The Girl Who Dared To Go Through The Archway __ Daily Prompt 16th October

They told Amara never to go near the archway.........

It stood at the edge of Umuoma forest, old stone covered in moss and strange symbols that glowed faintly at night.......... No one knew who built it. The elders said it was a door that only opens for those who have lost something.

Amara had lost everything. Her mother last year. Her scholarship this year.Now she sat in her small room in Onitsha, staringg at her empty wallet, feelingg like a failurer.

So one evening, she packed a small wrapper and walked to the forest....... Her heart was beatingg soooooo fast.

The archway was bigger than she imagined...... Cold air was comming from the otheer sidee, but the light was warmm. Golden. Like morning sun.

She stood there for a long time.......

"What if I disappeear?" she whispereed.

Then she heard a voice, not from outside, but inside her own chest - "What if you become?"

She closed her eyes and stepped through.

Going through the archway was like going through water and fire at the same time. For one second she couldn't breathe. For one second she saw all her fears - failing school, no money, people laughing at her writing.

Then silence.

She opened her eyes......

She was still in the same forest, but everything was brighter......... The trees were taller. The air smelled like rain...... And in front of her, on the ground, was a small wooden box.

Insidee the boox was a pen, and a noote: "Write your way out."

Amara laughed and cried at the same time. She understood.

Going through the archway didn't give her money or magic. It gave her permission to start again.

She walked back home, but she was no longer the same girl who was afraid to post. She was the girl who went through.

And she started writing that night.

IMAGE SOURCE AI