The Pain You Took Away

One

My world was lonely. I was not understood. The society I lived in was made of plastic and I was a flame that melted plastic away. I was an outsider that was not allowed in.

I had my own corner. It was dark. It was like living in a dense forest. The canopy was too thick to allow any light to filter through. The trees were evergreen. There was never any colour. It was always cool with a continuous icy breeze that enjoyed wrapping itself around my body. My surroundings were always damp and uncomfortable. I could only walk on my tiptoes. I was always on edge.

It was a place where dawn blurred into dusk and everything in between was constantly blanketed in a heavy mist. The mist clung to my skin making me almost invisible, even to my own eye.

It was like this as far back as I could remember, I did not know any different. I could not understand why I saw this facet of life when everyone else around me was caressed by endless warm and sunny days. Individuals milled around daily, completing their tasks with a smile on their faces. They were happy to exchange their time for materialistic accessories which would obviously be paraded the next time they met for an overly priced cup of coffee.

I looked in on these social gatherings from my corner of the world. It was as if there was a one-way mirror separating me from them. I could see and hear them clearly but they did not even know I was there. I was tortured by their endless nattering about the awful outfit worn by one of their friends to the fundraiser they attended last weekend.

"I cannot believe she had the audacity to wear purple"

"I know, you made it extremely clear you were wearing purple"

"Who would wear a real fur coat these days?"

As their words entered my head they faded into a scrambled jigsaw puzzle that I could never complete. In their eyes, I was a code that was impossible to crack. They didn't even try.