Her daughter's clear high voice rang out through the house as she sang one of her favorite songs
"I got no strings to hold me down, to make me fret, to make me frown-"
"I need you to sing a little more quietly please honey."
"Ok mommy. Come see my puppet show!" She smiled to herself and closed her book. She followed the little girls sweet hum down the hall way to her room. A large cardboard box stood in the middle of the room, with her craft supplies laid haphazardly on top. As she entered the room she noticed what looked like chocolate or candy smeared on the childs floor.
"Honey how many times do I have to tell you not to-" she gasped and stopped abruptly in front of her daughter. The 4 year old had their cat Tawny in her lap, hooks on yarn dug into its paws and its small skull. The little girls legs were stained with blood, the same color as the mess on her floor. She had sewn buttons into the dead kittens eye sockets, which were emptied of its original contents. She looked up at her mother and smiled her beautiful dimpled smile.
"What have you done??" She managed to look into her daughters eyes, and what she saw made her blood run cold. The little girls eyes, dark as night, and pupiless seemed to almost twinkle as she continued to smile at her mother.
" I had strings but now I'm free, there are no strings on me."
