{"id":261,"date":"2023-03-16T11:39:02","date_gmt":"2023-03-16T11:39:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/trove.aui.ma\/?p=261"},"modified":"2023-03-16T11:39:02","modified_gmt":"2023-03-16T11:39:02","slug":"salvation-is-a-few-streets-away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/trove.aui.ma\/?p=261","title":{"rendered":"Salvation Is a Few Streets Away"},"content":{"rendered":"

He had to get out of the house. Grabbing his vest, he went downstairs and quickly put on his dark sneakers. <\/span>\u201dWhere<\/span> are you going?\u201d asked his mom, eyebrow raised.\u201d You look grim in those. Try some color on for a change, that would be nice.\u201d \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter, Mom.\u201d he muttered, bitter. \u201cListen here <\/span>youn<\/span>-\u201d she started, but he had already left the living room, slamming the door behind him shut. Struggling, he got out of the house, slamming yet again another door, and wandered off to the terribly calm streets of the neighborhood. Gosh, it was always so calm, and usually he liked it that way, but at this moment…he wished it wasn\u2019t, that would distract him from what he was going through. This feeling of…being in the danger zone, of being threatened, of having your life at stake, on the verge of being ruined, destroyed. It was stupid, absurd, unbelievably absurd. How? How could he let THAT slip? Where did he go wrong? \u201cIn being a part of it\u201d, he thought. He also felt anger, towards himself, towards the technology of our time. He needed a change of air, something that could make him forget about it, all of it. He needed a ticket for a one-way trip to unconsciousness, a safe area where he could hide from the monster that was preying on him. He needed to feel secure, or to not feel at all, both options were equally tempting. And so, he headed to the one place he could find what could free him. Salvation was a few streets away, and his old friend had a couple needles worth of it. The fastest way to the destination was through a couple of dark passages who have known better times, when people would take them daily, when they weren\u2019t completely covered in parasitic plants. At the end of the second one, he stopped at the sound of a quiet ripple coming from between the branches of a nearby orange tree. He looked up to see a small bird nest, where hungry little birds were being fed by their mother. Failing to find meaning to this sight, he let his eyes draft to the now dimming clear sky, as if seeking aid from a higher, celestial force, almost praying. Nothing happened. He didn\u2019t expect much from above anyway. Taking a deep breath, he crossed the final street to the door behind which he <\/span>will<\/span> presumably find peace. Ringing the bell made an awful noise he could not stand, so he chose to knock. One time. Two times. Three times. \u201cHEY DUDE! OPEN UP!\u201d he shouted. \u201cGo away!\u201d said a voice from the house. \u201cCome on man!\u201d he let out, desperate. \u201cI just need you to hook me up one more time!\u201d \u201cI said: GO. AWAY.\u201d The voice screamed at him. \u201cWant me to spell it out for you? G-O space A-W-\u201d \u201cI ALMOST GOT CAUGHT DUDE\u201d He cried, interrupting him. \u201d<\/span>SO<\/span> YOU\u2019RE EITHER GOING TO OPEN THIS DAMNED DOOR OR I WILL FORCE IT OPEN MYSLEF!\u201d. He stayed silent for a moment. He could not take it anymore. Leaning on the door, a few tears started rolling softly from his eyes, following the curve of his <\/span>cheeks<\/span> and dropping onto the old, frayed doormat reading \u201cWELCOME HOME!\u201d. He heard the lock turn and looked up to find his friend\u2019s troubled face, peeking from inside. \u201cP-Please?\u201d he sobbed. Without a word, the host grabbed the crying kid\u2019s arm and dragged him into the hall. \u201cYou better not make me regret this.\u201d he whispered. He <\/span>peeked one more time at the empty street, making sure that no one caught <\/span>a sight<\/span> of his friend in need. He locked the door.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

He had to get out of the house. Grabbing his vest, he went downstairs and quickly put on his dark sneakers. \u201dWhere are you going?\u201d asked his mom, eyebrow raised.\u201d You look grim in those. Try some color on for a change, that would be nice.\u201d \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter, Mom.\u201d he muttered, bitter. \u201cListen here … Continue reading “Salvation Is a Few Streets Away”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_ppma_block_editor_authors":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[9],"class_list":["post-261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-short-stories"],"authors":[{"term_id":9,"user_id":3,"is_guest":0,"slug":"hiba-oua","display_name":"Hiba Ouaoulmest","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0385cdac4cabdbcfe31f1a6bbb17981e449bcb8f04a4353e3eb7bd60479e561e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","author_category":"","user_url":"","last_name":"Ouaoulmest","first_name":"Hiba","job_title":"","description":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/trove.aui.ma\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/trove.aui.ma\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/trove.aui.ma\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trove.aui.ma\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trove.aui.ma\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=261"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/trove.aui.ma\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":264,"href":"https:\/\/trove.aui.ma\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261\/revisions\/264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/trove.aui.ma\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trove.aui.ma\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trove.aui.ma\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=261"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trove.aui.ma\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fppma_author&post=261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}