Iya Writes (One Shot Stories)

Lost in the Light

Ava stared at her reflection in the bathroom mirror, her brow furrowed in confusion. The girl staring back at her, with her messy brown hair and freckled nose, was undeniably her, but something felt...off.  It was like she was looking at a faded photograph, a ghost of her former self.

She was 17 now, a senior in high school, and yet, she felt like she was stuck in a perpetual state of being 7 years old.  It was a feeling she couldn't explain, a nagging sense of being out of sync with the world around her.  She was a ghost in her own life.

It started subtly.  After the car accident, the one that had left her with a scar across her forehead and a lingering ache in her leg, people started acting strange.  Her parents, usually so affectionate, would often stare at her with a mixture of sadness and something else she couldn't decipher.  Her friends, Jas and Kayla, would sometimes touch her arm as if to make sure she was real.

"Ava, you okay?" Kayla would ask, her voice laced with worry, her hand lingering on Ava's arm a little longer than necessary.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Ava would reply, brushing off the strange feeling that something was amiss.

The whispers started too.  She'd catch snippets of conversations, hushed and hurried, about her "accident," about how "lucky" she was to be alive.  But Ava knew she wasn't lucky.  She was alive, wasn't she?  She could feel the sun on her skin, the wind in her hair, the taste of pizza in her mouth.  She was real.

As the years passed, the whispers grew louder, the looks more intense.  Her classmates, once friendly and open, now seemed to avoid her, their eyes darting away when she approached.  They'd talk about her in hushed tones, their voices dropping to a whisper when she was nearby.  It was as if she were invisible, a phantom walking among them.

One day, during lunch, Ava overheard Jas and Kayla talking about her.  Their voices were low, their faces etched with concern.

"I don't know how much longer I can keep this from her," Kayla said, her voice trembling.  "She deserves to know."

"I know, but what if it breaks her?" Jas replied, her eyes filled with tears.  "What if she can't handle it?"

Ava froze, her heart pounding in her chest.  They were talking about her, but what were they talking about?  What was she supposed to know?  She couldn't shake the feeling that they were hiding something from her, something important, something that explained the strange behavior of everyone around her.

She decided to confront them.  "What are you talking about?" she asked, her voice shaking.  "What are you hiding?"

Jas and Kayla looked at each other, their eyes filled with a mixture of sadness and guilt.  They exchanged a silent glance, then turned back to Ava.

"Ava," Jas began, her voice barely a whisper, "we need to tell you something."

"What?" Ava asked, her heart pounding in her chest.

"Ava," Kayla said, her voice cracking, "you're not alive."

The words hit Ava like a physical blow.  She stumbled back, her mind reeling.  "What?  What do you mean?"

"You died, Ava," Jas said, her voice choked with emotion.  "Ten years ago, in the car accident.  You were only seven."

Ava's world shattered.  She felt a cold emptiness spreading through her, a chilling realization that everything she thought she knew was a lie.  She was dead?  She had been dead for ten years?  How could this be?

"But I can feel things," she cried, her voice a desperate plea.  "I can feel the sun, the wind, the taste of food.  I'm real."

"You're not real, Ava," Kayla said, her voice filled with sorrow.  "You're a spirit.  You've been here all this time, but you've been...unaware."

Ava looked at her friends, their faces etched with sadness and understanding.  She realized that they had been trying to protect her, to shield her from the truth.  They had been living with this secret, carrying the weight of her death on their shoulders, while she remained blissfully ignorant.

She felt a surge of anger, a wave of betrayal.  How could they keep this from her?  How could they let her live a lie for ten years?  But as the anger subsided, it was replaced by a profound sadness.  She was dead.  She had been dead all this time.

The world around her seemed to blur, the colors fading, the sounds muffling.  She felt a sense of detachment, a growing distance between herself and everything she knew.  She was a ghost, a wisp of a memory, a shadow of her former self.

The rain began to fall, a gentle drizzle at first, then a heavy downpour.  Ava stood in the middle of the street, the rain washing over her, the cold water feeling strangely real.  She looked up at the sky, the clouds heavy with rain, the air thick with the scent of petrichor.

She felt a strange pull, a beckoning force, drawing her towards the light.  A faint glow, emanating from the clouds, grew brighter with each passing moment, illuminating the rain-soaked street with an ethereal radiance.

"Ava," Jas called out, her voice filled with concern.  "Where are you going?"

Ava turned to her friends, her eyes filled with a newfound understanding.  She saw the sadness in their eyes, the love that had never wavered, the pain they had carried for so long.  She saw the truth in their faces, the truth that she had been so desperately trying to deny.

"I'm going home," she whispered, her voice barely audible above the roar of the rain.

She took a step towards the light, her body feeling lighter, her spirit soaring.  The glow intensified, enveloping her in a warm embrace, washing away the pain and confusion.  She felt a sense of peace, a sense of acceptance, a sense of belonging.

She looked back at her friends one last time, their faces etched with love and sorrow.  She saw the tears streaming down their cheeks, the silent goodbye in their eyes.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, her voice filled with regret.  "I'm sorry for not knowing.  I'm sorry for not understanding."

She took another step towards the light, the rain washing over her, the world fading around her.  She felt a sense of release, a sense of freedom, a sense of being home.

And then, with a final, shimmering glow, she was gone.

"Ava?" Jas whispered, her voice filled with despair.  "Ava?"

The light faded, leaving behind a silent, rain-soaked street.  The world continued to turn, oblivious to the spirit that had just vanished, leaving behind a trail of memories and a lingering sense of loss.

And as the rain continued to fall, Ava, finally understanding the truth, whispered a final thought, a realization that echoed through the emptiness: "I was never really gone, I was just...lost."

THE END.