Madness. That’s all there is to know about Alice as she hides herself within the fortress of her own mind — away from the judgement of the prying eyes of those around her; away from world’s reality. A whirlwind of emotions seems to be clawing at her from the inside that causes such a deranged look on her face to form. The voices never stop, they never do. She wants to escape, yet she felt so chained up. The darkness of her own mind was all she knew; it was all she held on to — darkness was the closest thing she’d feel as home.

The anger and hurt have become too much to bear as her eyes twitched. She wanted to scream, cry, and laugh all together. The bags under her eyes an indication to what she’s deprived of. She was sick of these walls — she was sick of feeling so suffocated. Every day was the same old cycle.

In the dead of the night, she screamed at the top of her lungs. The intoxication throughout her system helped her forget for a while until she would sober up— until the pain hit her all over again. She’s lost hope of ever having someone understand her. They’re all the same. She tells herself that there’s not even an ounce of such hope, yet she’s still here. As much as she wanted to tell herself otherwise, deep down she knew that she couldn’t just fall into the path of despair. This was not how she wanted her story to go. Maybe it was the alcohol talking, but who cares? She held onto hope, her hand releasing its grasp on her last resort. She smiled at the photograph in her hand; it was like looking in a mirror as she stared at the woman smiling at her. They both had the same features, yet such different lives.

From that day forward, Alice promised herself not a happy ending but a new beginning.

Humanity has deprived itself of what we used to know, as machineries are what now sets the world in such a drive. As the neon lights gleamed, Raya ponders as to how the world has become so modernized. Technology was supposed to be a tool that helps us get by — now it has become everyone’s vice.

Raya casts her eyes upon the towering skyscrapers that basically hung the skies. She used to love this place, yet everything seemed so different. She wanted to do so much more. She wanted to be able to go out and smell the fresh breeze; she wanted to see animals, yet the closest thing she could ever get are those latest models of machine pets; she wants to be able to experience an actual job, one that doesn’t primarily require the use of tech yet there wasn’t really a point in such a thing when the world is run by AI; she wanted to go into a library and be able to pick up a — what do you call it again? a book?  She couldn’t quite remember. Such a place ceases to exist in such a period of time. She wanted to be able to hold on to the fragments of the past before they faded into nothing, before they became nothing but a mere figment of one’s imagination.

“What would they think?” she thought. Everyone kept telling her to just drop it. “The world is better off being run by doodads, anyway” is what they’d tell her. Everyone likes to live their lives with just one click; they prefer to have everything in their grasp in an instant. She felt alone in a battle that she couldn’t decipher, whether it existed or not. As she looks at the reality right in front of her, she can’t help but accept it. Yet maybe, just maybe, one day people wouldn’t call her crazy as she held on to a glimmer of hope. Maybe one day they'll realize that they shouldn’t be so dependent on such artificial things. 

With that, Raya disappears into the crowd.