Vermelho no Azul

Red in Blue

The day is getting darker and darker and its air is getting heavier and harder to breathe. I am with my mommy and my little sister in this small, uncomfortable supermarket, and the evening air makes this moment harder to overcome, but it is overlaid by a feeling of comfort and protection from having my mommy and my three-year-old sister beside me. They are my family and my home.

My mommy bought what she needed to make dinner for my late-working dad. Tonight, he was only going to have dinner with me and my little sister, since mommy was going out tonight, which is very strange, because I've never been a night without the company of mommy that protects and completes me so much. She had everything well prepared in advance, since the house is never without her. I was never without her. I have never slept in the same house where I don't have my mommy, even though I'm a big girl, with a bike without training wheels and going to school with it. I am so grown up that I'm no longer taking my lovely blue blanket to school, because my school is only for grown-ups. And look, I love my blanket and the sense of comfort it gives me! It's like a hug from mommy around me as I actually fall asleep in mommy's arms, now with the company of little sister.

I didn't want to spend the night without mommy. The blanket does not protect as much as if I had mommy with me. I'll wait for my sister and dad to fall asleep, and I'll take my blanket and my bike. I'm going with mom without her knowing. With the night and this idea, I set out resolutely behind mommy's trail and, with great cost, much pain, and even heavier air, I climbed the steep road that mommy climbed. It seemed like many hours have passed before I reached the top. But I did it and I saw mommy talking to a very beautiful lady. Oh, how beautiful she was... She had a ponytail holding her long, shiny, thick black hair. Her skin was so white that moonlight reflected her face and I could clearly see her very red lips. Mommy is white too, I'm white too, sis too white, but this lady was as white as the moon.

Mommy seemed to already have a lot of confidence with this woman, because they talked and were very close. How curious I am! I am trying to approach them, very disturbingly. I made a noise and I had to hide along with my bike. But the blanket was on the road. Now I can't get it back. After a break, mommy and the woman started talking again. They were speaking about a mark of the past. I don't understand anything about the conversation and I didn't have time to know anything else because they started to walk again where they got into a very strange and confusing road. I had never been there with mommy. I didn't know this road and the trees and weeds scared me a lot. There was almost no light other than the tiny rays of moonlight that could overtake the leafy branches of the trees. The woman seemed to know that road well for she didn't even have to look for the light to know the road. She was very comfortable on that weird road.

They entered into this large house that looked like a castle like those in the princess books that mommy read but very old, dull or colourless and without princesses. To continue my journey, I leave my bike, hidden between a bush and an old tree, climbed the stairs that lead to a very high door and enter the big house. There was not much light in the big house other than the moonlight streaming through the large windows. But this castle needed no more lights... No one should live there. It was very quiet, but so quiet that I could hear my breath. I was tired and sleepy. I wanted to leave with mommy and go to sleep. I didn't like that place at all. It was cold and dark. It had the smell of dust. There was no one. I was scared, very scared... My chest hurt with fear. My heartbeat echoed off the cold, hollow walls of that dark house. I want mom, and I want her now!

I heard mommy's voice and followed her voice that gave me the courage to move in search of her comfort and protection. But I walked and walked, I opened doors, and I entered darker and colder places. It was like a maze and I couldn't find my mommy. I decided to go back and find some light. But the moment I turned back, there were two very red eyes staring at me...

With a flame in my chest and tears in my eyes, I screamed and started to run aimlessly... And I ran with all the strength my little legs had... And I was back to the starting point... back to the place where there was the moonlight. Tired, scared, and without strength, I laid down on the floor, weeping at the strength I have left. I just want to leave with mommy... I wanted my mommy. And right now, I am feeling someone's breath in my ear... It was as if that breath was even heavier, slower and louder... Like sighs... Like it was the last breaths of someone who was about to...

I remember when I was the age of my sister and she didn't exist yet I had gone with mommy to the usual supermarket and I used to take my blanket with me. I always carried it with me and I never left home without it. It was blue like mommy's eyes. How I would like to have mine blanket now. In my memory, mommy was talking to a lady who she spoke to for hours, to the point where I fell asleep in mommy's arms. Was the same woman? I don't remember very well it was a long time ago. And now? Am I sleeping? Confused, I lift my head.

It was mommy! It's her heavy breathing, it's mommy's! How happy I am for a brief but brief moment. It was mommy, but mommy had red eyes, not blue. I don't understand ... Why does mommy have eyes in that colour? Why is she breathing like this? Why isn't it comfortable being around her? I just wanted to leave with her, but she said she couldn't, that it was too late now! And then I notice that she has two holes in her neck and blood was coming out. Was she... dying? No, I don't want to live without my mommy! My mommy... the black-haired woman was now hugging her and told me she wasn't my mommy anymore. And mommy didn't move... I cried... The woman laughed... It hurt so much, so much, that I didn't have the strength... I felt my head hit the floor and suddenly...

Darkness.

A new silence comes with dawn, but it was lighter. A bicycle is found half hidden between a bush and an old tree. Next to the same tree was found a six-year-old girl wrapped in a blue blanket with red spots that betray blood and hide a mystery that was lost with dawn and with an increasingly light air.