Lonely Castle in the Mirror

by Mizuki Tsujimura

They want me to be how I was before I became the girl who won’t go to school.

If somebody manipulated your thoughts and feelings, would you still be the same person as before?

“I always thought boys just couldn’t do these things properly,”

“If it means forgetting you all, then I don’t need to have my wish granted.”

She understood the fear. Not knowing what the future would be for her, not knowing how long she’d be like this. Seeing people who were moving on was enough to make her feel an excruciating pain in her chest.

I do have friends, she told herself. Even if I never make any more, I’ll know I did have friends. Right here. Right now. And I’ll have that for the rest of my life.

What sort of reality did this girl face that made her feel it was preferable to be eaten, for it all to be over?

Please, make my life a bit more tolerable. Make my mother stronger. Please kill my stepfather.