Maybe I Won't Let Go.

Mary-Annette

Author's Note:

I wrote this short story back in 2016, and now, looking back on it, I wish to improve upon this story. I plan on revising it soon! For now, enjoy the original version right here!

Kellynn

September 6, 2021

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I met her for the first time when I was just a child. My innocent eyes saw only a girl. Her eyes were blank, staring hard at nothing. Her hair was yellow and stringy, like yarn. She had two dark creases from the corners of her mouth, and more at each joint. Her skin was marbled like wood. Her dress was pink and stiff. Her name was Mary-Annette.

It seemed she followed me everywhere. She always spoke to me, like my conscience, telling me what to think, how to act, and what to wear. She began calling me 'Poppet'. She never left my side as long as I was around anyone else. It only seemed that she wasn't there if I was alone. But that didn't last for long. As an adolescent, I began to hear her voice echo in my head. I asked myself constantly, "What would Mary-Annette say? What would Mary-Annette do?" She was with me always, whether I wanted her presence or not. She started becoming mean. She told me she would hate me if I did not do as she pleased. And I didn't. And she did.

Growing older, I felt tired. I was bored with Mary-Annette, and I wished her to leave me be. But she would not. So I began to think what she wished me to think. I acted how she wished me to act. I wore what she wished me to wear. And slowly, so slowly, as I stared into the mirror, I noticed my eyes were becoming blank, and my hair was becoming stringy. There formed two dark creases from the corners of my mouth, and my skin became marbled, like wood. As Mary-Annette noticed this, too, she spent less time with me.  And then one day, I looked just like her. And she spoke to me.

"You are not you," she said. "I am not me. For we have no choice and no will to choose. We are just like everyone else. Mere puppets controlled by the will of society." And it was then that I saw her strings.