Dancing With Death (Wattys2016)

Chapter One

Dancing With Death

It has been many years since that dreadful night. Thirteen years to the day, my mother had been killed, and I sat in front of her grave now. My heart seemed to always have a void, but it seemed to be larger and stronger on days like today. I couldn't deny it; I missed her terribly.

I couldn't remember much of my mother since she was taken when I was only around two. They said that one day she just was... gone. They told me she was never coming back, but I haven't lost faith in her. I believe, just as I did when I was two that she would come back for me.

I remember her smile, it's faint, but I do remember. It was radiant, with her hair a red color, and her green eyes that supposedly complemented my father's brown ones. I got my hair from her, but the only difference was that mine was more of a brown color - auburn, as most called it. My eyes were a hazel, the perfect mixture of the two, as my mother once said.

God, I missed her. I twirled the red rose I had in my hand aimlessly around and around. The bouquet that it had been snatched from was nestled underneath the redbud tree, where her headstone lay. I just sat there at the foot of her grave, listening to the birds chirping and chattering in the trees.

It reminded me of a memory, or at least what I thought was a memory. Now I wasn't so sure. Everything was fading slowly away: her voice, the way she laughed, and now even her smile was just a fleeting memory. I tried to think of her as often as possible, in hopes that I could save my memories of her. Even still they were fading slowly away, one by one, despite my attempts to keep them from slipping through my fingers.

I remembered walking in the park. My hand was in hers and I was skipping along beside her as she laughed. I was grinning as wide as I possibly could, and you could plainly see the holes where I had recently lost a few front teeth.

My toothy smile shone brightly on my face as Mommy and I skipped up to the ice cream stand and ordered two of their sugar cones. Mine was mint chocolate chip and Mommy's was strawberry.

We settled at a nearby picnic table after we got our cones and were happily eating them. The birds were chirping, and you could hear the laughter of nearby children as they chased each other around the swing sets.

My mommy looked over at me and smiled as she pointed her cone at my face. "You have a little something on your nose," she said as she smeared a blob of strawberry ice cream on the tip of my nose. I squealed and scooped some of my ice cream onto my finger and smeared it on hers.

We laughed and wiped the ice cream off of our faces. We settled back and looked up at the sky, and she suddenly got serious.

"Aspen, I love you. You know that? Mommy hopes nothing will ever bring us apart, but there may come a time when-"

Suddenly, my mother's voice was cut off and a man's replaced it. It tore me away from whatever trance I was in and brought me back into the real world.

"What are you doing here, munchkin?" My gaze was brought to a man that was leaning casually against the tree with a rose in hand.

"You should know exactly what I am doing here," I snapped.

"Here, here, love," he tisked, shaking his head. "Somebody is in a dark mood."

"I am not in a bad mood." I mumbled, already irritated by him.

"Oh come on, Sweetheart, I know something is bothering you." He looked as if he knew something I didn't with that big smile plastered across his face.

"Nothing is bothering me!" I shouted. He looked at me in that disapproving way, and I felt like I was immediately drawn to confess.

"Oh really?" he patronized. "Then why have you been here for about three hours staring off into space at nothing?"