MidReal Story
Seeking Light in Shadows
Scenario: I am disappointed by the world.
Create my version of this story
Jamie Hart
disillusioned individual, friends with Leo and mentored by Dr. Ellis, short black hair, introspective and resilient.
Leo Torres
optimistic friend, friend of Jamie and colleague of Dr. Ellis, tall with curly brown hair, charismatic and supportive.
Dr. Evelyn Ellis
wise mentor, mentor to Jamie and colleague of Leo, silverhaired with sharp eyes, intelligent and compassionate.
Chapter 1
I was a cynic.
There was no denying it.
I’d been one for as long as I could remember, and the older I got, the more cynical I became.
It wasn’t that I wanted to be this way, but life had a way of beating you down until you were left with nothing but your own thoughts.
And my thoughts weren’t pretty.
I’d seen too much in my twenty-six years on this earth—too much pain and suffering and heartache.
I’d seen good people do bad things, and bad people get away with murder.
I had an uncanny ability to hone in on the negative aspects of any given situation, a quality that seemed to be hardwired into my DNA.
It was something I’d been born with, something over which I had no control.
Sure, I could ignore it for a while—I could pretend that everything was fine and dandy like so many others did—but sooner or later, reality always came crashing down.
And when it did, the results were never pretty.
Plenty of people had tried to change me over the years.
My parents had done their best, as had numerous teachers and friends along the way.
But no matter what anyone said or did, I always ended up right back where I started.
Maybe it was just a phase, some people said, but deep down, I knew they were wrong.
By now, at twenty-six years old, I knew better than anyone that this wasn’t just some temporary phase I was going through—it was who I was.
Sure, I could try to change things here and there—I could put on a happy face or force myself to see the glass as half full rather than half empty—but at the end of the day, it was all just an act.
The real me had been there all along—beneath the smiles and laughter and pleasantries—just waiting for an excuse to rear her ugly head once more.
But who could blame her?
The world was a pretty fucked up place when you really thought about it—a place filled with corruption and deceit, where bad guys often got away with murder while good guys ended up penniless or dead.
The more you lived in it, the harder it became to ignore all the darkness lurking beneath the surface—to pretend like everything was fine when clearly, it wasn’t.
I wasn’t sure if it was the news I’d just seen—yet another scandal involving a high-profile politician and their shady dealings—or something else entirely, but whatever it was, it left me feeling hollow inside.
And that’s saying something coming from someone like me—I’m no stranger to disappointment or sadness; I’ve lived through my fair share of heartbreak over the years and have become all too familiar with pain and suffering.
It didn’t take long for me to realize that the world isn’t always as nice and pretty as people would have you believe.
I learned this lesson at a young age when I discovered that fairy tales weren’t real and that not everyone gets their happy ending—no matter how hard they try to make it happen.
Instead, I soon came to realize that evil often triumphs over good—that bad things happen to good people and there’s nothing anyone can do to change that reality—and because of this, I became cynical; I lost faith in the world around me and the people in it, always assuming the worst instead of hoping for the best like so many others seem to be able to do without even trying.
And yet, despite all this, I’ve had moments in my life when my pessimism seemed to wane; times when everything seemed to fall into place and the world didn’t seem quite so dark and unforgiving anymore.
Times like now, for example…when everything just felt right in a way I couldn’t quite explain no matter how hard I tried.
I wasn’t sure if it was the rain or the news or something else entirely, but whatever it was, it made me feel alive in a way I hadn’t felt in years—a feeling of hope and wonder that had long since been buried under layers of cynicism and despair—which, in and of itself, was nothing short of miraculous given how jaded I’d become over the years.
It was a ludicrous thought, I knew—it went against everything I believed in—but for some reason, I couldn’t help but wonder if maybe, just maybe, I’d been wrong all this time; if perhaps there really were good people in the world who cared more about helping others than they did about themselves or their own selfish needs.
And to my surprise, I soon discovered that not everyone is bad.
Some people are actually kind and compassionate, even when they don't have to be—which seemed unthinkable given all that I'd seen and experienced over the years.
And while these people are few and far between—from what I've seen and experienced—sometimes you got lucky and found one when you least expected it, like a ray of sunshine breaking through storm clouds on an otherwise dreary day.
For me, that ray of sunshine came in the form of Dr. Evelyn Ellis and Leo Torres—two people who were nothing short of amazing in every sense of the word.
Dr. Ellis, despite being one of the most successful scientists on the planet—and a celebrity in her own right because of all she'd accomplished over the years—was surprisingly kind and down-to-earth, making time for anyone who wanted to talk to her, including someone like me who had no business being in her presence in the first place.
And then there was Leo, who wasn't just Dr. Ellis's assistant but also her friend; someone who shared her passion for science and helping those in need, making him every bit as remarkable as she was—if not more so from what I could tell.
Leo had a way of making everything seem brighter and more colorful than it really was, almost as if he had a magic touch that turned even the ugliest of things into something beautiful—which, in and of itself, was nothing short of miraculous given how awful things had become over the years.
In their presence, however, I couldn't help but wonder if maybe I'd been wrong about people all this time—perhaps there really were good souls in the world who cared more about others than they did about themselves.
Maybe humanity wasn't completely doomed after all…maybe there really was hope for a better tomorrow.
But as much as I wanted to believe, I couldn't bring myself to put my faith in something so fragile—it just seemed too risky given how many times I'd been let down before.