She Needs Love

Chapter One

Song: Beekeeper by Keaton Henson

Lunch-break had always meant one thing for Ida: Art, art and more art. She spent all her breaks and study halls in the art studio. An art studio that seemed to be long-forgotten by everyone. Behind the big staircase on the first floor, there was a tiny, hidden room. No one seemed to know of its existence, which only benefitted her. She had a place in this hellhole where she could finally breathe and be herself.

The room was small but had everything she needed. Countless of supplies that hadn't been touched in years. Pencils, paints, canvases, and brushes. An endless supply of joy that could keep her occupied for hours and hours at a time. There was a big desk and a stout chair in the very middle of the room. The many shelves filled with colorful supplies occupied the rest of the space. There was barely enough room for Ida to get inside. As usual, she put her headphones on and turned up the volume as she began painting her way into her secret world.

Whenever she made art, it was as if all her distress rinsed off her. When she picked up the pencil, a sense of power took over her. She had the power to create. To invent an entire world known to no one but her. A world that for once no one else had the ability to invade.

Her favorite songs were blasting through her headphones. As the music rang in her ears, Ida was consumed deeper and deeper by her thoughts. She filled the page with scribbles and hidden messages that only she could solve. The ink bled through the page as she ran the pen across it excessively. Her head bent low and her fingers were in flight.

Art was her drug. Her imagination was seemingly limitless. Nevertheless, art was something she could never imagine living without. It was the only constant in her life. The only thing she truly believed in.

Ever since she had been a little girl it had been her safety net. A place where she could seek shelter from the cruel world she had been brought into. Little could compare to the joy she had felt as a little girl, on the day her mom had handed her a white box wrapped with a red ribbon. What seemed like an infinite stock of crayons, in colors she was yet to discover were hidden inside the box. From that day on, art took over her life. And following that exact day, everything changed.

She was a young girl, no more than three years old. Oblivious to what was truly happening around her. The box of colored wax wasn't a birthday gift. It was a farewell gift. A farewell to her old life. And a farewell to the man who had brought her into this world. The man who was supposed to keep her safe no matter what. The man who was supposed to be her role model. He was supposed to drop her off at school each morning. Teach her how to drive. Walk her down the aisle. Let her know that she was loved. That man had left her like she was nothing. And that's when everything went straight to hell.

Her life became a constant battle. There was no such thing as rest. An overwhelming sense of dread took over her existence. And the more she tried to escape it, the more it consumed her. It was like a flood. It came in slowly, but suddenly it drowned her. Chained her to the bottom of the ocean where she was all alone in the deep.

She kept holding on to the vivid memory of that fateful day, in hope that it would tell her something more. To make sense of how that naive little girl had come to live her life like this.