My short stories

Nightmares

"Those who have nightmares often are the same people who understand the value of empathy." ~Rose4eva789

Yes, this story is based on a nightmare. Yes, it was scary af, it felt sooo realistic. Please do NOT read if you have any fears of death and abuse. Everyone else, please enjoy.

~~~

Nadia was a little girl, very clever, strong-minded, and loved by her family. That is, until the day she became immobilised from the waist down. No one knows why or how it happened, but it had extremely disappointed her parents. She became wheelchair-bound since she was unable to stand. Keeping her well cost a lot of money and time, and her mother had to stop working just to take care of her. One day, however, she had had enough and spiked Nadia's drink to send her to sleep long enough to allow her to think of a way to get rid of her...

Nadia woke up in quite a tight spot. Where was she? She noticed her mother waving to her from the other side of... a window? No... she had been put into the dryer and the door wouldn't budge. She could see her mother laughing outside and press some buttons. So tight... so warm... it wasn't long before something beside her lit on fire! Plastic? Rubber? She didn't know. It wasn't long before smoke clouded her vision and she blacked out...

This was many years ago. Nadia was now in a children's hospice, still bound to her wheelchair, but with many noticeable burns still healing. She was told that her mother left the house after switching on the dryer. Her older sister, Laila, came home from college and noticed smoke in the house. She hurried inside to find Nadia, only to find her burning in the dryer. After calling for the ambulance, police and fire brigade, Laila switched off the power supply and took her little sister away from the house. Laila told Nadia everything she knew, the police worked out and told her the rest, that her own mother tried to kill her.

Nadia is often found lost in her own little world. The other kids leave her alone, afraid of the burns that cover her skin. She doesn't mind much; she finds peace in this. The other caretakers pity her but also leave her be. That is until a new staff member was taken on board. Her name was Alena, tanned skin with lusciously curled brown hair and her eyes were a deep blue, almost like the sea, Nadia thought to herself. Alena was very friendly with all the children but spent most of her time, while she was around, with Nadia. She probably just pities me too, Nadia believed it to be true. After all, she was the girl who was burnt by her own mother.

~~~

It was true that Alena noticed Nadia usually on her own, so she took it upon herself to find out more about her, to befriend her. And she had an idea exactly how to do it!

Alena is quite the dancer in her free time. Her main form of exercise is dancing. She was one to believe that keeping the body moving keeps the body in shape, and dancing was perfect to do just that. She was never the running type anyway! So, she decided to make a little dance class for the kids of the hospice. The kids were all so very excited. She made sure to teach them simple dances to avoid tiring out those who had other difficulties. It was quite fun for a while, then, with the manager's permission as well as from the parents of the children, she recorded some of their dances to post on the hospice's social media websites, encouraging other kids all over the world to join in too.

Then came a day where during a recording, Nadia had come to see the dance class. She wanted to try dancing too, it looked like fun, and the others seemed to be having lots of fun too. Alena noticed her plan had worked in finally bringing Nadia out of her little world and wheeled her to the centre asking her if she wanted to dance.

"But I can't," Nadia said, barely whispering her reply.

"Look, love," Alena said, "You can hold onto me to get up and off that wheelchair. I won't let you fall."