Taming Mrs. Mafia

45 Stop Wearing Rose-Colored Glasses

Luna opened her eyes, only to see darkness everywhere- just like how it did in all of her other dreams these past few months. She expelled a deep sigh of relief when she realized she could feel the hard ground beneath her feet this time. Her other dreams used to start with her falling into darkness. It always made her feel unsettled.

She's aware that she was dreaming. Some time passed but nothing's happening... yet. She was just standing there, preparing herself for something that might appear out of thin air.

Luna felt like she was staring at the void for quite a while. She's getting restless. The more nothing happened, the more fear crept into her.

But then, just when she was about to take a step and look around instead of just standing there stiffly, she suddenly saw the faint silhouette of trees in a forest.

She unexpectedly found herself lost in the 'woods'.

The 'sky' is starless and there is no moon in this scenario made by my brain, why can I see the trees' silhouette?

Argh! This is not the time to dream! The police officer!

Without any warning, a glowing figure of a laughing child ran past her. She was in her pigtails and was about three years old. She ran fast through the trees, unafraid of tripping on their roots. She did stumble on some roots and rocks but that did not faze her.

That carefree child... was her.

Out of nowhere, another figure appeared. It was her mother who only appeared to stop her from running around. The little her was pinched in secret and that made her sit still in one corner, trying her best to stop her tears from flowing because she knew it would only earn additional pinches.

The glowing figures scattered in the darkness like snow and vanished into nothingness.

Another scene was played out by the next batches of glowing figures that appeared.

This time it was her crying over her first attempts at using a matchstick. She was a little older than the first figure that appeared a while ago. She remembered this scene quite clearly now. She was five.

As a strict disciplinarian, her mother taught her to cook rice at such a young age. However, at that time, the lighter that she felt safer to use, ran out of fluid. She had no choice but to use an alternative which was a match. The matchstick was short and she was afraid the fire would burn her.

She successfully cooked the rice that day, but not after using two boxes of matchsticks to light up the firewood, almost burning herself multiple times, and crying a liter of tears because of fear, frustration, and anger.

The scene faded once again and shifted into something else.

The third scene was of her as a high school student sitting next to a mother and daughter pair on a bus. The bus was at the terminal and was still waiting for more passengers to fill up the seats.

This mother and daughter pair entered the bus after her. The mother was struggling to hold her grocery bags. The moment she sat down, she counted the number of bags they had and realized they were missing one.

"Wasn't it the one you're supposed to hold?" The mother asked the child as if she was just casually asking if she had already eaten or not.

Upon hearing her mother's question, the child felt fear in her heart. It was the fear of earning her mother's anger and fear of not being able to retrieve the groceries she lost. She even remembered putting the new toy her mom just bought her inside the missing bag. When she remembered the toy, she suddenly felt like crying.