Simple, new, and wandering without a clue.
A child which only knows evil as the monsters beneath the bed, their soul just so fragile and curious.
They don’t know the words of struggle and pain, they’ve never heard the voices screaming in agony nor their parents struggling with their bills, or the people around them in vain.
They go on with their days, running with friends, learning from the teacher, they see their family and laugh to their jokes not knowing what’s behind their masks.
But do not worry for they won’t remain an eternal child.
This child will grow into a teen.
Anxious, irresponsible, and stepping on glass.
This teen will cry themselves to sleep, they will no longer fear the monsters beneath the bed but instead will look for them in the streets, the schools, and in their friends.
Their friends will begin to disappear, their minds empty and their wrists sore from the cutting, not listening to the teacher, and beginning to see through the fake smiles of their parents.
They will the see the disappointment hidden in their gazes, they will keep their thoughts to themselves in order to maintain the family balance.
Soon the child, now teen, will turn into an adult.
The adult will see the fault lines in the system, they will see the ways everyone hides themselves behind a mask, they will fight for people to see through their eyes and understand that this adult is struggling too.
This adult will go through life hoping to find someone whom they can trust in, someone who understands them, and someone who they can cry into on those hard late nights. They won’t find this person easily since everyone is wearing a mask. They will struggle to find the one person who will take the mask off for them.
After years of loneliness, stress, and aching this adult will find the one. The one which they have searched every corner of the earth for. But then what if they were the one getting searched for this whole time instead? What if their parents weren’t looking at them with disappointment but instead with understanding because they too felt the same way before? That maybe the reason why they looked at you that way is because they were you.
But it’s too late to apologize now isn’t it? Because now all everyone knows is that you’re a selfish, worthless, and useless person just like everyone else. Because you were too caught up in yourself to notice that they were trying to help you.