You are a sad person. Yes, YOU are a sad, miserable person. Every day you wake up, work a 9-5, go home, eat microwaved ramen or pizza if it's pay week, sleep, and then repeat. No love life, no family, no nothing. It's been like this since you legally became an adult. Before that you were a lively kid, lots of goals and desires. You wanted to be the president, an astronaut, and even a teacher at some point. Back then, the worst thing that happened to you was losing your favorite pillow that your mom sewed a purple heart in. That's all in the past now. You have more responsibilities now and there's no time for fun. You brush your teeth, avoiding looking at yourself in the mirror, but eventually cave and stare at your reflection and see your younger self, a better self. They look at you with disdain and sorrow, much like anyone else who sees you.

“What happened to me? To us?”, your reflection asks. You don't answer and continue brushing your teeth, this happens every time you look in the mirror, every time you look at your reflection. Why? Why do you keep staring at yourself? You can't help but reminisce, and that does you no good! Your reflection scoffs.

“Fine, keep ignoring me. Keep being miserable, I don't care.”

You leave your house, walking to work. The sky is gray, and everybody you pass has that same look in their eyes: Hollowness. As you walk you step on something soft, making you jolt. “Please don't be poop”, you say in your head, slowly looking down on what you stepped on. To your surprise it’s two pillows, just in the middle of the road. You're shocked to see that not only are the pillows fluffy, but they are.. Clean? Thousands of people were in front of you, not to mention you don't know how long these have been here for. At first you just wanna throw them in the nearest trash can, but something about the pillows call to you, appeal to you. For a good minute. you stand in the middle of the sidewalk, staring at them, getting lost in the snow white glow. You quickly snap out of it when you realize you're essentially being a nuisance to everyone else around you. They give you aggravated and annoyed looks, and you decide to take a detour into the alley, embarrassed. As you walk, you hear a girl crying, laying against the brick wall. You begin to walk past her, it's a shame she's crying but whatever she's going through it’s not your business, plus how could you help? Before you exit the alleyway, you stop and look at the pillows in your hands, taking you back to when as a kid you'd have pillow fights with others. You turn back to the girl who is still crying, and walk up to her. She notices you, and looks towards the ground, dismissively.

“I don't need your help.” Usually this would make you walk away, but something is making you stay. As if someone else is using your body, you grab one of the pillows, smacking her head with it. She stands up, extremely angry. “What the hell is wrong with yo-”

Before she can finish, you toss her the other pillow you had. You're petrified, you have no control over your body at the moment. She catches the pillow, then looks at you, her eyes shining as she rushes you. Each swing fills both of you with a long-absent joy for years. Minutes pass before you both slump down and lay on the wall, panting and laughing. What just happened? She turns to you, her eyes showing life, different from everyone else you've seen.

“Hey.. thank you for this. Truly. I haven't felt that happy since..well, forever.”

“I'm glad. I hope everything goes well for you.” You both exchange a smile and then go your separate ways. You hold the pillows in your hand as you exit the alley, but as you look at everyone you get an idea, as a smile forms across your face. You drop your bag and stand in the middle of the sidewalk, pillows in hand. One man notices you, his face turning into one of rage.

“Hey buddy, you blowing in from stupid town? Get outta the way!”

You smile at him, as you throw him a pillow. He looks down at it, looks at you, and a wicked grin forms over his face as he drops his suitcase, getting into a fighting stance,making you shake in fear and a little bit of confusion. Did this man..prepare for this? You think to yourself.

“Oh ho ho ho, you picked the wrong one buddy!” he screams, rushing you. People on the sidewalk give you glances of disgust and confusion, not understanding why you are doing this. Honestly, you don't either, but it feels so right. For hours you stood on the sidewalk, pillow fighting everyone you can see. People even run to the store to fetch some more pillows so more can indulge in the joy that you discovered, inevitably starting a pillow fight war. Cops come armed with tasers and batons expecting this to be some sort of riot, but even they join in after a while. The pillow fights expand from the sideway to the streets, closing off roads. You forget about your dead-end job, your taxes, even your life before this.

Eventually though, your body catches up to you and you get tired, walking out of the road and going home, pillow in hand. As you sit down and turn the tv on, you see that the news is covering the event, naming it “The night of the Pillows.” As you watch tv, you think, “I did that?” The news then covered how even though hundreds of people were essentially attacking each other, nobody has been hurt. Bystanders smile as they say that the whole ordeal is “childish” and “immature” but you know by the looks on their faces that they were enjoying it. You check your phone, and notice it's getting late. You also have 17 missed calls from your boss, but it doesn’t bother you. Nothing bothers you anymore, you haven't felt like this in so, so long. You walk out your bedroom and lay down, looking at the silk white pillow. Even after today it's still in mint condition, what's this thing made out of? You decide to take the pillow cover off , but there's nothing special about the pillow itself. Yet when you flip it over, you see something that causes you to drop the pillow in shock. It had a purple heart sewn on the inside of it. Your purple heart that your mother sewn inside. How was this possible? And how did it even get on the sidewalk? Your hands shake as you pick the pillow up, holding it tightly as you walk to the bathroom mirror. You look at your reflection, seeing your younger self smiling.

“Hey, me. You found my gift for you.”

You nod your head, tears flowing down both your eyes. “How did you do it?”

“I didn't do anything. You just found happiness again. You've always been like this, but the burden of adulthood hid your inner child.” Your younger self places a hand on their heart, making you do the same. “ I don't want to lose you again, I don't want to lose us again.” The world around the two of you dissolves into darkness, save for the shine of both of your bodies. As you take a step closer, your younger self does the same. You hug each other, your bodies sharing warmth.

“I missed you.” You say, voice cracking.

“I missed you, too.”