lost → liz gillies

Chapter 1: A Craving Unfulfilled

The kitchen was dimly lit, the soft glow of the refrigerator's interior light casting an eerie pallor across the room. Liz Gillies stood before the open fridge, her gaze flickering across the shelves in search of something to quell the emptiness that gnawed at her soul.

She was a vegan, and her dietary restrictions, compounded by a myriad of food allergies, had often left her feeling isolated and deprived. Lately, a persistent craving had gripped her—a simple desire for something sweet, something to fill the void that had settled in her chest.

Cookies.

The thought of them was a temptation she couldn't deny, a craving that burrowed deeper into her consciousness with each passing day. In a world where her dietary choices were already restricted, the allure of those forbidden indulgences was almost overwhelming.

But she knew she couldn't. Cookies were a world away from her vegan, gluten-free, and allergy-conscious diet. They were a delicious, elusive dream that danced just out of reach, like a distant mirage.

Her eyes scanned the fridge, her gaze flickering past containers of fruits and vegetables, nondairy milk, and neatly arranged gluten-free grains. The food represented her commitment to a lifestyle that was meant to be nourishing, yet at this moment, it only felt like a cage.

The craving wouldn't relent, and the emptiness inside her persisted. It was a hunger that went beyond the physical, a longing for comfort and pleasure that couldn't be satisfied by a simple meal.

With a heavy heart and trembling hands, she reached past the neatly stacked vegetables and fruits. Her fingers closed around the cool glass of a whiskey bottle nestled in the corner of the fridge. It was an unexpected find, one she hadn't anticipated.

In that moment, the choice was clear. She couldn't have the cookies, but the whiskey was within her grasp. It was a substitute, a liquid comfort to ease the ache inside her. She couldn't remember when she'd bought it, or why it was in the fridge, but it didn't matter now.

The bottle felt heavy in her hand as she retrieved it, her fingers trembling with a mix of anticipation and apprehension. Liz had always been careful with her alcohol consumption, but tonight, the craving for solace, for something to fill the emptiness, was too strong to resist.

The cap came off with a soft click, and the amber liquid flowed into a glass. The aroma of whiskey, sharp and biting, filled the room as she raised the glass to her lips.

For a moment, as the alcohol touched her tongue, she felt a fleeting sense of satisfaction. The craving, dulled by the warmth of the whiskey, seemed to recede.

But as the minutes passed and the glass emptied, the craving remained, just as unfulfilled as before. The void in her heart persisted, and the pain she had tried to numb with alcohol became even more poignant.

Liz, caught between her desire for the forbidden cookies and the allure of the whiskey, found herself in a precarious place. The journey she had embarked upon that evening was one filled with choices and consequences, and it was a journey that would test her strength in ways she could never have imagined.