On the eve of yet another lonely Christmas, an older woman placed delicately wrapped presents beneath the tree. She brushed the dust away from the bows, biting her lip to hold back the tears that threatened to flow down her aged face.
"I know you'll love your presents this year, Sophie." The woman smiled bitterly, recalling the face of her long lost daughter. "I got these especially for you." She placed the final present underneath the festive tree and rose to her feet. She glanced over to the wall to her left, her eyes resting on a photograph of a young girl, holding a purple, stuffed rabbit.
The girl, Sophie, was 6 when the photo was taken, her mouth in an eternal grin. She was beaming at the camera, revealing her missing tooth. She had blinked when the photo was taken, yet she still appeared so happy. She had been unaware of the cruel fate that would befall her.
The mother walked to a bedroom beside hers, grasping the dusty doorknob before entering the room. She sat down on the bed beside where her daughter would have been laying, and leaned down to kiss the pillow goodnight. Drowsiness overtook the woman, and she allowed herself to sleep in Sophie's bed.
The next morning, the woman awoke to the sound of childlike giggling. She took off running to the living room, only to see her beloved daughter shaking the presents beneath the tree eagerly, her face bearing a mischievous grin.
"S-Sophie," the mother whispered questioningly, reaching towards the figure.
The girl turned to face her mother, still grinning. "Mommy!"
The mother dashed forward and hugged her child tight, the tears that she had locked away for over a decade pouring down her face.
"Mommy, can I open my presents now?" Sophie asked as any child does on Christmas Day.
The mother pulled her head back and nodded, her face breaking into a joyous smile. "I missed you so much, my little angel."
And so the two spent Christmas together as a family, and the grieving mother was granted her only Christmas wish.
Merry Christmas.
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A Brother's Sorrow (adopted from @Eris345)
FanfictionSo anyway I adopted this story from @Eris345 who wrote the original story. Please check it out it was pretty good. I'm going to tweak it to fit more of a darker theme. Chris (the crying child) wakes up after a week in comatose to find that his older...
