Generations ago, in a world where there was balanced, a dark spirit ascended from the skies and started to destroy the planet, one city at a time. The planet lived like this for years, people living in panic as this heinous lord only grew in power from feeding off of the fear the citizens possessed. The history is blurry, but everyone agrees on what happens next. A being of light comes into this world, but destroys into fragments around the different areas of our own planet.
"Blah, blah, blah. End of story." The person reading closed the book and turned off the lamp on the side table. The young adult started walking away. "Are you sure that is how it ends? I have so many questions, like what happened with the shards?" As the young child said this, the adult seemed to stop in their tracks, almost paralyzed, before sitting on the child's bed and stroking their cheek. "There's so much about this world you don't need to know right now. Also, this is all fiction, so don't get so philosophical about this." The adult stopped stroking their cheek, before standing up and standing in the doorway, ready to shut the door. "Go to sleep, you nugget. If your parents wake up, they'll yell at both of us." The person smiled, before closing the door.
The child, stuck with her own mind, quickly got out of bed and tugged on the adult's clothes. "What happened to daddy, nana?" Nana smiled a sad smile, looking at the child's face. "Look, I wish I could tell you, but your mummy said to not tell you, twerp. Now hop back to bed, before we get our butts slapped." The child had a mini panic attack, before quietly running back under the covers, nana laughing slightly.
After a full night's rest, the small girl got out of bed and rushed out the door to see her mum. "I heard you committed a crime in these parts." The child was shocked slightly. "You didn't have breakfast, before brushing your teeth!" The mum proceeded to tickle the small child, the child blasting with euphoria. "Ok, time for YOU to have breakfast with ME and NANA." The mother proceeded to make pancakes, while nana walked out of the spare bedroom, before stretching and getting tackled by the young girl's hugs. "It's early in the morning!" The child was too busy hugging her to care. "You twerp! Get off of nana!" The mum quickly went away from the stove to separate the two. "Sit down, before I get the chancla!" The two fake screamed, before laughing and sitting down at their respective seats, the mother soon coming over with the plate of food. The three laughed and chatted together, while enjoying their breakfast, before nana left the house for her part time job.
The mother and child talked together about the usual things like learning new words, until a subject the mother never wanted the child to bring up in her lifetime. "Mummy? In the fantasy book, it says something about symbols, but never talks about them." The mother, hesitant to answer, stutters a bit before answering, "We shouldn't talk about that stuff. Fantasy isn't reality and reality is now." The mother looked at the clock. "Oh no! It's nearly time to go to school!" The child looked over, while the mother was shoving the small girl out the door. "The clock says that there's still half an hour left." The mother slammed the car doors. "NOPE! NO TIME! Say goodbye to the house!" The mother quickly left the driveway, before the child could say goodbye.
The mother made it to the school, before kissing their child on the forehead. "You go have fun now." The child was about to hop out of the car. "Hey, mummy? Why won't you tell me about anything in that book?" The mother sighed. "Honey, it's fiction. Stop worrying so much, kiddo." She waved out the window, before driving away, leaving the child to their own devices. After a few minutes, the child heard their name being called by the teacher, unaware the bell already went. "YOUNG LADY, GET INTO CLASS!" She smiled, before holding the adult's hand and going inside the classroom.
The child and the teacher came into the classroom, where there were more than a dozen eyes landed in their general direction. Shy and anxious, the child was guided to her desk in between two more children as she usually was. For the little girl, everything was the same as usual. People calling her weird for having a birthmark on her cheek in the shape of a clover, calling her leaf girl. She still had friends and would play with them everyday, but the class was so black and white to her.
On the lunch period, the little girl was walking by, when she noticed some teenagers with Molotov bombs, bombing the near playground. Kids were screaming and being protected by the adults, but when the cops were being called, the teenagers ran away, laughing to each other. The little girl was in awe, as the teacher was screaming at her and started having to drag the small girl out of the school. After being dragged, the girl blacked out, unaware that the passage of time had even gone by.
The little girl woke up in a bed, confused and scared about where she was and how she got there, she got up and looked for her mother. She notices her clothes were changed into a sort of gown and her hair was taken out of her small ponytail, once she got out of the bed. She walked out of the room, stumbling slightly and coughing, as a tall lady picked her up in a panic and put her back in the bed. "You aren't allowed out of bed, ok?" The girl was confused, but asked, "Where is my mummy?" The woman quickly walked out of the room and came back with the girl's mother. "Are you ok!?" The mother was in a panic, as tears were streaming down her face. "I'm ok, mummy. How did I get-" The mother broke down, knowing her child was alright and gently hugged her. Confused, the child sat on the bed, trying to remember what happened the other day, when the tall lady started reading from the clipboard, "Two months... Burns... Nothing's wrong with the bone structure..." The child, confused about what she meant, decided to ask her mother, "Mummy, is there something wrong with me..?" The mother replied, feeling calmer then before, "You will be ok! I won't let this happen to you again!"
Weeks go by, when the small girl gets relieved from the hospital. The mother drives the two home, before nana sees the girl, well and happy. In tears, nana picks up the girl and starts laughing, unable to keep in how happy she is. "AHHHH! I MISSED YOU, LITTLE BEAN!" The little girl started to laugh, as the small family wrapped their arms around one another in delight, for the girl was alive and happy. That's all that mattered to them in the end, a happy family.
Avery.
