Closure

Short Story with Moral – Closure
Photo credit: koimedia from morguefile.com

The salty breeze felt brittle on the skin. It had to be done.

She had been on the run now for days. Running away from family, running away from her abusers and running away from life. She clenched her fists underneath her overcoat and swallowed down hard sobs she had promised not to shed anymore.

The waves lashed the shore over and over again. Every crash feeling even more painful than the previous. She held the overcoat tighter to her body, as if it could hide the bruises it bore. The noise of the abusing laugh still resonant in her mind and playing in circles.

Dark skinned skeleton

Dark skinned skeleton

We’re here to tear you open

The same abusive chant ringing in her ears causing more tears to flow. They would circle her and pick on her, leaving scratches and painful memories. It was becoming harder to stand without lights, the condition owed to an incident when they locked her in a dark closet without a window. Light was absent but a ray entered in through a tiny keyhole. She would have died there had she not been rescued by her teachers. She could have had them reported but she was too broken and much too scared to take their names on her lips. That was six years ago. And it carried on still, ending just a few weeks ago when the victim ran away.

But enough was enough. And this was it.

She took out a bottle from her pocket. They were sleeping pills. She looked up to the sea and clinched the bottle tighter. The sun was about to rise. Time was running out. Daylight would bring visitors and the attempt would not be successful.

She walked to the waves and felt the coldness of the seawater. She took a long, deep breath and buried her feet in the sand. Her tears vanished indifferent to the pain it carried. She opened up her bottle. And then shut her eyes.

Daylight arrived to light up her face and in it, a smile arising from the corner of her mouth. The bottle was empty- the pills being washed up by the waves.

“Yes.”

She uttered the last word of her past life. And that was a new beginning. She looked up to the amber coloured sky and threw her arms high in the air. She laughed; for the first time in years. She felt the strong breeze pushing her back and filling life back into her. And finally, she broke off the chains that held her- she separated herself from her dark grey overcoat and flung it to the skies. It was to never return.

One last time at the shore, she threw away her abusive past. The beatings, the noises, the dark faces and the wasted tears- all was over. No more tears and no more screams. No more bullies and no more in the hiding.

The fear was out. Life was in.

__END__