Storm On The Brain
By: Maicie Ernestine
Tags: Sad, Mental Health, Sad Story, Storms, Friendship

She couldn’t do it anymore, the storm within her held overall power, she couldn’t bear to fight the striking waves that fought against her any longer. She had silence for a moment, a very short moment indeed, but long enough for her to consider how much fight she had left.

Not long.

Her momentary thought came to an abrupt end only to be awakened by the dangerously savage waves that surrounded her, drowning her, forcing her under the water. Everything became silent again. Only for a moment of course. She longed for the days when she used to be overwhelmed with joy and content and when she had no worries. Now those days are gone, they are just a blur of an image, a piece of a puzzle that she couldn’t complete. She feared that she would never be able to feel that way again. Before she could begin to contemplate further her body was jolted forward, her head lifted above water again being clawed towards the surface of the sea. The waves beat against her face as if they were trying to break her down, as if they were trying to force her under the water again only to bring her back up so she could relive the same nightmare, as if the storm was trying to traumatise her for whatever reason she could not understand.

She could see the lighthouse that fervently beckoned her, although it was not far it seemed like a million miles away to Emira. To her it shone, it was bright and dull, welcoming yet uninviting, suspiciously safe. She longed to be relieved from the storm that was within her, she yearned to be woken from the nightmare she was living in yet nothing ever happened, nothing ever changed. The storm was gradually overtaking her and she could see any chance of happiness, any chance of normality, any possibility of beating the storm that raged inside of her flash before her sorrowful eyes. She prayed to wake up and it would all be a fairy tale story with a happy ending that she could forget about over time. She never woke up. The waves tumbled and stretched towards her, grabbing her, silencing her. The swash of the waves sounded like a burst of cold, cruel laughter, one that Emira recognised, one that she knew was only inside of her head yet seemed so real and present.

The thunder of the storm surrounded her, whispered cruel things that only weakened her; made her question everyone and everything. Emira tried to keep focused on the lighthouse, the light at the end of the tunnel, the end to this storm that she has battled with for as long as she could remember. The waves settled, Emira didn’t know how long for, but enough time for her to try to build up the courage to fight her way out of the storm. “The lighthouse is safe, but is it really? Is it the destroyer that simply looks like my saviour? Is it the end, or is it the start to something new?”. Her thoughts came to an end one last time, except this time she wasn’t interrupted by the striking waves that fought against her or the swash of the waves that sounded like a burst of cold, cruel laughter but this time she was interrupted by what sounded like the delicate pitter patter of rain. But it didn’t rain. It was her tears that were dripping from her eyes like a leaking tap, uncontrollably, rolling down her face, falling onto the paper in front of her. She hastened to force her sleeve over her hand and wiped away her tears before anyone could realise how broken, how weak, how hurt she was. It was then she lost sight of the lighthouse. Maybe the storm had won. Maybe she had lost. Maybe this was how it was going to end for her after all. The storm held overall power.