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Why not?

Summary:

A short story of 500 words describing a day that in the life of a depressed girl whose nightmares haunted her.
One day she woke up and wrote a note before she headed to the bridge with a smile.
What was in the note? What did the police officer find that made him question humanity? Why did he cry?

Still thinking if this story is worth a read. Here's a question - Why not?

Notes:

Please read the tags before you begin.
This is MY work.
Please ask permission before reposting or reusing it. Please ask before you upload translations as well.

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Work Text:

The darkness was closing around her - it scared her to no end. She tried to scream and struggle and run - but a creature grabbed her leg and pulled back.
She knew it was a nightmare it had to be ... but then the creatures around her were so real - some evils of the past, some carrying promises of future pain.
And they were moving closer and closer and she had no where to go.
She just couldn't run. The lunatic voice - Their hysterical laugh was hurting her ears. And all she wanted was for it to stop.
And then suddenly it did.
There was heart wrenching silence until ... until she heard it.
The light tick-tok.
A clock was ticking, continually getting louder and louder until it became overwhelming.It was shattering her grip on reality and was driving her crazy.
"Please that is enough" - she begged.For a second the ticking stopped and there was a very soft laughter next to her ear. It sent chills up her spine.
She woke up instantly and thought it was fine until the ticking started again. Why was she still hearing it?

"You see it is very difficult to wake up from nightmares when you aren't even asleep", she thought.
Nevertheless she reminded herself - One more time, one last time - smile, stay strong and take another step.
She washed her face - hoping she could wash away the memories- and wrote something on a piece of paper, rolled it up and put it in her pocket. A note. A wish. A secret.
She wore a neon pink t-shirt that would be impossible to miss if she walked past you on the street. It had a flashy "why not" written on the back in black.
She put on some makeup, trying to hide her scars and her tears behind a blindingly bright smile and walked out of her apartment.
She crossed several people on the street. She smiled with all her might at each one.
But no one smiled back.
She wondered why? Maybe they could see that her eyes held dangerous and magnificent chaos?
She took multiple rounds of a busy street corner and yet not a single soul smiled or gave her a nod. No one could spare time to show any tenderness or kindness.
"When you ignore someone so much, they start doubting their existence", she murmured.

She then took a lonely and dark road to the bridge - not a single ray of sunshine lit this path.
She walked down the hill and to the bridge, only to never smile again. The police found a note on her drowned body.
It read "If a single person smiles at me today, I won't jump".

The police officer wondered if this was suicide or if it was a murder our whole society came together to stage?
The accused was not one person but the hundreds that she crossed.
The thousands that don't smile.
The millions that are too indulged in their own life to notice other's pain. That couldn't spare a moment of tenderness and compassion for her.
And then he turned her on her back and couldn't hold his tears it read "Why not?".
"Why not?", he wondered. Why could a young girl not find a reason to live another day? Why can we not smile at strangers?

 

Don't stop dreaming because you had a nightmare ....
Worry less, smile more. Don't regret just smile and grow.
If u see some one without a smile give them one of yours.
Smile at strangers and you might just change their lives.

Notes:

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