[STORY ANALYSIS AND EXPLANATION AHEAD]

Hello, it's Eliza (or Arisa, depending on if you come from my wattpad or my archive of our own page), and thank you for reading my short story :) yes, I am finally back and writing on wattpad, and I'm better than ever!

Before I talk about this story and everything I want to talk about, let me thank the following people who I'm dedicating this oneshot to:

azureflight winterdawnzephyr MelindaEx baek_mint: my go-to writing community! Thank you for always being there and being ever so supportive of my writing career- would never have gotten this far without you guys. @everyone else, please check them out! They're amazing writers and some of the very best of our generation.

I'd also like to thank and dedicate my adorable little sister, who somehow prefers to go by Banana lol (okay fine, non-biological sorella minore), who unfortunately doesn't have a wattpad account. This had been sitting in my drafts for a long time, and a conversation with her really motivated me to finally finish editing it! She's also really encouraging and accepting and thank you so much for that :))

Anyway, for all you new readers/old readers who have no idea who I am- here's a mini self introduction before I delve deeper into this story.

-hi, my name is arisa :) I used to go by Eliza though, and you can still call me that if you want!
-i'm an avid amateur writer and I'm currently in year 11/grade 10 (depending on your way of putting it)
-I mostly write original fiction/novels! I also write a lot of short stories though, and sometimes I get random ideas for fanfiction!
-my page on archive of our own is @silveryyy
-I'm always here if anyone needs help! I'm always available for all of you and I don't bite so feel free to pm me if you want to be friends or anything!

About two months ago, I announced that I would be going on hiatus here to work on my archive of our own. That still holds true- my goal is to have everything written and set up by the end of February 2020 and I'll update you all then! While this happens, I'll fix and edit some of my old books on here- that harry potter fanfiction is just awfully amateur- and work on some of the books I haven't published yet! Some of you may have noticed that I've given Connecting a makeover, and it is now named chasing stars :) I'm still really set on finishing it, given that it's my best ever idea for a book I have ever had, so stay tuned for the next chapter, coming first of March- I promise you all.

Okay, back to the story analysis.

This was originally written within two hours for a competition. Even so, I loved the idea, so afterwards I edited it and threw it up here! Unfortunately the editing took,,, quite a while and I procrastinated a lot. (Well, not a lot since I have a lot of projects I have not published- you all have no idea- but still!)

The story is one that's rather hard to understand and it's very deep and dark, so please don't feel as if you're not good enough if you can't get the storyline, because I'm about to explain it here.

It's basically about a girl who has familial problems- her parents have argued since they were young, and divorced soon after. Afterwards, her mother grows abusive and unstable, and she finds shelter with her grandfather, only for him to die of illness. The abuse leaves her with scars both mentally and physically, and she is bullied for the paranoia and depressive nature she had developed over the years. She develops depression and suicidal thoughts over the years and some day she ends up slitting her wrists and attempting to kill herself. Luckily, she doesn't succeed and instead ends up in a coma as a result of blood loss.

The story starts off here and is set completely in the coma, as the girl floating in an endless ocean and a beautiful landscape, which represents the coma she's in. At first, she's willing to succumb to it, thinking it's peaceful and blissful (wow Arisa, internal rhyme!). However, as she floats inside her world longer, she discovers that she doesn't remember anything, and the panic this brings triggers her memories to download into her brain. But since she's panicking, she only registers bad memories, which, in her original state of purity, horrifies her.  This represents the corruption of purity and innocence by the sins of man.

As she becomes more and more terrified of her memories, her mind decides it's safer to stay in the coma and she stops struggling to wake up, and the music is, like I say in the end, like a siren's song- luring her into the coma. It represents deceit and lies here, seemingly bringing the girl happiness but actually harming her.

But some part of her mind still wants to live, and sends her images of memories- this time the good ones, ones which awaken her will to live. Finding her courage, she struggles against the coma and wins, waking up.

-

Okay, one thing I need to talk about. Suicide is... definitely not something good and not something you should try. If you're upset or need help, please, talk to someone you trust, or if you're comfortable please talk to me or someone professional about this. You're alive for a reason, and people definitely do care about you no matter who you are and what happened to you- there's always someone there cheering you on and that includes me! So please- suicide is not an option, and never an option, and there are a community of writers here on wattpad always willing to listen if you need help.

Secondly, please listen to me- bullying is not, and should never be something you should do. You harm a lot of people by bullying and you might have blood on your hands without even realizing it, and none of us simply have the right to take a life or ruin it or destroy it. So please- don't do it. It's not too late to turn back.

That's all! Here's a list of my other books on wattpad:

ONGOING/PUBLISHED:

-chasing stars - ongoing
-daggers (harry potter fanfiction) -on hold/rewriting

COMING SOON:
-memory (harry potter fanfiction)
-capturing eternity
-wings

And more coming your way! Thank you for your support, and I hope you enjoyed this and will continue to enjoy my stories. This will be my last update on any story until March 1st- so stay tuned!

Thank you, and eternally grateful for you all,

Arisa.