The Fall of Lilly Anderson

Stop. Breathe. Cry if you must.

Those six words had followed her her whole life. Her mother had said them to her minutes before she took her last breath.

The girl had cherished those words for so many years. She had cried so many times. For every tear she cried, another scar she had made, and more pain she put herself through.

Her family and friends all new what she was doing to herself, but they simply didn't care. They we're all blinded by their own greif to see that their words were hurting her.

Every,"Get over it. Stop pitying yourself, " she heard, was another stab at her heart because she couldn't just "get over it." She didn't think she ever would.

Until one day, she found herself standing on the edge of the cliff, looking over it and thinking about her mother. She thought about all the times that her mom had taken her shopping, or had painted her nails at two in the morning when she couldn't sleep.

She thought about all the nights where she couldn't sleep because of the nightmares that followed her mother's death.

She stood at that cliff for hours, silently crying while thinking. Thinking about the harsh words that she had heard at school, and the bruises that her father had given her all the times that he had come home drunk, no doubt on her mind that he had been out with friends.

She stood there until she had heard a voice.

"Hey... Are you okay? "

She turned around to see a young girl, about four or five years younger than her. She wore a light blue dress. Her mother's favorite color.

She saw the tears running down the older girls face and walked towards her.

"What's wrong, " she asked, looking up at the older girl.

"I wa-was just t-thinking, " she said, tears still dreaming down her face.

"Why would you think about something that makes you sad? "

The older girl smiled slightly at the younger girls words. She wished she knew the answer to the girls question, but she was to upset to even think straight.

She kneeled in front of the girl and said, "Sometimes those are the only things that we can think about. "

The young girl frowned at her words and hugged the older girl, shocking her because no one had hugged her in a long time. She hugged the young girl back.

"Why, "she sobbed. "Why did you have to leave? "

After that day, the older girl met the younger one at the at the cliff every Saturday. She learned that her name was Lilly and that she loved to sing and draw.

She would watch Lilly draw in her sketch pad while singing her favorite songs. She watched the young girl learn and grow.

Until one day, Lilly stopped coming.

The older girl had went every Saturday for a month until one day she saw Lilly's mother in the grocery store, wandering around as if lost in a trance.

"Hi Mrs. Anderson, I haven't seen Lilly in a while... Is everything alright? "

It took Mrs. Anderson a few moments to register that the girl had spoken to her. When she did, the older girl could see tears start to form in her eyes.

"You don't know, do you... "

"Know what, " the girl said, concern clear in her voice.

The words that came out of Mrs. Anderson's mouth broke the girls heart once again, just like it had when her mother had died.