Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
for Aim To Engage 2021; word limit: 500; word count: 485
Once upon a time there was a girl who believed in true love.
But that was a long time ago. Now she stood, trembling, in a black satin dress that barely reached her knees.
She wasn't the last in line, but she certainly wasn't first.
Allyson had been waiting for two hours. In her head, carefully counting down the time until she could change everything that had gone so wrong.
A few people hurried away, and then a few more, and a few more, until it was finally her turn.
She nervously smoothed out her skirt before stepping forward, keeping her eyes on the ground.
"Allyson Rosareio?" the speaker's tone was monotonous. "Here's your book."
Allyson bit her lip, wondering if it really would be as easy as everyone claimed it was. Rip out the pages that were unneeded and your life would be changed forever.
"Thank you," she said, raising her eyes to the person's face for the first time.
Her eyes widened. "You-"
"Shut up." the person hissed, almost instantly changing their tone. "Shut up and leave, Allyson. Don't you dare mention this to anyone."
She clutched the book tightly. "Why...you said that you were leaving the country! I can't believe you lied to me about this. All this goddamn time."
"I didn't lie. I just didn't tell you anything."
Her face had crossed Allyson's mind more than once since she'd left for 'something else' years ago. And her eyes, her ridiculously beautiful emerald eyes.
"You have to go." she insisted. "The next person is waiting. Just take the book and forget about me."
"I could never forget about you," Allyson whispered. "You're written on every page of my book."
She looked like she was going to say something, for a second. But then she closed her eyes and said. "The next person is waiting."
Words were flooding into her head, but Allyson quietly walked away. She felt sick, with anger and worry and hate. All this time...she'd been right here. In the same city.
The book quietly hummed. She'd nearly forgotten about it. But now, she slowly stopped walking and flipped to the first page.
Once upon a time there was a girl who believed in fairytales.
Then the next and the next and the next. She ignored the tears stinging in the corners of her eyes and carefully touched the page she had stopped on.
And then the love of her life left, for a better future and a better world.
Allyson ripped the page out and crumbled it. That was the last thing she did, as suddenly a piercing golden light sparked in the corner of her eye and the ground rushed up to meet her.
You're written on every page in my book, but if you had never left I would have died. The words wrote themselves onto the last page, slowly and carefully.
