Elizabeth Thompson just moved into a small town called Listerville. She moved because her parents decided to get away from the big city due to traumatic experiences.
Elizabeth wandered around the large, packed room, looking for her mother. Swarms of people in dark clothing surrounded her watching her grievously. She didn't know why they were all looking at her and didn't understand why she had to be here. Bella, her baby sister, didn't have to come. Elizabeth, unable to take the looks of these strangers any longer, hid under the large table at the front of the room, covered by the black tablecloth. The table was empty besides a small wooden box.
The strangers kept walking up to the table, murmuring to the little box, and then walking away. She didn't understand why but she was only four years old and didn't understand most things. Elizabeth pulled the tablecloth up and peered out to see her parents standing there, her mother being held by her father. Elizabeth crawled out from underneath the table. She stood up but was too short to see in the box.
"Mumma, why are you crying?" Elizabeth asked her mother.
"No reason, sweetheart," she said, wiping the tears rolling down her face and doing her best fake smile. Her eyes were red from crying, and the usual sparkle in her eyes was almost non-existent.
"Ok...." Elizabeth said slowly, "Where's Bella?" She asked curiously as she didn't know where her little sister was. Her Mum didn't respond, unable to make the words out.
"WHERE'S BELLA?" Elizabeth shouted, thinking her Mum couldn't hear her.
People started looking sympathetically at the front of the room. The reason they were looking was unknown to Elizabeth. Her mother glanced away, painfully unable to tell her child the sorrowful news. She was about to shout again, but her mother walked away, tears falling like a waterfall. Elizabeth looked at her father sadly.
"What did I do?" She asked her father, on the brink of crying. Her dad picked her up, turning her, so she couldn't see the box's contents.
"You did nothing wrong; Mumma's just going through a lot of change at the moment," Dad replied softly. Elizabeth didn't understand him.
"Where's Bella?" she asked her father. Her father slowly turned her around. Bella was lying in the little box with her eyes closed.
"Bella", she whisper-yelled. She lent down quickly and started shaking her little sister. Her father pulled her up quickly. Elizabeth looked into her father's eyes and asked
"Why isn't she waking up?"
"She has died and has gone to sleep, but she won't ever wake up." He replied
"huh, what does that mean?" she inquired
"It means that she won't be able to breathe, move or play with you anymore," he told her.
"Oh", she replied sadly, hugging her father, tears rolling down her face.
"Bella will always be with you, right here" Her dad pointed to her heart
Bella looked down at her chest, confused. Her dad chuckled quietly.
"Bella would have wanted you to have this" Her dad held the friendship bracelet that Elizabeth had made Bella.
Elizabeth looked at it but refused to reach out and grab it. Her dad put it in her pocket and comforted her while she wept.
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