Trapped in a Void

It’s weird how life has changed. One day you are out there, meeting people, hugging and kissing. The next day you are home alone without a soul to even talk to. Thus, was the life of Zoey in the midst of a pandemic.

Zoey was full of life. In fact, the life of any party she attended. She loved every bit of the life she lived. She used to meet people from different walks of life at her workplace. Her boss loved her energy and enthusiasm so much that he wanted it all for himself. Yes, Zoey had an affair with her boss, but everything changed in a matter of a day.

It was the dreadful day when they returned from an overseas meeting and were quarantined at the airport. It was a business trip, but for Zoey and her boss it was 2 hours of business and the rest of the week was leisure in a comfortable hotel room.

On the trip, she was happy because they could be a couple for a week. Zoey knew she wouldn’t have that pleasure back home. Success is always looked upon differently for girls who date their bosses. So she lived her secret life to the fullest in that one week.

It all changed when they had to return to reality. But reality was not so real after all. Her boss became her boss from a lover in a matter of minutes when he was asked about his relationship with her. Of course, that was their official relationship but he left it to just that. Zoey couldn’t admit it either because he was married and had a family waiting for him at home.

After they finished their quarantined period at the airport, they went on their individual journeys but Zoey’s boss wanted her for a little while more. He chose to drop her home, but midway seduced her for a few hours in a hotel room. As tantalising and irresistible it was, she gave into his desperate urges. They spent the afternoon in bed with the lockdown looming over the nation.

As soon as it struck three, Zoey’s boss pulled up his pants and left the hotel. Zoey showered and then left homeward at a leisure pace all by herself. She did not know that was the last time she would see him.

Zoey’s boss passed away a week later as a result of the pandemic. She was affected too, but recovered in home quarantine. However, life wasn’t the same again.

Zoey quit her job or rather was asked to resign via online. Her guilt of having an affair with a married man who died because of her kept eating her from within. Her friends tried connecting with her but her heart was too low to confide or change in any way. Happiness was miles away from the girl that once beamed with it.

Zoey suffered through depression in the midst of the lockdown. She managed to eat and shower on some days but otherwise there was no one to share her tribulations. It was a lonely four-walled house she lived in. Her parents had left the world years ago while she was still a teen. She had to fend for herself ever since. But she had no qualms so far.

Not this time though. She was at her lowest and it trapped her. For her, the void now held no future, so she chose to end the present, too. The lockdown ended the happiness that once defined Zoey. Her friends concluded that the world lost yet another good soul because of the pandemic.

© 2025 Marieannette Pereira-Fernandes. All Rights Reserved.

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