A timely fix

He woke up at night, restless.

Couldn't sleep again. Yet another night.

Sat upright in his single bed, he didn't switch on the light to think about what was making him restless. May be a bad dream while asleep, which choked him up from inside up to his throat that he couldn't breathe. His heart gave him a nightmare with closed eyes, and his mouth got filled with smoke like bitterness, to his stomach. And that summed up everything.

He stood up, with slow and tiny steps, he switched on the light; which he was afraid of. Slightly dim, pale white light filled the room with colourless sadness. And there he was. Looking at himself in the mirror, seeing his reflection; however incomplete it was. He touched his face, with both the hands to make sure this is not the dream. He wasn't really happy about the way mirror was not hiding anything. And something was hurting him; a lot. Since many days now. He looked at his hand. And there it was; on his finger.

It was the ring.

He gave a closer look to his finger bearing the golden bond, the causer of the pain he never really cared about ; simply ignored. Once fitting perfectly on his finger, shining proudly only to boast about its meaning, now had lost it's sheen and shape, mainly crushing his finger from its root. He dared to try and move it a bit in circular motion, and his every attempt to fix this caused him addition pain which he could barely bear. Not that he didn't love this jewel on his finger anymore, nor that he secretly sought for a better one. He checked this several times with himself. And he stood there for long; against his own reflection, looking at the ring.

After a lot of thoughts, and resistance from within, he gathered all his strength and pulled the ring out; setting himself free. He saw his finger now. The ring had left a big bloody red trail around his finger, leaving everything numb around it.

He put the ring on the top of the table; the causer of his pain, which was once dissipating everything stopping himself from happiness.

Not anymore.

And there he stood, in front of the mirror. Attempting to accept the change in his reflection.

- Asthir