A Fractured Fairytale

The fragile words glided from his mouth like it was a natural thing to say, his sentence crumbling into the atmosphere. "Your condition is incurable."

This is where it all started, she was told she was going to die and she kept it from us. She lied and now i have to lie. If i tell anybody what i know, they will come and take me and my little sister, Belle, away. I can see in Belle's blue eyes that she doesn't know what is going on, she is still sheltered from all that darkness and i have to keep it that way. I need to protect her and be the mother she deserves, but never got.

I remember when dad used to read me fairytales before i went to bed, mum couldn't because she was too ill. Sometimes dad would change the names of the characters in the books and slot mine and Belle's names into the gaps. It would always end in a happy ending, the fairytale ending we never got.

Often I would lie awake and think about what I could do if I wasn’t me. If I was a normal little girl. All I wanted was the chance to be somebody special then my life would be worth living. I would give my life to be normal. I knew that some girls my age would dream about getting a pony, or a games consol, but all I ever wanted was my mum and dad back. Not the drunk dad, the real dad. On birthdays you are meant to gain presents but on mine I lost the only thing valuable to me: Mum.

Never underestimate the power of death because you never know when it is time for someone you love to be whisked away from the winding path of life.