Lady Maria

This column is a reprint from Unwinnable Monthly #137. If you like what you see, grab the magazine for less than ten dollars, or subscribe and get all future magazines for half price.

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Imaginary correspondence

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Lady Maria. The Doll.

One of you lost your way and gave your humanity up for power. A corpse protecting another corpse to the undeath.

The other? Well, you had no shot at humanity in the first place. An object first and foremost, a servant second.

The man you both look up to views you two somewhere in between – a fond memory with every edge polished off. Clever Maria becomes the complacent Doll, who then gets thrown aside for failing to live up to the first woman’s legacy. Both eventually abandoned to serve their duties in solitude.

Are you an outlet for curious mania? Are you a means to an end? What do you do when your fate doesn’t satisfy someone else’s whims? What do you do when you’re held up to the impossible standard of being another woman?

You make your fate your own. But, did you sabotage others’ to claim them for yourselves?

Maria, is it worth it if you gain independence through secrets that harm? How far will you go to close the truth off from those who can take action on it? Even if you show compassion on an individual level, does it matter if you cause greater damage through a self-serving mission?

Oh Plain Doll, are you actually that plain? Or are you the one working behind the scenes, whether at your own behest or another’s?

You may have both found a path to freedom. But, how many have to suffer along the way?

-Melissa

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Melissa King is a freelance writer and a triple threat at Unwinnable – contributor, social media editor and Exploits managing editor. Follow her writing or commission her work @LongLiveMelKing.