The door of the house slowly opened; a young girl slipped out and tiptoed carefully down the rocky driveway. She wanted to escape her house. She was not in trouble of any sort, she just hated the tension she felt there. But for some reason, she still felt that she needed to sneak out. Her hair was long and brown and she wore a gray tank top and denim shorts. Her blue flip flops clapped against her feet as they snuck down the road away from her house. She looked distressed; her face scrunched up in a frown against the setting sun. Usually, she loved the sun and everything to do with summer. She adored the warmth and the rush of the cool breeze at sunset, but now it only felt uncomfortable to her. Her long hair tangled in the breeze. She balled her hands up in fists involuntarily. She listened to music as she walked, and her headphones loosened from her ears as she took quick steps, further frustrating her.

She walked along the dark gray asphalt which gave off heat, still warm from the day. Tree branches, pine needles, wood splinters, and various leaves sat scattered and dead along the road like a large, poorly-weeded sidewalk. The tornado a couple days ago threw them there, and no one started to clean them up yet. Still shaken up, the wind made her nerves worsen with each step. The feeling seemed minor compared to when she sat in her house, though. When she sat alone in her room, her demons swept around her and trapped her in there, slowly destroying her. The entire house creaked in the wind with a lonely, cold, empty, and dark atmosphere, and she always tried to get away whenever possible. The large, spread-out neighborhood seemed a good place for walks. The grassy hills and vast woods helped her calm down. She enjoyed listening to the birds and breathing in the fresh air. It usually lifted her spirits.

As she walked, she looked around. Blue tarps covered almost every roof because of the wind damage. Shingles were missing and siding lay in peoples’ yards, no longer covering their houses. Trees that still stood bent over in one direction, their twisted, bare arms pointing to the area where houses piled up, completely demolished. The streets bustled with cars. Some people came to help out their friends and family in need, and others just came to see the damage. Windows were shattered, garage doors busted in, trees fallen.

“Wow…” she said in slow astonishment as she took in her surroundings, her eyes carefully scanning the destruction.

She walked for a couple hours, blasting her ipod into her ears. In the past when she listened to music, it made her feel happy and at peace with everything. Now, she just felt numb. She tried to find some album that could make her happy, make her summer enjoyable. She was having a hard time doing so. She tried listening to countless songs, hoping one would bring her that old feeling like she used to get when she listened to music a couple years ago, but nothing came. She continued shuffling through her ipod, the insatiable feeling growing stronger by the minute.

She looked in awe. Her house had not been damaged, no one had been hurt, and she was extremely grateful. But the roaring sound of the wind still haunted her ears, and she was still shaken up. She could not imagine how those whose houses were destroyed felt. She continued her walk for a couple hours until her legs ached and her feet bled from the sores her flip flops created. Her feet possesed splinters from all of the debris, and she scolded herself for being so stupid and wearing those shoes.
She returned to her house and the power was still out. Her walk did not help her; it only made her feel more restless and stressed out, despite the fact that she realized how lucky she had been. She scolded herself yet again for being so ungrateful and emotionally complicated. She did not understand why her thoughts and feelings were always so extremely tangled. The daylight faded, so she lit some candles and sat in her lonely, quiet room. Playing her guitar, she prayed for the hopeless feeling to go away soon, but the silence of the house only disturbed her further and made her constant stream of negative and hateful mind chatter amplify.