Warning: This work has been rated 16+ for mature content.
The world is not a place of wonder or amazement, at least it is not for me. For me it is a place where I simply go through the motions and the days blur together. The world is supposed to be a place of life, and what is life without hope? I am hopeless; it's been like this as long as I can remember. I don't believe there is a light at the end of the tunnel, but I do believe there is an end.
I know I should feel different, that I should feel more than just empty inside, but I don't know how. I see others everyday, laughing and smiling. Everyone expects you to be happy, but everyday I put on a mask to hide what I truly feel inside. I smile, but it never reaches my eyes, I laugh, but it's never true.
Over the past few months I can feel myself sinking deeper into the darkness. This morning I got a call from my sister's husband, she had gone into labor.
When I got to hospital, I had to wait in the waiting room, the only ones allowed in my sisters room where Will, her husband, and my Mother. Looking around the waiting room, I saw a sea of faces, but not the types I was so used to seeing. Everyone there showed either tormented expressions or were anxiously awaiting what could be the greatest moment in their lives. At that moment, no one had their masks on, it seemed the hospital was the one place no one could hide their raw emotions. It seemed as though I was the only one with their mask still intact.
I waited there for three hours, until the baby came. After that I was finally allowed in my sister's room. When I opened the door the first thing I saw was the bundle of joy swaddled in a little pink blanket. I was the fourth person to hold her, the fourth person to experience her purity. She had blue eyes that were completely filled with innocence, and little hands that were untouched by darkness. She knew nothing of this world yet, but she looked at it with amazement, she looked at me with amazement.
I left the hospital late that night, with what felt like a new outlook on life. Everything seemed like it could fall into place and there was a hope. I got home and crawled into my bed, I should have been tired but I couldn't sleep. I lay there awake waiting for the new day to come.
Waking up I find that my eyes, that yesterday were rose-colored, are now back to their normal black. I drag myself out of bed and into the kitchen where my pill bottles lay. In this moment I can't help but hope that her child will never experience the world for what it is, cruel and unforgiving. What's unfortunate is that one day she truly will and develop her own mask. Just like everyone else, she will grow to learn to hide behind her mask because everyone expects you to be happy, but nobody truly is.
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125,018 Literary Works • 672,861 Reviews
This was really sad, and coming from the oldest of 10, it hurts. I know what it's like to have a tough life and see your siblings or another baby be born and you can only hope for the best for them. This story really related to me, and I can know what it feels like. Besides that, it was a very deep and touching story and you did a good job with it. Nice work!
Oh hey, here I have found life all summed up in a short story.
First off, this is pretty well written, you certainty have a way with words. And there were no spelling or grammar errors. This story is really amazing. Anyone can tell you that we all wear masks, after all, as Confucius once said, “The funniest people are the saddest ones.”
This piece is really sweet too, with the baby being born and all. My youngest brother was born at three in the morning, I woke up and heard him crying. I held him for the first time when he was only half an hour old. I was the first person besides my parents to hold him; when you experience something like that, you cannot help but be completely in awe. I held this tiny little bit of new life, and even though I had held my newborn siblings before, this time was different. Maybe it was because I was older, I had different views on the world, I don't know. But as I held him I almost dropped him, I was shaking so hard that dad thought I would pass out. It was truly incredible.
I also have a lot of experience with depression, it is like a heavy blanket, weighing you down and muting all the colors and good of the world. But sometimes things happen that push away that blanket, at least for a little while. My dad told me recently that he never would have thought that I was usually down and extremely unhappy. I always have a smile, always have a joke ready, always have words of enthusiasm. But I am like that because when I do or say something funny, people around me smile. When I encourage them, they are happier. I don't care if I am unhappy as long as I make people around me feel good.
I have a mask, I am a sad apple with a smiley face post-it note in front of me. We all do, and I think this story actually presents that better than almost any other poem or story I have read.
Keep on Writing.
I cannot tell you how true this is. This strikes a deep place in my heart when I read about the 'mask'. I think this piece of work is amazing and for good reason. A lot of people hide themselves behind their masks because of something they don't want others to see. That may be a dark secret, a fretful rumor, or a mental illness. Whatever it is, they put on a mask to hide it.
And the newborn baby is also very true. You seemed to have condensed most of the worlds ways in one story. Very well done. And honestly, people have no control over their mask. Nobody can be truly happy unless they let all of their lies come forth. However, they still may not be happy because that truth could've chased away friends and maybe even family.
This piece of writing can symbolize a point in everyone's life when they had to hide something, whether that be ann illness or a secret. This is amazing, keep writing!
Ciao!
~NympheaLily
This is very realistic. Alot of people hide their emotions from the world because the world doesn't matter what people are feeling. And the newborn baby, not knowing the dark and evil side of the world, just seeing it with wide eyes and amazement of all the purity and beauty of everything, we have all once seen the world like that. I like the emotions of the character, but this lacks real story. All I get from this is a depressed person watched their sister give birth to their niece and they hope they never see the horror of the world that the character has seen.
Work on making the story actually mean something. This isn't going to mean anything right now because there is not real story to it. Make it longer, make us fall in love with the character. Make it seem more real, give us experiences the character went through, preferably one shown and not told, perhaps maybe through flashback. You can still keep it all on the same day and all the events happen, but add storyline and dialogue.