feel that way towards each other in real life? Why was it so hard?

You're attached to fill the emotional emptiness you feel.

A solemn tear streaked along her cheek, with it, her grip on her emotions and understanding. Her eyes began to fill with water, blurring her vision. Her breath hitched in her throat and she felt her hands begin to shake. Squeezing her eyes shut, as if she was refusing to accept her tears were real, she let her head fall back against the cool wood of the door. Tears crept out of the corner of her eyes one by one as she slowly fell into a dream-like state.

She was outdoors, in a clearing with flowers snaking up past her ankles and trees stretching in every direction as far as she could see. She had been here before, it was her favorite place to sit, a place where the serene tranquility and the melodic swaying of the trees meant it was a place where she could be alone, and be at peace. She almost smiled at the irony that this was where her dreams had taken her, how ironic that in her state of uncertainty and disconcert she was taken to the one place she truly felt at peace.

Slowly she walked around the edge of the clearing, listening to the soft symphonies the birds were creating, hearing the wind whisper through the trees and meander tenderly through the grass.

She felt a hand touch her lower back, and a soft voice whisper in her ear;

"You're attached to fill the emotional emptiness you feel."

Her eyes flew open. How much time had eluded her whilst she was in this state? She was unsure, the shadows had begun to creep in through the window, bringing with them new fears and a gripping sense of loneliness. She sighed, exhaling her last few shreds of dignity and ran her hands through her hair. She had to face the truth soon. She couldn't run away from it forever. No matter where she was, she couldn't escape the truth and the demons it brought with it.

She was attached to fill the emotional emptiness she felt.