What no one told you.

In the immediate aftermath, and the years that follow- you cannot help but to ask yourself why- why me? You will plague yourself with this day after day. You cannot see how you can live with this; the thing that keeps you awake at night, that makes you scared of your own footsteps because you don't recognise them as your own, that makes you flinch when someone passes too close. You cannot imagine a life where you don't fear going out, where you can see them and you no longer feel afraid.

You will question whether this is even possible; that you can have a life without this ruling you. You will ask yourself what you could've done differently. You will tell yourself it was your fault; that you were in the wrong place at the wrong time. You won't look outwardly and see that the problem was never with yourself.

You will blame yourself for the action of another, you will not see that this is the consequence of someone else's choice. You will not understand that it is not something you have to live with everyday, because you were never in the wrong.

But I promise, there will come a day when you start to see again; where you know it never was your fault, where you free yourself from the chains you realise were never bound.

Until that day, hold on to the belief that it is absolutely possible to live a life that isn't confined to the shadows, know that you are still the person you always were. And that the bad lies in them, and not with you.