THE SHIFT (English version)

Recovery

To Someone Nothing Less Than Myself...

Summer of 2023

"What do you mean they want to expel me?! Is that even legal?! Look, I have to go." says the curly-haired brunette. Camilla. A young woman thrust into the world of cinema and music too early. Her green eyes called the sea, even though it was blue. Her hair screamed for help through the ponytail she had made a few hours ago, which would be undone within a few more. An 18-year-old.
Anxiety spread through her tall, slender frame. Many said she was ungrateful for having everything and not valuing it. 18 years without any zest for life. Without any expectation for what her life would one day be. Because everything it could have been, already was.

Sitting in the back seat of her red car, reminiscent of the blood spilled from all the times she had cut herself. "One more thing for the list of reasons to kill myself," she thought. A list. A list that told stories no individual should go through. So much torment, so much pain endured. "One more death wouldn't be a problem." She thought. She thought that if she died now, it would just be one more, as comedians say, "another rich girl who doesn't appreciate anything and thinks she has a shitty life."

The future she had planned was right in her delicate hands, but her heart remained empty, rotting like an apple fallen from an orchard. 18 years old and lost in her own head. Her own mind trying to control her.

Suddenly, the car stops.

"We've arrived, Ms. Ross." says the driver.
"Thank you. Have a good day." says Camilla, wondering how she can be so respectful even when feeling as bad as she does every night when she cries, alone, on the bathroom floor.
"Thank you, you too."
Camilla walks towards the house, her feet sore thanks to the high heels she spent thousands of dollars on to have so much pain. As soon as she arrives home, with the smell of mold and blood from a corpse she simply can't get rid of, she prepares to change her DNA. She takes a shower.

As the water runs down her body, through her golden curly hair that falls on her shoulders. The sound of running water reminding her of rainy days. When she was a child and could truly be one. When she could act like one. When she didn't have to hide from people who recognized her on the street from the series and movies she had starred in. When she was free. When she was happy.

Camilla only had one thing in mind: she was everything her family wanted her to be, but at the same time, not. Since she was young, she had been the disappointment of the family. After coming out as bisexual, the entire perception her parents had of her changed with the snap of a finger. Camilla began to be seen differently by her own family. As a monster. As something wrong that should be hidden.

As she gets out of the shower, Camilla hears footsteps inside the house, reminding her of all the horror movies she had watched that gave her insomnia.

Suddenly, a shadow passes and enters the bathroom.

"Did I scare you?" says a voice behind Camilla.
"No." Camilla replies.
"You don't remember my name, do you?"
"No."
"I figured. You rich people only care about yourselves, right? I'm Josh."
"You just wasted words because I don't care about your name. Get out of my house."
"This one has attitude."
"Leave." says Camilla, expressionless.
"Okay, calm down."
Another disappointment. On the days she didn't self-harm, she used sex as a distraction. Something that would bring her pleasure and make her forget everything, for an hour or two. Josh, another one-night stand. Another canonical event in Camilla's life.

After changing her DNA, she goes to sleep. As she lay under the cotton sheets, as soft as satin, and let herself be carried away by the unknown after falling asleep, she thought about everything that had happened up to that day. And finally, sleep took over, and she drifted off.