silhouette

A is for Accent

It's like a curse. Language. 

They are beautiful, of course. The differences and similarities, the quirks and funny parallels. What she cannot understand, is why they are treated so differently. Why should someone be mocked and excluded when pronouncing a certain word a certain way? Why are some of them respected and sought after for learning, and others are shunned? Why are some called "lovely" or "fierce" just out of advertisement, when languages with the same qualities are left to be forgotten and die.

That's why she likes languages and not people who speak them.

B is for butterflies.

She looks at people, at all the fluttering, noisy human beings walking and talking around. 

Her heart skips a beat or two, and all she can think of is run, run and hide somewhere safe away from all danger. 

But she can't. She gulpes, and walks on in the corridor, her eyes fixed on her destination. The wooden door, with a shiny placard stuck on it. Class 1-C, it said. 

C is for character.

She wakes up, messily getting out of her bed. 

What she doesn't like about her room is how everything is decorated in a way that her makeup table is located in a position, in which the mirror can be seen from every angle. when you get out of bed, when you enter the room...

It's kind of useful, though. She can glance at the mirror easily, and pick the mask she needs for the day.

D is for doctor.

She always pauses at the sight of that hospital.

It's on her way to university, so clearly she does lots of "pausing"s. She stops, even for a second, and looks at the luxurious building with the white frontage and classy windows.

On better days, She thinks and imagines. About what she would be, how would she be if her future was meant to lead to that building somehow.

On other days, she knows it won't. She can't afford to step in that hospital as a patient.

E is for enemy.

She doesn't have any, she likes to say. She really, really prefers for it to be true.

World doesn't let her, though.

It makes enemies out of people for her. Rivals, all competing for jobs and education and money and surviving, surviving longer than anyone else.

F is for friends.

Is it really too much to ask?

G is for gladiators.

They are all releases in the Arena of life. Broken and rusty swords in their hands, Wondering and gaping at each other like idiots.

It takes time to pull themselves together, to grip the halt in their hands, form a scared-determined look in their eyes, and attack.

Whoever attacks sooner draws blood more... And survives longer.

But no one survives forever. No one can be sure that is not the very next person to die. One way or another everyone will die, after a short, painful life of fighting.

H is for hero.

She has had posters on her walls since she was a teenager. Posters of powerful men and women, smiling and determined. Angry. Always yelling at her silently to go go why aren't you moving? 

It's nothing bad, though. They are her heroes. They are supposed to take care of her, to look her in the eyes, and smile, and judge.

I is for illusion.

Dreams capture her all the time. At nights, afternoons and mornings. Between the classes, in the middle of the classes! 

All the time.

They show her things, ugly and beautiful. More ugly than beautiful. Or... Maybe not? There's no sense of quantity in her dreams. No "more" and "less". Whatever. She likes them. She is addicted to them. 

They are different from life. They are remembrance and forgetting, fear and relief, happiness and sadness at the same time.

Dreams capture her all the time. She lets them.

J is for jury.

"Mrs. Xxx Xxxxx," The judge with a long robe, white eyes and dark face is staring at her. She cannot move. "You are here for violating a hundred rules of the universe, making a thousand mistakes, and offending a million creatures. You cannot hope to defend yourself regarding all of them, thus you are already found guilty and your sentence has been decided. Any objection?"

Silence.

"Do you wish to hear the list of your charges?"

The temperature drops. Shadow people- things- wiggle in their seats. Their eyes are hungry, their teeth are bared. 

"Yes, please." She says.

K is for Kill

... the emotions, the mistakes, the dreams.

L is for Leave

... people behind.

Life is a race. If someone cannot catch up, they will be left behind.

Run like there is no tomorrow.

M is for Magic.

It's old and forgotten, only sparks left between worn out pages of ancient books of your childhood library.

N is for nothing.