Who Are You?

The harsh, cruel blue light of the moon shone over my face. I once saw it as beautiful and gentle, but I don’t anymore. My hair had countless pins and hairclips in it, so many that it was almost a half of my hair. Gold, ruby, and pearl weighed me down, pulling me into the Earth where I would like to belong. The jewels and finery clinked as they touched each other, once a sound that comforted me, but now one that brought my hands to sweat. Red robes covered me, layer after layer, perfection upon perfection. The elaborate gold detailing with a dragon at the front made my dress sparkle in the sunlight, but that didn’t matter in the moonlight. Fatigue seeped into my limbs, filling every crack, every nook, every corner. I was dressed regally, but I did not feel so. Instead, I felt like a stranger to my own home: out of place, foreign, and…..lonely. 

The moon was no longer a companion who followed me. Jewels, pearls, and precious metals no longer meant anything to me. Happiness was long gone, cast into a corner and left to be forgotten. When I looked into the mirror, I was only a hollow shell of my former self - now with heavy eyes that knew too much, lips that only contained an occasional ghost of a smile, and barely any makeup. I used to see happy, smiling lips, eyes that seemed to contain the joy of the world, and heavy makeup that framed warm brown eyes.  

“Who are you?” I ask myself in the mirror.