Of the Monsters They Cannot See - Anxiety Tales | Teen Ink

Of the Monsters They Cannot See - Anxiety Tales

January 29, 2024
By lucysteward SILVER, New York, New York
lucysteward SILVER, New York, New York
6 articles 0 photos 0 comments


Look closer, slip past tangled memories and sink through the fabric of the mind’s illusions

And you might find the fabled potion master

Tucked away in a crease of your mind, frozen in time

While working she sings, her melodies so raw and strikingly ethereal in the silence

She bottles and brews rather peculiar potions, for you see, she dabbles in capturing emotions.

Shed light

on the secrets that await you there, and if you find her, then…well, we’re about to see it all

unfold

 

Elswhere, a girl’s story has started to unfold

Although quite content for many years, her illusion

of continual happiness would soon shatter into a million fragments, shining like glass in the light

It started small, spouts of icy fear bubbling here and there but quickly became morphed, remastered

And then a monster emerged, its soulless eyes piercing, its retched shrieking devouring the silence

A monster, the worst in all history of time

 

But no one saw the monster. And when she cried out they turned away in confusion, time after time

Although no bitter words were spoken, doubt rang loud and clear in their silence

Questions drowned her mind, so she waited for an answer to unfold,

But no answer came, and she began to wonder, was it all in her head, an illusion?

Teetering on the brink of destruction was a life too hard to master

And so she left at dawn, was gone by the first rays of morning light

 

As she fled, the monster followed. Deep into the forest they went, a place devoid of light.

She paused, heart racing, and the world began to spin as her vision blurred and time-warped,

but still, she looked inside herself, into her core until a figure took shape; the potion master,

who said, “The monster was created by you and you can destroy it. Find courage and fate will

unfold.”

Something snapped inside her, and she knew if she tried she could save herself and dispel all

illusions

For a moment, there was silence

 

A symphony of emotion, so raw and so broken, gushed out of her and shattered that silence

And she knew that eventually she’d destroy the beast and swim to the surface, follow the light

For she could scream and cry and fight,

fight those twisted illusions,

never letting time

get the best of her, for this was her life and she was the master.

 

Yes, traces of the monster still lingered, but it was getting easier to calm and master

So she began to float, no longer sinking alone in silence

Healing with loved ones as the months passed, unfolded,

color returned to her days, seeping in like honey-golden light

She fell in love with life again, what a time

Even if no one else had seen it, she had. She knew it was real, no simple illusion.

 

Can you hear the love over those spiraling thoughts echoing too loudly in the silence? 

Good, because love and laughter and light only grow over time, and your story’s still unfolding.

You too can rewrite and remaster your life. Just know, all the monsters they cannot see are

never an illusion.


The author's comments:

Lucy Sis a high school junior in New York City. Her works have been recognized by the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards and appeared in the Authoethnographer, Humans of the World, Poet’s Choice, and Sad Girl Diaries. A writer and poet, she is currently working on her first novel and is constantly slipping into fantasies that feel as real as the world around her. Lucy is also a classically trained pianist, a songwriter, and in a rock band. As anyone does, she loves a good night's sleep. 


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