large_Red Green Gift Time Facebook Ad (2).webp

medium_Red Green Gift Time Facebook Ad (2).webp

small_Red Green Gift Time Facebook Ad (2).webp

thumbnail_Red Green Gift Time Facebook Ad (2).webp

Red Green Gift Time Facebook Ad (2).webp

Novelo Rectangle

It was unusually warm for this time of year, a deceptive balm on the raw edges of December. Rene walked, her breath misting faintly in the unseasonably mild air, a stark contrast to the icy chill that had settled in her heart. The year had ended, not with a bang, but with a whimper – her own silent departure from a life that had felt suffocatingly empty. Nobody noticed. Or so she thought. The finality of her decision, the deliberate shedding of a life she'd long since outgrown, settled upon her like a shroud. Her apartment, a sterile box filled with possessions that no longer resonated, remained untouched, a testament to her carefully orchestrated disappearance. She’d left behind a note, cryptic enough to be dismissed as a melancholic outburst, not a farewell. She watched the city lights blur into streaks of color, the festive cheer a mocking soundtrack to her solitary journey. Each step was a shedding of another layer, a deliberate distancing from a world that had proven consistently unkind. The warmth felt wrong, unnatural, a cruel joke played by a universe oblivious to her silent struggle. She pressed on, the rhythm of her footsteps the only constant in the chaotic symphony of the city. The numbness crept in gradually, a welcome blanket against the gnawing emptiness. The initial pangs of regret, the fleeting moments of doubt, were slowly being replaced by an almost serene acceptance. She wasn't running *from* anything anymore; she was walking *towards* something – a hazy, undefined future, a blank canvas onto which she could paint a new life, free from the constraints and expectations of the past. The biting cold eventually came, a stark reminder of her physical reality, but the emotional frost had long since melted. She found solace in the rhythmic thud of her boots on the pavement, the steady beat a counterpoint to the erratic rhythm of her heart. The warmth had faded completely now; winter was asserting its rightful reign. She passed homeless shelters, their flickering lights casting long, dancing shadows, each a silent witness to her solitary pilgrimage. She felt a strange kinship with them, shared experiences of displacement and abandonment, albeit on vastly different scales. But her solitary existence was a choice; theirs, a cruel fate. The thought of a warm bed, a hot meal, briefly tempted her, but she pushed it away. This cold, this solitude, was her penance, her self-imposed purification.Days bled into weeks. Rene's journey became less about a destination and more about the process itself – the slow, deliberate unravelling of her former self. She walked until she couldn't feel anymore – not the cold, not the hunger, not the lingering ache of loneliness. She walked until she reached the edge of a vast, frozen lake, the icy surface mirroring the stillness within her. The reflection staring back at her was not the haunted woman who'd left the city, but a stranger, etched with the quiet dignity of someone who had finally found peace, however desolate the setting. She sat down on the frozen shore, the biting wind a gentle caress against her numb skin. Then, with a sigh that carried the weight of a lifetime's burdens, she closed her eyes, the silent expanse of the frozen lake reflecting the infinite stillness of her final, self-imposed rest. The unusual warmth, the deceptive kindness of a fleeting December thaw, had been a mere prelude to the eternal winter of her self-chosen oblivion.

Try Premium

Try Premium

Vanished

Quiarrah

Jody Johnson

Share

Vanished

Synopsis

Chapters

Word Count

Read Time

Publish Date

Story Updates

This story has no updates.

Reviews

This story has not been rated yet. Login to review this story.

Advertisement

Challenge

About Author

Jody Johnson

Advertisement

Other stories by Quiarrah

Secret Santa

Browse