There was an important event she needed to go to. She woke up at 5 in the morning to prepare for this important event that doesn’t even matter to her. She wasn’t excited for it, in fact, she hated it. Unfortunately, it was mandatory, so she couldn’t refuse. She hated herself for it, the fact that she couldn’t say no anymore. If you ask her old friends to describe her, they would say she was a girl who always speaks her mind. She was known for being that girl, until she left her home.


She couldn’t wait to leave her home. She spent her days wondering what would be her life if she lived in a different place, doing the same things everyday makes her sick. She was getting tired of it, she was getting tired of living in a place she grew up, she was getting tired of seeing the same people everyday, she wanted to start over. Possessing a new image, meeting new people, having a brand new start were the things she wanted before. She thought starting over would be a great thing, but oh boy, she couldn’t be more wrong.


She glanced on the road while listening to the bad music on the radio. She realized she was travelling alone on an empty road. It fits her, she thought, she and the road were the same; they were both empty. Her friends warned her about this specific empty road before. They told her to never travel alone or else something might happen. She used to be scared of all of these but now she’s not anymore. Raise Your Voice, that’s the name of the event she was going to. Standing on stage, holding the microphone while speaking up used to be her favourite thing to do, now she couldn’t even do it anymore. She always had something to say about things, and she always had something to laugh about. She was a burning flame that everybody thought nothing could ever put down, until this strong element stopped her from rising. Her soul was full of hopes, dreams, and life. Now she doesn’t even know what she wants anymore, she lost herself.


She wanted to run away, to walk away from all these problems. She just wanted to graduate and get this done and over with. Life was supposed to be a battle and she was supposed to be a soldier who never surrenders, she promised herself that. She promised herself she would never give up, and now she couldn’t care less about things.


While she was remembering the good times her car engine suddenly died while she was driving. “Seriously?” she said to herself, “Is everything I own dead now? Like me?”
The moment she stepped outside her car to check what’s wrong with it, she unexpectedly saw a car junk yard. It’s an empty road, how is there supposed to be a junkyard? What’s even more strange is, she didn’t see it while she was driving.


“Well this day is weird as ****,” she said. She checked her car engine and she didn’t know what to do. She had no choice but to look for people who could help her with her car. She didn’t know anything about it, she didn’t even know what the problem of her car was. Maybe this creepy car junkyard could actually help her.


She became surprised when she saw couple of people hanging out in this junkyard. Is this a secret hipster hangout? Who would even wanna hang out in a car junkyard? Imagine drinking beer while being surrounded with abandoned cars.


“May I help you?” A long haired guy who was wearing a Led Zeppelin shirt appeared by her side. She was having second thoughts in answering him back, but she really needed help, especially the event is 4 hours from now.


“Yeah, actually I was driving while my car suddenly stopped. I don’t know what’s wrong with it, and I don’t know anything about cars. What shocked me more is that I saw this junkyard and a lot of people are actually hanging out in this place. I figured you can help me.”


“You think we know everything about cars just because we’re hanging out in a car junkyard?” He asked while laughing. Her embarrassment was overflowing at that moment.


“I just guessed. I think.” She looked at the guy and he thankfully stopped laughing.


“We’ll see what we can do. At the moment, why won’t you just join us?” Join them? Like hang out with people who are in this creepy junk yard? She was feeling a little scared that maybe these people are actually killers or ghosts but there wasn’t really anything to lose. She’d rather be dead than being in an event where she feels invisible.


She walked towards people who were about her age. All of them smiled at her which causes her to smile too.


“Your car died?” asked a short haired girl.


“Yeah, this day *****. Life actually *****.”


“If that ain’t the truth.” She and the short haired girl smiled at each other. People there talked to her, asked her questions, but never asked for her name. She never knew their names. What is this place? Is this a labyrinth?


“I hope you guys don’t mind me asking but, what do you do here?” For the first time, she was getting curious about things again.


“We live here.” One of them replied.


“You live here? Like you sleep inside the cars?” She asked. She wondered how can they do it. What do they eat? Where do they take a bath? Do they even have some money?


“Yeah, you can say that.”


“I’m sorry if I ask too many questions but how did you guys meet? Like, were you all friends before or did you just meet here?”


“We all met because of one thing, our cars suddenly died and we had nowhere to go. Actually, two things, our cars were **** and we wanted to walk away from our problems.”


She immediately felt goosebumps after she heard that. She thought she was crazy when she thought this was actually a nonexistent place but she was right all along. Nonetheless, she wasn’t scared anymore. Truth be told, she was enjoying herself. This felt a lot better than everything. She actually thought of not leaving this place. At least people here understood her, at least they were like her. All of the people were already sleeping, and she thought maybe she could use some sleep too. She was supposed to close her eyes already when the long haired guy suddenly approached her.


“Are you sure with your decision?” he asked out of the blue.


“What decision?”


“You sure you wanna walk away from everything already?”


“What? I’m just sleeping. When my car stops being ****, I’ll leave immediately.” He didn’t seem to believe her, she thought.


“You’re enjoying here, aren’t you?” She didn’t reply, she knew that the boy already knows the answer.


“I was like that too, you know? I thought this was the place where I can finally be free. I finally walked away from my problems, I don’t have to deal with ****** things anymore. That’s what I thought.”


“It looks like that’s what’s happening, actually.”


“At first it was. It felt good. Until I realised that walking away from everything isn’t the solution. It doesn’t make things right, it actually makes it worse. The fact that you didn’t even try to fight is the worst thing.” She felt it. She felt his pain. She didn’t even know if he was still a human being but one thing is for sure, she felt it.


“But I tried, you know? I tried everything and life is still ****.”


“I get where you’re coming from. Let me guess, you were an achiever who suddenly became a loser?” She didn’t answer him, for the second time, he knows the answer.


“I was like that. I was doing fine with everything and I was a dummy for thinking that I would do much better when I move. But I didn’t, I became worse. I went down. It ******, you know? I cried myself to sleep every night, I became invisible to people, my talent and passion were suddenly gone. I didn’t know what I wanted anymore. I didn’t feel living, I just felt like I was existing.” She never thought she would find another person who would understand her. Everything he said was everything she felt. She was left speechless after that.


“But I was more dumb to think that the best decision was to run away. I heard all about this place ever since before. I drove all the way from my place to here, thinking I could escape it all. That’s not the right decision. I was stupid for thinking that I could reach my destination immediately without having a journey. I was stupid to think that I can just drive for 1 kilometre and be at the place I want. It doesn’t work like that, life doesn’t work like that. There will always be a journey, a journey where you’ll feel **** but you will also learn and grow.”


“So you regretted your decision?”


“Let’s just say I was too late.” She couldn’t find the right words, she didn’t know what to say.


“Look, I don’t want to be the one who decides for you. Maybe you’re so fed up of everything, I get it. But I’m just asking you to think about it, before everything is too late. And piece of advice, if you decide to leave here, please, don’t ever look back.” They looked at each other in the eyes, knowing they had this connection and understanding of each other. Tired, sad, and hopeless eyes.


And just like that, he disappeared. She was left alone with her chaotic mind of hers. This was everything she wanted, to finally walk away from everything. She thought about things thoroughly, that was when she realised that what she wanted so bad before caused her so much regret. She thought about her old self, the one who was full of life. She looked at the stars and saw how dark the sky is, but the brightness of the stars still overshadowed its darkness. She wasn’t like a star, she was nothing like it for she let her darkness overshadow her. But perhaps she could try. She could try again.


She knew she lost almost everything, but her attitude of always trying was still there. She was still here because she remained strong despite everything. She never realised that, and now she’s glad she finally does. She got up and started to walk away from the car junkyard. Epiphany hit her, this is the place she’s supposed to walk away from. The darkness, the surrendering, the giving up. She was trying hard to not look at the car junkyard for one last time, and she succeeded. There’s no looking back.


She went to her car and miraculously, the engine finally started. She took a deep breath, turned the radio on and she smiled when her favourite song played. She didn’t know where she was going, but one thing is for sure, she knew where she belongs. *And after that moment, she drove.