Shattered: the Continuing Story of an Average Girl

Shattered

I look at the locket I now hold in my hand. The rust clashes violently with the glimmer of the silver and its intricate carvings. Its chain winds around my fingers, as if it doesn't want to escape my protective grasp. I cherish this piece of coveted steel jewelry, and never do I want to let go of it.

But now is not the moment for cherishing unnecessary things.

I look up at the white plastic outlet with its small black screen in the middle. How can something so simple cause so much harm?

The small room is now beginning to cloud up. I am beginning to lose my vision to tiny black dots around the corners of my preferal vision. I so wish to keep this last reminder of my mother. But at the same moment, I know that she would have been so proud of me to let go. I must do it now. The gas is beginning to slow down my mind.

As I throw the precious locket into the midst of the deadly gas, the last vision that I experience is that of the beautiful face of my mother, swimming in the small remaining part of my consciousness... How I wish I had her here to comfort me now, with my head upon her shoulder... To have her sweet voice console me...

I collapse on the ground, absorbing the clatter it gives my skeleton. My eyes are still wide open. The gas is finding its way into every empty space in my body, shivering down my lungs and expanding- I gasp for air, but all I feel is the cloudy raspiness of the polluted air around me, scratching my throat raw.

A deep sleep consumes me. I wonder if I will ever wake up. Most of me wishes for the relief, but one small rebellious voice in my mind tells me that I must not give up now... My people need me....