LITERARY| Teal Ribbons, Tears for a River

Teal Ribbons, Tears for a River

Jennica Lianne

I see red, but I get chills down my spine as I keep running and catching my breath in between. How long have I been doing this? How many people have passed me by? Screw it, none of that matters anymore—what does is that the world should lose sight of me.

It seems that I always have to be someone’s muse, an image of beauty, grace, and intelligence that is worth admiring. Just like the season, I may seem cold, but my charm shows through the different colors surrounding my existence, and people seem to like that a lot, whether or not they want to admit that. Figures, it’s only natural that I don’t understand the way they feel about me—I can’t even understand myself: the broken mosaic that is Autumn Gomez.

…and it was those two shadows that have been chasing me all these years that left me in pieces. Twin figures that I thought had lagged way behind me, but still manage to catch up and try to grab me by the crook of my neck.

“Autumn, my angel. How I wish to see you again!” One voice resounded.

“Do you miss me, Autumn? I remember you telling me that I’d always be your greatest love.”, chimed the other.

Who knew the undead could be so two-faced?

Next thing I knew, they already had a hold on me.

“Not this again, let me go…!”

I struggle, squirming and screaming the entire time. I’ve honestly lost count of how many times this has happened to me, and I think half of me is already immune to this, as my screams have grown weaker and weaker with each incident such as this one. Maybe their filthy hands have rubbed off on me too much that something a 16-year-old would deem too much to handle could now be something an 18-year-old can live with.

Is what’s happening a product of my choices? Maybe.

Pure and innocent is just so alien to me already. I’m quite the harlot, aren’t I?

I open my eyes to find that both figures had somehow vanished yet again. Slowly, I get back up and begin to walk to anywhere my feet would take me. And this time, it took me to an icecold river.

“Ah, the perfect place to begin with the end in mind.” I thought.

When the autumn freezes, it withers to welcome the winter. And so as I took the plunge, I assumed that I would have just faded away with time. It’s not like my circumstances would change with the seasons, right?

But as I felt myself slowly enveloping in frostbite, my eyes grew wide as I heard something rather unusual.

“Autumn…”

The voice was different than the ones I’ve heard before, but it was also familiar to me.

I’ve heard it before, but should I submerge and follow it? With all the angry and hungry voices that I usually heard, I guess it was only natural for me to be so unsure.

“Hold on, and you can rest easy with me, Autumn.”

Suddenly, a teal ribbon descended to where I was drowning, waiting for me to take it and be saved. But salvation is still so vague to me. Will the voice waiting on the surface finally be my safe place?