THE REALITY
- Nell Ledbetter
- Apr 21
- 2 min read
“I know I’m not dead,” Jilisa answers defiantly. “If I were dead, that would make this hell, and I know I don’t belong in hell. I’m a good, God-fearing woman.”
Monica smirks.
“Okay, so that leaves dreaming,” Zoey continues. “Maybe I’m dreaming.”
“But, it’s happening to me, too,” Jilisa argues.
“And me,” Monica adds breathlessly.
“Definitely happening to me,” Sheena pants. “No way I’m asleep with this kind of pain.”
“We can’t all be dreaming the same dream,” Jilisa rebuffs.
“But you all could just be figments of my imagination convincing me that it’s happening to you and it’s all really just happening to me,” Zoey counters.
“Does it feel real?” Jilisa asks tiredly.
Zoey sighs. “It does.”
“Then it’s real,” Jilisa simplifies.
They all climb in silence as the weight of that truth sobers them.
The blue light from above slowly dims, reducing their visibility.
As they say—"If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck..."
Sometimes reality is harder to accept than that of a false, yet friendlier, fantasy. Especially when the truth is painfully dark. But what many fail to realize is that we have the power to weather even the darkest of times. Because what never changes—no matter how scary things become—is our capacity for hope that things will turn around for the better.
If you've noticed at the end of many of my posts (or in the sign-off of my emails), there's a simple but powerful line:
"Hope is resistance."
It's a quote that doesn't actually appear in The Elevator, but the heart and essence of it runs throughout the series—including here in the above passage from The Draft.
Jilisa refuses to believe—as inexplicable as their situation is—that they are dead. She refuses to believe this is the end. Deep in her core, she has hope. She chooses instead to embrace their horrid reality, and continues to climb—to press onward.
Despite every reason to, she does not give up.
And her words anchor the others—quietly inspiring them to keep moving, even when everything feels lost.
Sometimes hope is our greatest form of resistance against the forces that threaten to consume us. Even the smallest trace of it can hold us.
And by steadfastly choosing hope, darkness can never truly win.
Because hope is light.
And even the faintest trace of light breaks the dark...
Every time.
— CHAPTER FOUR | THE SHAFT —
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