My Pace

Chapter 49

Anabelle's POV
Ariella became depressed. Alice was like her sister. They did everything together. Where one was the other was right behind. They'd have play dates a few times a week. Trying to make Ariella feel better, was becoming a challenge. She wasn't sleeping in her room. She was sleeping in bed with me and Holt.

We encouraged her to make new friends. She didn't listen.

"Holt, what are we supposed to do?"

"I-I have no idea. It-it's killing me."

"It's killing me too."

I felt something tug on my shirt. I looked down and saw Ariella. She looked up at me. She looked so sad.

"Mommy? Can we go see the animals?"

"Sure. Come on. Let's get ready. Are you coming Curran?"

"Yeah."

Me and Ariella went to get her ready. Holt got ready first so he occupied her while I got ready. We agreed on taking our time at the zoo.

"She needs a good distraction."

"I know. She really does."

Ariella was smiling all day. She started getting tired so Holt picked her up. Her eyes were shut and her head was on his shoulder.

"She sleeping?"

"Yeah. Time to go."

We started walking to the car. We didn't bother waking her up. We just got her ready for bed then put her in her bed.

"She's not gonna stay in here."

"Yeah no. She's not."

We got ready for bed and started trying to sleep. We heard the door open. We sat up and Ariella was just standing in the doorway while crying. Holt ran up to her and picked her up. He walked back over to the bed and laid down. She didn't want to let go of him.

He just held her close to him. He started cradling her head.

"Shhhh. Daddy's got you. Mommy's right behind you."

"I want Ali!"

"I know. I know. She's not hurting anymore. She's safe now."

"She'd want you to make new friends."

She curled up into a ball.

"It's okay. It's gonna be okay."

We laid there and kept saying that it'll be okay. I started to feel like a liar. I knew the truth. It wasn't going to be okay. Her first best friend is gone. She was taken away. Her and 20 other kids were taken. Alice was the only friend Ariella had made. Now she was alone. She no longer had someone to have play dates with. She no longer had someone to go to the park with.

Our daughter was now all alone. She's only 6 and part of her has already been crushed into millions of pieces. I felt horrible repeating the same thing over and over and over. There's only so many ways to explain grief to a child. No matter how much we tried, we couldn't shield her from the world as much as we could. Kids are supposed to grow up only worrying about monsters under their beds or in their closet.

Meanwhile...our sweet..innocent...princess...now knows...monsters are people too. When it comes to murder and gun violence...she grew up way too fast. A normal school day...turned into a living nightmare.   This could've been prevented and avoided. Mrs. Fletcher turned out to be a drug user. Her dealer was the one who barged into the building with a machine gun. He's the heartless bastard who took children away from everyone that loved them.