(Note: Words in italics are thoughts of the main character perspective.
Friendly Reminder: This is my first time writing, and I promise the writing style gets better the more you read.)
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Maybe it is because people love to torment other people. Or maybe it is because the world was just made that way.
But I have got to say...
"Name please?" A man behind the glass barrier asked. Dressed up in a suit coat the colour of the leaves. It may have been a better sight a different shade, but this was causing me a headache.
"Uh—Aefia." I diverted my eyes to the man's face instead. My hair is black, my eyes are black... And this gives them all the reasons to suspect me cause I live in South Asia. Although I am not South-Asian. Besides, I am a teenager half-way through this phase.
"Right. And may I know the reason for your stay? Also, provide the place and exact time you were born."
No but seriously... Why do I need to answer that?
I let out a deep breathe.
"I am actually from Romania. My father has a business—"
"Permission granted!" The officer yelled while stamping my passport. Although, it was a green one that my father made me through many different agents. For some reasons... Making me South-Asian.
But truly... My nationality is something else and I belong somewhere half-way across the world.
And anytime I feel trapped like this... That is all I say. It has become a habit of mine.
As soon as the officer handed me those papers, I walked away back to join my family. I have a mom, and a dad, and a little brother. I have everything and yet, my life just feels suffocating.
As soon as I look at my parents... I want to run away. Then I look at my brother, I have to stay. And it is not like we are anything less then rich and well-known.
My father is a massive businessman. He is so famous that sometimes walking down the street gets him a few bows and "good morning, sir". He contributed to society, he raised orphanages, he gave a few street people some place to stay...
But he has no respect for the women in his life.
I have heard—and seen—how people in my country are. They are extremely different compared to South Asia where men still believe women belong in the kitchen, they should not be educated, they are punching bags, they are someone who raises their children while the men do nothing...
Some even have their wives work outside while they are unemployed, and then expects money for their gambling whether they are in debt or not.
I hope I never get tangled into those situations...
But yes... My father is almost the same mentality. He has a few friends from this country... And he comes home every night to cause a mess.
Even servants don't stand a change when it comes to the amount he beats us.
I personally started getting blood on my body since I was four. Broken bones, a bleeding scalp, unattended wounds.
And then locked in the room so that we can't get help.
Alongside that... He isn't even guilty. I could tell on him to a lawyer... But he has the upper ground cause men support men. If a women tries to stand up, we are murdered inside our own house and nobody knows. They don't even care.
I can't even think why my father chose to come here. From what my grandparents say... He was never like this.
That isn't even one percent of all the reasons I hate South-Asian people.
There is corruption. There is sickness, there is disrespect, unclean roads, disgusting-minded people. I really, really, want to go back to Romania.
I can stay with my grandparents—and I will thrive there. I can get educated and become a powerful lawyer—unlike my father who still wants me to drop-out of school. And I am only in ninth-grade.
I really don't stand the chance... Do I?
All I can do is let out a deep sigh, act like I am happy, walk the streets and ignore those few photographers who keep trying to find me doing something wrong to put it in the newspaper.
While that was that...
We have the school issues. Like any other people in the whole world.
I get bullied a lot, even with top scores second only to the class star. (She is the popular girl we all know who loves to think everyone loves her.)
I am pretty sure that she still screams into her pillow every night after I wrote those wrong answers for her when she got me to do all those stacks upon stacks of math homework.
Sorry, can you blame me? She bothers the heck out of me.
Then I also have a best friend, Nada—who is also my cousin. We have been through thick and thin together.
Anyways! Back to how it all begun.
To be specific... The main trouble.
That day after we all came back from the passport office, I somehow felt like I wanted to stay outside for a while. It seemed to me like I really wanted to look at the streets one more time before turning away forever. But truly I couldn't understand what that strange tug was.
As if my fingers were tied to strings that would maneuver me around for the rest of my life, so I should use my freedom as much as I could. I was anxious, was frantically looking at my watch, kept tapping my phone. Then, was almost about to use my remaining allowance to seek a therapist because I always knew I was never alright.
But it never felt this tense.
Neither did I know that someone was staring at the back of my head with observant eyes.
As I walked, I came across a mini-mart and decided to blow out my feelings by purchasing...
Stationary...
Yeah, yeah... I had a stalker and a panic attack and my only resolve were pencils that were scented and pens that had vibrant, colourful inks. Maybe sometimes notebooks that had pretty covers.
Well, at least it kept me distracted as I moved along the rows of shops a last time.
They say before a person die, they long to see things and taste foods about a week to a night prior. Much like how I was feeling.
But still, my shoulders were tense and I felt suffocated. No amount of breathing could cure me that instant.
So I resorted to going back home.
If I died in my sleep, then of course I would be able to escape this hell of a world. But I didn't want that to happen in the streets where insects would find me first.
Honestly though... I truly felt like that was my last day.
Luckily, that one tiny tickle of my nerve—that we all feel right before we leave for a flight early in the morning before sunrise—kept me going. I was excited, but I couldn't explain it at all.
Alright! Enough of that blabbering. By now you all are frustrated that I am not getting to what exactly happened.
That day, when I returned at around five, I immediately rushed to my bedroom without a word and freshened up cause... Who doesn't want to get rid of that feeling through a proper shower. Then I sat at my desk and went through my phone. I didn't do anything, just stared at the wallpaper and the time, as if I was going to miss it sooner or after.
I opened multiple applications but didn't use them. I went through my chats but still didn't use it. Then, I closed all tabs on my phone, slammed it into the wall and leaned back against my chair. Sighing loudly as I blankly stared up at the ceiling.
I had two theories that could determine what was actually about to happen.
One, my bipolar disorder was acting up and I previously couldn't tell.
Two, although this isn't a reincarnation story or anything... A particular event from a novel I read long ago was about to occur.
The line that read;
"The participants found themselves pulled into a world that was neither Earth, nor another place they knew or heard of. And it was one place where they would live the rest of their lives."
The fact that was bothering me the most, was... My very uncommon name was used in that story as a minor villain who died at the end. Not just any deaths though.
Well, I don't care about that... But it was published after I was born. So it's either I inspired it, or... It is not a coincidence.
"Definetly my disorder." I mumbled into the air while pulling my right leg up and hugged it.
Just when I was about to zone out, a sweet melody of the doorbell came echoing inside my room through the closed doors. It snapped me out of my thoughts, and alongside it, I got yelled at by my mother to stop being lazy and answer it.
Reluctantly, I walked out of my room on my socks and looked out. I pulled my zipper hoodie up on my shoulders, suddenly feeling like the temperature dropped at least a couple degrees.
I was so irritated, anxious and tired, that I practically tore the door off the hinges when I did.
Warm chestnut hair and light brown eyes stared back at me. She looked foreign and... very pretty.
"Hey. Can I... Help you?" I asked, stepping forward and shutting the door behind me. (Unlike always, in this version of the world, they all know how to speak English.)
"Yes. You can." She nodded while looking straight into my soul. It made me shudder.
"So... How?"
"Don't you always feel like running away?" The woman asked with a slight furrow of her brows. "From this country, from your hostile family, from your aunts and uncles... From all this... Troubles?"
Damn! What?! I thought right that moment. I mean... I did want to do so. But how did she know?
"Ma'am. How may I help you with that?" I asked, trying to make her specify.
"You can't help me." She answered.
I got scared, and reached behind me to sneak back into the house and lock it. However, that woman reached forward and grabbed my wrist.
"You can escape many things Aefia... But you can't escape destiny."
Destiny your head! I tried to fight back. I shut my eyes for a brief moment. When I opened them... I was—
Back at home, my mother had just come out to inspect what was taking so long. Only to meet a strange-looking woman who stared back at her with a knowing smirk.
"So... How does it feel to suddenly lose your daughter?" She asked. My mother flinched and opened the door fully to inspect where I was gone. The padlock was untouched, and besides that... I didn't have a key along with me.
Now you might be asking how I know all this...
I was actually still there as my body dissapeared as my soul started to disintegrate.
I was hissing in pain and she couldn't hear. Then suddenly... The worse part.
"If you take her and kill her... I don't mind." My mother declared. "She isn't worth the money we are raising her."
It pained me. However, I was too shocked to give a single mind to anything that was happening right in front of my eyes. My head was spinning and my vision was blurring. But I wasn't crying.
As I saw, my mother shut the door and the woman observed me with eyes that spoke for her.
"I feel sorry for you. I promise... You are getting a better life from now on."
"What about my brother?!" I shouted at the top of my lungs as my last bit of sanity collapsed.
I was never this weak... Never.
But suddenly, I felt like my entire world had tilted hazardously on its axis and I was completely numb.
The realization hit me...
This was destiny. And I had been feeling uneasy because of it.
For the rest of my story... I will tell you one thing...
I am...
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First draft: 22.10.2025
Edited: 06.08.2026