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I am a copywriter and digital marketer. @ Adekunle Ajasin University
Lagos, Nigeria
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The Lantern by the Lake
<p>Of course! Here’s a fresh short story — quiet, reflective, and full of warmth:</p><p><br></p><p>---</p><p><br></p><p>**Title: “The Lantern by the Lake”**</p><p><br></p><p>Every year on the first night of spring, the villagers gathered by the lake to float lanterns in memory of the ones they’d lost. It was a gentle ritual — no loud prayers or grand speeches, just the soft glow of light drifting across still water.</p><p><br></p><p>This year, Nora stood at the edge of the lake alone.</p><p><br></p><p>She held a single lantern, carefully painted with tiny wildflowers and the name **"Liam"** scrawled across it in careful cursive. Her brother. Her best friend. Gone too soon.</p><p><br></p><p>She hadn’t come the year before. Or the one before that. Grief had kept her home, hiding in the corners of a quiet apartment and pretending life didn’t ache so much.</p><p><br></p><p>But tonight felt different. The air was soft. The moon was full. And somehow, she felt like Liam would have wanted her here.</p><p><br></p><p>As she knelt to place the lantern on the water, a voice behind her whispered, “Beautiful design.”</p><p><br></p><p>Nora turned. A young man stood there, holding a lantern of his own — plain, unpainted, but held with both hands like it was precious.</p><p><br></p><p>“Thanks,” she said quietly. “It’s for my brother.”</p><p><br></p><p>He nodded. “Mine’s for my mom.”</p><p><br></p><p>They stood in silence, watching the first few lanterns drift away. Then, slowly, together, they released theirs.</p><p><br></p><p>As the lights danced on the surface of the lake, something unspoken passed between them — not quite love, not quite friendship, but recognition. A shared understanding that pain, when carried gently, could connect instead of isolate.</p><p><br></p><p>When the last lantern faded into the night, the two strangers turned toward the path home.</p><p><br></p><p>“I’m Nora,” she said.</p><p><br></p><p>“Eli.”</p><p><br></p><p>They walked side by side, not filling the silence, but honoring it.</p><p><br></p><p>---</p><p><br></p><p>Would you like this to continue into a longer story or be rewritten with a fantasy, romantic, or suspenseful twist?</p><p><br></p>
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