Dawn of a New Era

Dawn brushed her long brown hair as she gazed out of the window. She wasn’t going anywhere yet but they would come for her eventually.

Down below her apartment block the streets were lifeless, dead. How she longed for the days when she had to shut her windows to drown out the noise. The constant traffic, wailing sirens, the relentless music from across the street, late night revellers leaving the bar on the next block, enough noise to make her consider moving to the countryside. “I can work anywhere” she would say, “just give me an internet connection”. Working as a contributor to a fashionable lifestyle magazine was now just another distant, very distant memory. A memory like all the others stored away, faraway it seemed now, a different life, another world. The quietness, the stillness was of this new life. The old world’s noise was an unexpected void in Dawn’s existence.

There was no radio, no internet, just crackling and black screens. Washing the crockery at the sink was music to Dawn’s ears, the noise of rattling dishes brought comfort. The cutlery drawer would be slammed shut and opened to be slammed again and again. The Silence would be broken, albeit for a second or two. Dawn found herself randomly repeating the cutlery drawer routine more frequently recently and with much more vigour.

Friends in High Places

The white lacy curtains from the apartment block window just opposite were billowing in the wind. The window had been left half open when they were taken but this provided Dawn with her only glimpse of movement. Days the curtains would flutter, others they were lifeless and hung sunken to the outside of the window, but they were still there for Dawn, faithfully every day.

The mobile phone lay lifeless; there was no electricity so it could not be charged. Before the life had drained from its battery Dawn had relentlessly called every contact, friends, family, work, anyone on her contact list, always the same dead line. Hello, a word taken for granted so many times, “HELLO HELLO” she would frantically cry to every contact and their dead line.

Brushing her hair, washing her face and putting on her heart locket each morning, a bid to create routine – something she had penned endless articles about in her old life, routine, the power of a morning routine. All the health and wellness, personal development gurus seem to owe all their success to their morning routine – “Where are they now” she would wonder.

Dancing in the Madness

Recently late afternoon brought the sunlight rays; the small dark apartment would be flooded with long finger like rays of light. Dawn sometimes wished they would just lift her and pull her out of her apartment, through the window and bring her to a life familiar somewhere. Meantime she would content herself watching the dust dance and twirl, float and fall. Sometime she would try and catch one of the dust ballerinas – to no avail. Today she was tired; she lay on the floor on her back watching the light and dance show above, she wished she could cry.

Saving Her Emotions

Dawn had no tears; they were long gone, dried up weeks ago. The few bottles of red wine that kept her company on those first few weeks speeded that process, the wine was long gone too. They had taken her world and everyone in it, they were freedom stealers. She caressed her heart locket with her fingers, holding on tight to the love she felt, afraid that her last emotion would slowly be taken from her. The locket was a gift from Dawn’s fiancé on her last birthday, she closed her eyes and dug deep into her conscience and let the love envelop her.

Dawn turned her gaze to the mantra’s she had lipsticked across her walls.

“They will never take my heart,

They will never take my soul,

Therefore they will never take me

I AM FREE”

The sunlight fingers caressed her face, the ballerinas twirled and floated.

The door opened.

The faithful curtains, hanging by a thread - floated to the ground.