Before
"What's wrong with Mommy?" Rose asks as she combs through one of her doll's hair while her own mop of hair was getting combed by my own hairbrush. Her blonde hair was dark with water and it lacked it's usual volume. We just finished showering with the scarce water that we had.
"What do you mean, Rosie?" I ask softly as I pick through a knot.
"Is she sick?" She frets and looks at me with her baby-blue eyes. I've always been envious of them because her's was a unmistakable blue whereas, mine look like a mix between grey and green.
"... Yes..." I reply quietly. Mom got sick a week ago with the Fever and she's only gotten worse. But, obviously, I wouldn't tell Rose.
"Is she going to get better?" She asks and my heart aches. Please keep your innocence, Rosie.
"Yes." I lie, not looking into her eyes.
_________
Mom died a week later.
Dad wrapped her body in a white sheet and buried her in our backyard underneath the flower bed. Usually we burned the bodies but dad couldn't do it. He could hardly bring himself to burry her.
I remember standing above the kitchen sink watching the scene unfold. He picked mom's body in his arms with a few strands of her blonde hair peeking through the sheet and he placed her in the dug out hole. After he finished covering her, he knelt on the ground with his shoulders shaking and his body trembling. You would except tears to leak out of his dark eyes but none came out of his eyes but they came out of mine. I didn't realize I was crying until pointed it out.
"You told me she was gonna get better, Claire." She whimpers and I lose it.
"I hoped she would." I sob and she hugs me around my waist. I sink to the floor and I return her hug. This is the first time I've cried since the Mania took the reigns and it feels good to let it out.
"It's going to be okay, Sissy." She says almost as a promise to both of us and I feel incredibly stupid. My little sister, who barely turned seven, is telling me, her older sister, that everything's going to be okay.
_______________________________________________________Second chapter! Yay! Thanks for the comments and votes already!
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Mania
Teen FictionClaire Donavan, was once a girl who dreamed of what life would be like after she graduated high school. She dreamed of going to Juliard and play piano. She dreamed of leaving Montana and living elsewhere and have a family of her own. But she woke up...
