2022

A Light in The Darkness

WRITER: MANIHA MUHAMMED

CO-WRITER: MINAHIL SAJID
INTRODUCTION

Once upon a time, there lived a girl named, Aera. She

is a strong-willed girl with enormous faith. Aera
maintains a cheerful attitude and purity of heart. She
refuses to become bitter, hardened, and cruel like those
around her. She belongs to a rich family. She lived in the
countryside. Her mother’s name was Diana and her
father’s name was Philip. She was living a magnificent
life until one day her mother passed away. She was
broken as she lost one of the most precious things of her
life. Mr. Philip was a heart patient and due to his wife’s
death, he become weaker than before. After a few
weeks, Mr. Philip wasn’t feeling well so Aera decided to
take him to the doctor for a check-up. After checking
Mr. Philip, the doctor told Aera that he is having not that
much time to live. Mr. Philip decided to marry again for
the betterment of Aera. As Aera wasn’t willing to marry
right now, he was tense that who will take care of Aera if
he dies one day.
BEGINNING OF AERA’S DARK LIFE
Considering Aera’s betterment and future, Mr. Philip
married a woman named Olivia. She has two daughters,
Grace and Alice. Olivia was a gold digger, cold-hearted,
cruel, calculating woman, and wanted a luxurious life.
She is unhappy with Aera’s place in her life and is
determined to use her daughters to get where she wants
to be: the Palace. She is threatened by Aera's kindness
and the effect it has on people. Aera’s stepsisters were
"proud and haughty" rather than ugly. Olivia married
Mr. Philip just because of how wealthy he was. After a
few weeks of the marriage of Mr. Philip and Olivia, Mr.
Philip died. Before Mr. Philip’s death, Olivia was
treating Aera like her own daughter and was behaving
well with her. After the death of Mr. Philip, Olivia
changed drastically. She became cruel and treated Aera
as her maid. Aera cried a lot `cause after her mother’s
death, In the same year, she lost her father too and now
this suffering. At first, they were also having a maid at
their house but now Aera become the maid of their
house.
 After her father’s death, she was forced to live in the
servant’s quarter. Aera’s room was attic, like a bit
messy, it was small not that much big as before, the
room wasn’t in condition to live. Aera cleans the whole
room and was tired after cleaning it. After cleaning the
room, she just sat on the sofa for rest when suddenly her
stepsisters called her for doing their work and for
cleaning the house. Now doing the household whereas
Aera’s responsibility.

BEGINNING OF AERA’S DARK LIFE

AERA’S BOLD DECISION
After doing the chores, Aera used to talk to animals.
Those animals created a special bonding with Aera. The
animal used to wake Aera up used to help in Aera’s
chores and everything. They helped Aera excessive.
Though the animals couldn’t understand the human
language nor speak they understood Aera’s suffering.
After these all things one of those animals, a bird came
and gestures something to Aera. The bird was doing
actions to Aera to run away and go live somewhere else
better than this place but Aera couldn’t understand. After
this, all day passed and Aera kept thinking about it and
about how cruel Aera’s step-mother was. At night
whenever she reaches her dreamland or slumber, she
dreamt about it again and again. She was a bit tense after
pondering over this topic. She connected the dots and
thought that the universe is trying to give a sign to her.
She concluded by calculating the benefits of running
from the house and the disadvantages of not running
from the house. Not even a single disadvantage was

4
there, so on the other day, she decided to stand for
herself.

AERA’S BOLD DECISION

She assumed that she deserves a better life and she
should never compromise on her self-respect. So, she ran
away from the home examining it as one of the boldest
decisions of hers. She ran in the midnight time with help
of her animal friends. She ran from her house and wasn’t
aware of her surroundings. She was running just like her
life depended on it. She was at the end of the forest and
when she saw a few lights after the tree so Aera knew
that she was near the city. Aera decided to take some rest
as she was tired and sat under a tree. It was dark, the
grasshopper was making a chirping sound by running its
hind legs against its wings, the wolf was growling, a
moon shining through a lattice of leaves, patchy sky &
stars seen in glimpses through tree breaks, tall shadowed
pines stretching up like arrows into the sky, Wind
slipping through leaves, cracking undergrowth with each
step, rotting leaves, and it was 1:00 am she was so tired
so she slept there.
5
SEARCH FOR AERA BEGINS
When she woke- up it was 9:00 am and the sun was
brightly shining. Aera was thirsty and was hungry that
she wasn’t able to walk but still was trying hard to walk
and at the end, she entered a beautiful and ginormous
city where everything was completely different from her
house. The people of that city were kind and humble
towards each other. A man was passing by pasting
something on the walls and was saying: “Mr. Felix is
finding a maid for 1 day. The maid will be given 1000 $
as salary”. Aera thought it helpful for a start of her new
life so she was ready to be a maid for one day. On the
other hand, Olivia, Aera’s stepmom woke up and started
her morning by shouting: “Aera come down and make
the breakfast soon”. But Aera wasn’t at home as she left
the house at night. Mrs. Olivia entered her room and
knew that Aera wasn’t inside. She was curious that
where did Aera go. Olivia called her daughters and said:

6
“Go and search for Aera in the house. If she isn’t in the
house go and file a report against her. I want Aera right
now.”

AERA’S START OF NEW LIFE

Aera approaches the man and said: “Mister, Can I please
see the form” In return, the man replied: “Yes u can,
young lady”. When Aera saw the form, she reads the
policies and filled the form, because when she ran from
the house, she wasn’t able to take the money and food,
Aera was barely having clothes and which could last
only for 3 days. Many girls applied for this job just
because they heard the rumor that Mr. Felix is so
handsome. On the other day, Aera was called at Mr.
Philip's house, there were other girls too. The girls were
whispering with each other that: “Mr. Philip isn’t that
much handsome as we heard in the rumor. He turns out
to be ugly. Let’s go from here.” So that’s how the girls
left the house without saying a single word. But Aera
stayed there and waited for getting appointed as the maid

7
for 1 day. As there wasn’t an option so he chooses Aera
as a maid. That was how Aera got appointed as a maid
and begin her new life. Aera worked hard as she could
and got paid at the end of the day and she requested Mr.
Felix if she could stay at his house for 1 night as she has
nowhere to go. Mr. Felix saw Aera working hard and
was loyal to her work so he agreed. He was utterly
impressed by her hard work and he let Aera stay one
night at Mr. Felix’s house. On the other day, when a big
bright sun rose, Aera woke- up, and as she just asked for
one night's stay nor next day’s breakfast neither for
anything so she left the house without saying a single
word while leaving the note for Mr. Felix expressing her
gratitude. Everyone in the house was sleeping. Aera left
the house quietly and walked to her way.

AERA FINDS A JOB OF 1 DAY

8
When Aera was walking a couple of people combined
and made a group and was talking that: “D u know
what’s going in our city? Prince Eric is planning to have
a ball. He is finding for Queen to become a king.” Aera
only heard that there is a ball in this city, but she didn’t
know it's in prince Eric’s palace. She dodged it and
continued walking because she thinks that the ball is in a
rich man’s palace who is finding for wife. After, walking
a while she was tired so she bought a bottle of water, a
basket of fruit, and few slices of bread. After buying
these all-things Area saved some money for emergency.

9
AERA’S REWARD FOR HER KIND HEART

10