My name is Rachel, I'm sixteen and I haven't left my room in three years.

I have what one might call, Severe Anxiety. That's what the doctors call it, and since it's 2367, doctors are always right.

"What?" You might say. "If you're so advanced, why not just get a surgery and it's fine?"

Didn't people think that before your time? Well, I can't just be "fixed". 

I have a therapist. He's about the only person who gets me. When your mom is a women who gets her hair changed every other day and spends her time playing video games for a living, you don't spend much time connecting. Dad? He's off at work most days, I haven't seen him in a year.

I like to call my therapist grandpa, he calls me his adopted granddaughter, we bounce real well.

Doctors call me stubborn and say that I need medicine, I need to change, I need to adapt better.

Grandpa says that the world needs to change, not me.

Cars fly by my window at hundreds of miles per hour, there are adds everywhere, saying YOU need to change. YOU can be perfect after this surgery, after THIS pill, you will feel happy forever. Gas prices are sky high, traveling got too incontinent, so everyone spends their time in a perfect virtual world. They dye hair, get a ridiculous amount of surgery, they have extra limbs attached, in real life. I've seen it, and I still see it when I feel brave enough to look out the window.

I'm scared of the world.

I stay inside with my stuffed animals and my books and my quiet room with sound insulation, it's safe there. No one tells me what I need to be or to become.

Pretty soon I won't be able to hide anymore. My parents will pass away, Grandpa is close enough to death already. I'll be alone one day.

The thought frightens me.

Then again, very little doesn't.

Of course there are days I want to leave my room, to make a difference, but I'm too scared that I'll fail. How can I ever change the world when all I've got is me, and a Rapunzel worthy view of the city?

Font: FoglihtenNo04

I like this cover, I'm undecided if I'll ever give it away. If I do, it's either because they agreed to write this story and I like their writing or it's something very similar.

Cheerio!