The world was grey and Mavis had never felt more alive. Gravel scattered underfoot as she sauntered down abandoned streets, her once-white flats dodging pieces of rubble.
She welcomed the darkness around her, finding it much better company than the stark white of the surrounding city. Here, there were no uniform houses, no dull faces. Here, there was chaos. And Mavis revelled in it.
The girl stopped walking as she reached a half-standing convenience store, one of the only surviving buildings in the area. It was charred and burnt, but felt like home all the same. She stepped inside, dodging a hole in the floorboards before coming to a crevice in the wall. Weak, white moonlight spilled across her face as she pulled out a small brown bag. She surveyed the small knife, piece of rope and food provisions that were stored inside. Everything was ready.
With a grim smile, she pulled out the bag and hoisted it over her shoulder. Her eyes drifted toward the old fashioned music player that lay intact on a nearby shelf. It had been one of her luckiest finds amidst the ruins. Hesitating only for a moment, she snatched it away and pressed a button on its side. Emotion sprung from the small box — a man sang about invisible monsters, backed by loud, foreign instruments. Music was rare. Like most things that were frowned upon, Mavis found comfort in it. She let the device fall into her bag and drifted towards the exit, moving almost in time with the music. She paused at the door. The tension in the song built. On her back rode months of collecting. Years of planning.
It was time.
Mavis walked out of the convenience store, perhaps for the last time, and shot a longing look at the skyline beyond. Freedom seemed so far away. Yet so close at the same time. The girl had come to realise that thinking about something obsessively had a funny way of tricking the brain. A way of making something impossible seem a whole lot more... possible.
The song broke into its chorus.
The girl smirked, her stomach flipping with nervousness, but even more than that, excitement. She felt her feet carry her down the grey streets, her smile widening as the wind caught her hair and blew it across her face. So close. She was so close.
A laugh escaped from her throat, blending with the music and filling the silent air. The world buzzed and she spun, catching herself in the moment. Her heart beat faster, images of life beyond the city walls flashing through her mind. A life without rules. Without chains.
Crunch
She stopped as the music cut off, looking down and out of her daydream to see what she had trodden on.
A shoot of green protruded through the rubble, vivid, but damaged, amidst the darkness. Mavis' breath caught and she lowered herself to her knees. She reached out, stroking the leaves of the small, crumpled plant. It was the first she had seen of something so alive in the ruins. There was plenty of greenery in the city, but it was perfect. Fake. There, identical trees were condensed onto the side of sidewalks while rectangular parks stood lifelessly, every blade of grass trimmed to exactly the same length. The plant in front of Mavis was real, unaltered by anything before she had stepped on it. The girl got back to her feet, sparing the shoot one last look before walking away. Hope flared inside of her.
If something so green could grow in a place so dark, how could escaping really be so impossible?
YOU ARE READING
Catharsis
Adventure'No society can escape from the claws of human nature - no matter how built up it becomes, it will never be perfect.' - Unknown Eighteen years ago, a rebellion upset the balance of nature, and led to an outpouring of chaos magic across the city of...
