‘One day at a time’, Laila said to herself as she turned off the alarm she had snoozed three times already. She felt the weight of the world on her shoulders as she sat up on the disheveled bed. She couldn’t remember sleeping. There had been a lot of crying and drinking to drown her fears and she fell asleep somewhere in the middle. The pain still gnawed at her heart while she silently whispered ‘Help me God’ 

It was just the second day of the work week but she was so fagged out. She cringed as she remembered the loneliness that awaited her at work. Her friends were gone. The office was just a skeletal structure with wires running around and ACs blowing themselves.

She shut her eyes for a moment and savoured the warmth she once felt. Her first day at work. Her friends. Life was colourful then.

Not today.

Her world had turned into fifty shades of grey. One for each morning she woke up. Floods of memory crashed through her head and she simultaneously held her pounding head in her hands. Nothing seemed to rid her of the nagging pain. Nothing at all.

©Mfon Etuk, 2017