Ruins of Autumn

1• Don't Speak!

•Over five years before the prologue•

    To understand why some people have been forced to become villains in life, we are given two alternatives: we will either be empathetic and put ourselves in their place so that we can understand why they have such a role, or we'll be forced to go through the same path as they did. We will become villains too.

    Anila put more distance between herself and the large mirror in front of her on the pale maroon tiled wall of the bathroom at her rented home in Tirana by taking a few steps back until she could see the full outfit that she had chosen for that day, so that it would be easier for her to choose one of the hairstyles that she had been thinking about: combing the long bangs below her brown eyebrows in a natural arch on the left side or leaving them along her forehead?

    The dusty pink color of her shorts sweetly softened the warm pink of the crop top with the words, "Your mind is not your slave, nor your boss. It is your colleague!" written in white above her chest.

    She decided to go with the first option. She did her hair in a ponytail with a white hair tie and smiled at her twenty-one-year-old reflection on the positivity that she felt from her rose-beige, heart-shaped face with sweet features and the heartfelt gaze of cocoa brown and soft cinnamon warm written eyes.

    "Anila," her cousin from the other side of the door, accompanied the call in a small voice with a not very light knock on it.

    "Yes?" she replied as she approached the white door to unlock it.

    "Are you okay?" her peer asked.

    "I'm fine," Anila was surprised by the concern on Brunilda's diamond-shaped soft porcelain face with rigorously accentuated features. She dressed in black jeans and a white shirt with sleeves above the elbows.

    "I was freaking out because you were being late. I thought you attempted suicide," Brunilda seemed panicked by that doubt.

    "Wow! What are you saying?" Anila laughed in amazement at that absurdity, but she got alarmed right after when she guessed that maybe her cousin had had such a fear because she had locked herself in the toilet once and had attempted suicide.

    Brunilda reached tensely the white bag on the shelf next to the main door, took a look at the living room on the left, saw the comfortable yellow sofa against the light beige wall, the low glass table with a vase of flowers on top, and two books on its left, the white closed curtains, the paintings placed behind the sofa, and let out an even greater panic sigh, knowing that after a while she would have to leave that comfort zone behind, to go out into the outside world with all the risks that would be waiting for her at the entrance of their apartment building, to get rid of her once and for all.

    That beautiful day in May could also be enjoyed at home by watching a movie, reading a book, or playing a game. Why did she and Anila have to go out and include strangers in their routine? What if they did something bad to them, and that something would leave them with negative, uncomfortable feelings for the rest of their lives?

    Of course, she couldn't tell Anila how she was feeling. She would get another lecture from her that she didn't have to be so introverted because she wouldn't gain anything good from such a personality trait.

    "I am sure." Anila raised her left index finger with the others in a fist to get her attention. "I am sure that you're thinking about the worst possible thing that can happen to us just because we're going out-the greatest tragedies."