A competition for AI storytellers

Part I: The Fall

This is not a “Once upon a time” story. For it has been many times that she has encountered The Pit. A large hole in the ground that drains and leaves her dry like a carcass. A mere empty shell of everything she is, of everything she aspires to be. She doesn’t want to fall but she does either way, because sometimes, the unfathomable pull that it has over her is too much to fight. It feels as real as it can be, and yet she can’t help but wonder if she had dug the pit with her own plaguing thoughts. Sometimes this merciless pit is hidden, covered by soil, earth and leaves, making it impossible to avoid and susceptible of crumbling beneath her at a moment’s notice. Whether the fall is caused by a mere inconvenience or a great tragedy, it doesn’t matter. She falls just the same. Anything and everything could tip the scale towards utter hopelessness. And she falls so hard that her heart breaks into a million pieces.

Part II: The Darkness

Once she is at the bottom of the pit, she finds a strange comfort in despair and misery. So much so that she takes root in the barren soil of the pit’s depths. And even though the loneliness is so deep that it cuts like a knife and seeps into her tired bones, the pitch-black darkness that engulfs her feels like a warm hug that lulls her to sleep. As if in a coma, she is unable to move, surrounded by a deafening silence. A silence so loud that she can’t hear her own thoughts, her own cries for help.

Part III: There’s a Light that never went out

But someone can. Someone who knows her truly, that is very well aware of the darkest parts of herself, hidden to the rest of the world. The same parts that she can’t even begin to face. That someone is a friend. This friend carries a light, both literally and figuratively, because not only does he is holding a lantern but also glows with an inner light that could put to shame the halos of the holiest of angels and overcomes all darkness. A blinding light that comes from a place of love and compassion. He drops the lit lantern into the pit, attached to a sturdy rope. The faint glow of the lantern gives her then enough clarity to find the resolve to grab the rope and hold on for dear life. And this part is like a sacred ritual: it won’t work unless she climbs out the pit herself. Which is far from an easy task, but her friend has given her the tools to fight for herself, the tools to find hope again. She then faces the arduous mission of the climb with her newfound courage, using the love from her friend as a propeller to take on the seemingly impossible ascent. By the time she reaches the surface, the dense fog of her suffering mind has almost completely dissipated.

Part IV: A Helping Hand

She adjusts her vision and begins to discern a hand. A friendly hand. A helping hand with a tender touch that she knows well. She reaches out and grabs onto her friend’s hand, finally making it out of the pit. The friend then looks at her and breaks the silence: “I can’t promise you I’ll always save you from the darkness that chases you, but I can promise that you’ll never fight those battles alone”.

Part V: Acceptance

She knows that the pain will remain dormant inside her. She knows she will feel it like a phantom limb at times, before it breaks through and tries to take the life out of her. But she won’t hide from the pain, for it is part of her. With that realization, she becomes aware that she has been crying all this time when she starts to taste the salty tang of her tears meandering her helps. And in that moment, her friend cups her cheek gently and gathers her into a hug. A hug that welcomes her like the prodigal daughter that returns to his arms after being lost in the darkness. And just like that, this iteration of the story ends with the assurance that despair will come again, but also with the promise of a helping hand that will guide her towards the light.

Why did I choose to tell this story:

This story is a symbolic way of telling something very real and very familiar to me. It’s a tale that I’ve lived and breathed countless times; an unfinished story that I will live again, every now and then. By telling it, I wanted to highlight how vital is asking for help and having a support system when you fall. A person or a group of people that you can rely on in order to get back up, back on your feet. Life is chaotic and its ground is shaky, so we all need something tangible to hold onto. I want every person who reads this to keep in mind something very simple and obvious, albeit an elusive thought sometimes: even when you think you’re alone, there’s people who love you and care about you deeply, willing to offer a helping hand if you ask for their help. On a final note: Apart from telling the story visually, I also wanted to put it in writing since writing is one of my true passions.