Howard Creek

                                                                                  Introduction

   Sitting there, a cold lonely girl. Outside during the worst time of year in Howard Creek. Ice on every path. Snow falling faster every second. Nothing but a white thick blanket on the ground for miles. 

   No one was in sight as far as she could tell. That observation didn't really help much though. Without her glasses she really couldn't rely on that sense. But really, what good would it make for someone to find her. She accepted her fate. She knew this was coming. She had known for a long time.... Whatever got her mother would come back for the only witness. 

  With her two numb arms and her frigid legs, she dragged her bag and herself to an enormous oak tree to relax her body the best she could. Her body was scraped and bruised. She had no way to fight back if someone attacked. She was a sitting duck. All she could do was try the fates and lower her pains.. She grabbed her torn bag and opened the front pocket. Ruffling through her belonging to check if there was anything to cover her dreadful cuts. She kept digging in till something caught her eye.

   She glanced at the petty token her mother gave her just a week before her death. Just a week before her life started to crumble... She held the necklace in her scratch filled palm. Rubbing the smooth shell until there was no more dirt. She stared at herself for longer then she should have. Her hair tied in disgusting knots. The right cheek still had some of her Mum's blush on. Bags were under her eyes. She scoffed. All the times she asked her mother as a child if she was ugly she'd say the same thing. 

Oh Clare, your beautiful just the way you are. 

"Am I still beautiful"  She calmly asked herself....."Am I still Beautiful?". She sighed. She looked up to see the sky's darken. Soon that thing that got her Mother would consume her too. She hooked her necklace around her neck and placed behind her bag behind her. Tonight would be her last night. The last dreadful day she had to spend alive. Normally she would have shed some tears but...She was dried out.  She thought about the last few days her mother was alive. All the paranoid talking, all the stuff she gave away.. The notes she wrote. Like she knew it was going to happen.

  Mother like daughter I guess. They both knew their death day.