Bound by Shadows
502 Words
She stood at the altar,
a white dress draped like dreams,
smiles and flowers swirling around her,
but beneath the lace,
her heart trembled, a soft beat lost
in a world she thought she knew.
Love, they said, was sweet,
a gentle tide that pulls you near;
yet, the whispers danced like smoke,
fingers wrap around her joy,
tightening with every promise spoken,
every vow sealed with a kiss
that tasted of danger.
She thought she would find strength
in a man with confident eyes,
hands steady at the wheel,
but that day, when she took his name,
she crossed a line,
into shadows dancing in the night,
where sirens sang but did not soothe.
Her life, once framed in laughter,
suddenly painted in gray.
Knocking on doors that led to silence,
each answered call sent shivers down her spine,
for beneath the laughter and the warmth,
lay echoes of power and fear intertwined.
The nights grew long,
the walls grew thick;
worries wrapped around her
like the zip of the dress—
no longer just a princess,
but a girl tucked between
the pull and push of fate and weight.
She tried to share, to smile,
but the shadows followed,
the weight of secrets pressed down—
once a bride, now a pawn on a board,
moving through a game she never signed up for,
forced into plays behind grim facades,
with each decision a slip further away.
Friends faded, voices turned to ghosts,
how could they know?
In dinner conversations,
laughs crackled like thin ice,
when beneath the surface, she felt the fractures,
the cold creep of unease shining through.
She wanted out, wanted peace,
but those eyes, once soft and warm,
now burned with a fierce fire,
trapped between love and risk,
caught in the web of a world she wished to escape,
but love can be binding,
more than rings and vows.
So she smiled, played her part,
navigating rounds of stares, bile and veils,
taking each twist, each turn,
hiding the truth beneath layers of hope,
a heart clinging to echoes of laughter,
where love should sing, but the silence hurts.
Yet even in shadows,
she found a glimmer,
sparks of courage amidst the chill,
slowly building, brick by brick,
for beneath despair's grip,
dreams—real dreams—still flickered,
waiting for her to claim the life
that was hers, not bound
by a name or a past.
And so, on the edge of night,
with the moon a witness,
she made a decision, breathless,
fear heavy but heart bold,
to stand again, to choose herself,
to weave strength from fragile threads,
to find a way out, away,
toward the light that she knew was in her.
For a heart once caught can break free,
and a girl who faced shadows
could dance into dawn, newly unbound,
found in the light of her own making,
where love can exist fierce and real,
beyond the reach of the night,
a life untangled, waiting,
a story rewritten anew
- Writer
