Heal Me

Falling

A/N: a little warning about this chapter, it got pretty dark and kinda depressing, anyway it's very crucial to the story 🙂

There lays a young girl, barely the age of 8, resting on her matted bed, with rags as sheets. The room is dimly lit, with few candles to illuminate her sleeping body as the sunsets. A gentleman, his clothes just as torn,  enters the room, an old bucket in hand, and sits beside her. He takes a wet rag from the bucket and damps it across her forehead. They sit in silence for a bit, him repeating the motions, again and again, his expression solemn.

Then a woman walks in her attire similar to the man, "how is she?"

The man takes his time to respond, possibly to spare the women of the unpleasant news, "Tis not good, it is only a matter of time before-"

She desperately cuts him off, "there must be something we can do, she is our little girl. We can work more hours to afford medicine, maybe a doctor. There has to-"

"There is nothing left to do," his stern voice cuts her off, "she is ill, and" the man's voice stops, and his shoulders shake as he tries to hold everything in. The woman walks over to him and wraps her arms around his shoulders and cries with him. She holds onto her daughter's weak hand, and looks at her face, trying to find the reason for this tragedy.

The time passes on and the couple remains with their daughter. The woman gently caresses the girl and silently begs her to get better, to heal. "Oh Alice," she whispers, saddened by the results of their life.

They stay like that, holding to their beautiful little girl as if their lives depended on it, and little by little, her heart slowed, her breadth weakened.

And the couple leaves soon after their daughter.

~

The screams carry out into the night, the village people ramped, trying to fight for survival or escape. The sounds the crashes, and terror that this night brings.

"Mama, I'm scared," A young girl says and holds tighter on her mother's arms.

"I will be okay baby, trust me. Daddy will protect us," the mother says more to herself than her daughter. "rest now, and when you wake up in the morning, everything will be okay. We will go for a walk, just like yesterday. And maybe you can play with the other kids, oh that would be so much fun right baby."

"Yea! And we can play scavenger!! And with the new toy I got."

"Right, but listen to me, Alice. You have to know that I love you very much, your dad too. You're our little girl."

"I love you too, Mama."

"Right, now rest, baby and we can have fun in the morning."

The child falls fast asleep, holding onto the hope of tomorrow, dreaming of all the fun she will have. The mother, while she did not receive any rest. She remained near the front door, waiting for anyone who enters, a knife in hand. And when the door rushed open, she begged it was her husband, but she knew better.

She tried to fight, but it just wasn't meant to be.

~

A girl, in the midst of puberty, lays in bed, knowing of her inevitable fate. Disease is rapid in their town and it's only a matter of time before her time comes. She had been ill for days now, but she locked herself in her room, not wanting to spread it to her mother. If she were to get ill too, well Alice wouldn't know how to live with herself.