"The Lost Innocence of Lily: Trapped in a World She Didn't Choose"

Lily was by far one of the bravest seven-year-olds on the planet. One sunny afternoon, her overworked twenty-one-year-old mother had given her permission to go to the candy store by herself for the first time. Like any child hyped up on sugar, she rifled through aisle after aisle in search of the very best candy bar there was, the Bright Magic Bar. With a triumphant smile, she finally grabbed one and skittered over to the cashier, depositing a few coins before making her way out of the bright shop.

Just outside was a sixteen-year-old girl who had seen better days. She was a brunette with captivating brown eyes, which appeared brighter in contrast with her sun-tanned skin. She wore a faded, teal crop top, frayed denim short shorts, and scuffed thong sandals that looked like they could fall apart at any moment. Her few possessions were tucked inside a tattered purse that never left her shoulder. Shielding her eyes with a worn-out pair of sunglasses, she approached the younger child before flashing a reluctant but soft smile. "Hey babe, you have any spare change?” Jo asked, a sweet yet melancholic tone to her voice.

Lily, clutching the candy bar like a precious artifact, looked up at the unfamiliar face and nodded, cheerfully replying, "Here you go," in her innocent whisper of a voice before placing a few extra nickels and dimes in the older girl's palm.

Suddenly, a sharp jolt surged through Lily, causing her to drop the candy bar. Her vision went black. Opening her eyes eons later, she found the world around her to be blurry and removed the sunglasses she didn’t even realize she was wearing, in utter confusion.

Looking down, she no longer saw the colorful outfit she’d worn earlier, but instead a teal crop top, short shorts, and thong sandals. Her heart pounded hard in her chest as she lifted a small hand only to reveal a matured one. "What? I'm a big girl? What the?" she blurted out, her voice sounding strikingly more mature than her childhood lisp from earlier.

Horrified, she quickly slipped out of the thong sandals and removed the purse, flustered at how little fabric there was on her newly grown body. Holding all those things awkwardly in her hands, she started to walk, trying to adjust to the longer limbs filled with newfound strength.

As the day faded away into night, she sought refuge in a dark alley, the cold concrete harsh against her bare legs. Tears prickled in her eyes as she tenderly put the thong sandals back on her sore feet. "I wanna go home! I miss my mommy and my big brother so much! I don't like the dark! It's so cold and scary!" she blurted out in her mature voice, frustration clawing out of her.

Rolling up into a defensive ball, she let her long, brown hair shield her from the rest of the world. The sight of the crop top and short shorts, the purse on her shoulder, and the feeling of the thong sandals brought forth undeniable reality. It all felt nauseatingly real, even as she squeezed her eyes shut at the sound of shattering glass somewhere in the distance.

She hoped it was all just a bad dream; that she'd wake up as a seven-year-old in her warm bed, with her mother and brother just nearby. But the truth was far from comforting. Little Lily had found herself in a twisted twist of fate, trapped in the body of Jo — a body that had surely suffered countless hardships. Yet in her heart remained the spirit and innocence of a seven-year-old, facing the cruelty of a world she hadn't even begun to understand.

This story was generated by user manemansteve2 with assistance by one of OpenAI’s large-scale language-generation model; prompts used to help generate the story are shown below.

Images were generated with OpenAI's AI system, DALL·E 2, or uploaded by the user.

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