The Secret World of Nameless

A short story about a Nameless girl and her secret, imaginary world.

There once was a girl with a name.

However, for now she will remain unnamed, a blank slate to all who read this, someone left to be drawn differently by each reader, but beautiful in each artist’s eyes.

She was normal like every other 13 year old girl.  She went to school, did her homework, went to church on Sundays, and always followed the rules. But normal was only how the world saw her. Nameless was so good at blending in that she had faded away. Being invisible and normal to the world was a sad and cruel truth. It made the Invisibles and Normals lives look dead.

However, the world doesn't always perceive things right. The Invisibles and Normals are the most alive. They possess the rare ability to see everything and live in a world that is entirely their own.

Nameless was one of those who had a her very own world that no one else could see and, because of this she loved that world with her whole heart. With time, her world changed and grew just as she did. When she first created her world with a thought filled head, dreamy eyes and, a caring hand, her world was made of music. She lived in every song that touched her ears and wrapped its arms around her, danced with her, comforted her, lived with her and in her. Each note was like a breath to her. The melodies and harmonies where there even when her loved ones from the shared world weren’t. She loved it very much. It filled her heart to the brim and made her whole again.

Eventually, the possessing melodies faded to background noise and a new “filling thing” came to her: words. Words to read, to eat, to chew and, think about. The things she read filled her mind and the characters stood next to her,  helping to rebuild her new world of words. As they tore down her old world note by note she threw out some old things that didn’t mean anything to her anymore. Among those things were old friends that had done things to lose the privilege of living in her world, along with fading interests like boxing and dancing and other fleeting activities and joys.

However, Nameless couldn’t bear to part with those beautiful notes, those possessing melodies and soulful lyrics. So, she made them into butterflies to fill the air with their music, now dimmed to background noise. Then, she rebuilt her world with books, word filled brick by word filled brick, her world grew with the knowledge and joy that they brought her.

But the joy brought to her by the books was just as temporarilyconsuming as the music and quickly was pushed aside to make room for a new even greater “filling thing.” Nameless had discovered something great and infinite. She had discovered writing words. While she had always been surrounded by words like the ones in her beloved books and songs, she had never discovered the joys of "word bending," or, as the world called it, telling stories.She had discovered how to bend words and how to piece them together to create beautiful stories that played like movies in her head, stories that she could share with the entire world. She could hide her deepest thoughts and wishes in the words and tell everyone. Everyone would know without really knowing. She had proclaimed herself a story spinner, an author, a writer and, with her words, she could do anything.

While Nameless was content bending her words and tasting them, sweet, on her silver tongue, the world is vast and it opened up to her, giving her a new lesson and a new joy in return for her honeyed words. The world gave her of all things, a boy, a scrawny, unsuspecting, insecure and, invisible boy. The world didn’t ask Nameless if she wanted this boy in her world or not. It simply spat him out and left him there. His presence irritated Nameless on levels she had never experienced. She did not often let people in her world and, when she did, it certainly wasn’t just anyone like this boy, she wouldn’t be bothered to learn his name so she simply referred to him as “The Trespasser.” After a while, she quickly gave up on ignoring the pest and slowly he grew on her. He began to irritate her less and less. He shared snippets of his own world with her and, in return, she shared her words with him. She stopped calling him “The Trespasser” and started calling him a much kinder name instead, “Friend.” But then, one day, when she was sharing her words with him, the words that had before seemed to bleed straight from her heart onto the page, her precious words slipped on her tongue, and turned against her as she spoke. They turned to vile, burning, ash in her mouth, choking her. Horrified, she tried to keep them in, but the terrible beasts had claws like knives and they slithered out, tearing at her all the while. Her words had cruel, malevolent minds and dark intentions. They poisoned her world and chased away her greatest joy, cutting at him as he ran in shock and horror. Anger blackened his heart. Her treasured music stopped as the butterflies feel dead like rain all around her. Her beloved books combusted, their words quickly eaten by the greedy flames and all she could do was watch and cry as her world went tumbling down. She ran for shelter in the deepest darkest part of herself, the maze of her soul that lay in the deepest center of her world. She ran, and she ran, and she didn’t stop. But soon, she was so helplessly lost in herself that she wasn’t even sure who she was anymore. All she knew was that her greatest joy in life had abandoned her just as he had promised not to and that her second greatest joy had betrayed her and robbed her of everything. She was alone, cut off from the world and desperately lost in her own labyrinth. She was so lost that she couldn’t find herself again.

She sat down, her blackened tears frozen on her face, her eyes bleak and wide, and thought, and thought, and thought because thinking is what she did best.

Eventually, she thought her way out of the mess. However, now that she was free of her inner demons and false selves, she didn’t know how would she rebuild all that she had lost, all the joys that couldn’t be fixed like Friend and her traitorous words? With a broken and hopeless heart, she set to the task of fixing the song butterflies’ broken notes and lifting them into the air to fly and sing again. However, the sound of their songs only saddened her more and once again despair-filled tears trickled down her charred and scared face. Friend. She whispered to her open palms lying in her lap as if they held their broken relationship. Where have you gone? I am sorry. I am so sorry. Come back Friend. I need you. I miss you.

Miraculously, her greatest joy heard and had a forgiving and merciful heart. He appeared next to her and spoke in his broken voice. “I never went anywhere you are the one that walked away. God, you look dead! Where did you go?”

Confused, Nameless wrinkled her brow, “You. You were the one that ran from me. I am not nearly as dead now as I was before. I lost part myself for a while to a dark and dank place and in my attempts to find myself again I guess I lost the rest of me, too.”

Then Friend did an odd thing, he smiled a slow, toothless,crooked smile. “Nameless, I never ran. You pushed me away. It was all in your head. Look at your world again with hope in your heart and love in your eyes. Don’t you see? Everything is fine again because you found yourself. I would never run from you, ever.”

Nameless probably would have accepted immediately, if not for her recent trials that stirred a deep caution and distrust in her. She looked at him as he asked, but only through the crack in her fingers. Upon seeing that he was right, she began to trust again, but only barely. Slowly, they pieced together a friendship that had been shattered by the dark things in Nameless. She began to embrace the art of word bending again, never again did her words turn against her, and Friend never once ran or turned his back. However, Nameless was saddened to discover that things were not quite the same and probably never would be. Friend had someone else stronger now, a better friend than Nameless had been. There was now a gaping gap between them, a rift in their bond. Nameless was saddened by this, but not deterred. Friend had been there for her when she needed him most. He was her greatest joy. Who was she to throw it away just because of a new friend and a few fissures?