The imaginary adventures of Helen and Reshil

I woke up into darkness. My head felt like I had been hit by a semi-truck and my mouth tasted as if I spent an hour licking the metal of said truck. I blinked a few times, willing my eyes to adjust. I wasn't in complete darkness for there was a window with the moon shining brightly through. Then I realized that I was not outside or in my tent or in my car. I was in a cell. Three solid walls of stone and a metal bars. I eased onto my elbows and into a sitting position. "It was about time," the voice came from the other corner of this damp cell, I almost missed the mass that was sitting in the corner. "Helen?" That irritated tone she used with me when I was being annoying was unmistakable. "Yeah. You've been out for a few hours." "Where are we?" "Locked up." She was sitting curled up like a ball in a corner not looking at me. I was beginning to panic. All the horror kidnapping movies I have ever watched in my life we...

I do what I always do when I'm sad, keep busy. I spent the first few weeks since my husband left for his deployment moving through the motions of work and home like a zombie. On weekends I would binge watch action movies and romantic comedies, trying not to throw my pillow at love scenes while crying my eyes out. I kept active, going to my Tae Kwon Do and Krav Maga martial arts classes to keep the dopamine moving through my body. Since my husband left, I stopped having nightmares. I just fell into dreamless sleep every night. The space on the bed where he slept was now occupied by several pillows. It wasn't hard to sleep after a whole afternoon of grueling martial arts drills and sparring since I often came home bruised and sore. I missed him most in the morning, when I would wake up and see the pillows where his body should've been. I missed him again in the afternoons, when I would come home from work to find that he wasn't standing in the kitchen eating some snack....

The wind was chilly as I made my ascent along the marked trail. Fallen leaves crunched underneath my hiking boots and my breath was heavy in my chest. The bare trees were dusted in green as the limbs stretched towards the sun to embrace the oncoming spring. The forest was silent, except for the sound of my boots carving a path through the forgotten trail and my breath as I struggled to keep moving. How long have I been walking? Hours? Days? My body felt stiff and sweat dampened my shirt. Ahead I could see a clearing and the trail began to plateau. The grass was green and tall. Little white flowers sprinkled the floor and the view made me feel at peace. My feet moved me as if my feet were magnets attracted metal. My pace quickened and soon I was running as fast as I could. I stopped just at the entrance of the clearing, inhaling deeply as I tried to steady the beat of my heart which were loud in my ears. The thrumming grew deeper and I realized that it wasn't just my heart that ...