• Why, why, why?

    Why me?

    Why my mom?

    Why my family?

    "Why" seems to be my favorite word for the last twenty-four hours. And that's all I can ask, why. I want to scream, I want to cry, I want my mom to console me telling me that everything's gonna be ok, but none of that happens.

    I stop abruptly as I walk into the kitchen, causing my converse to squeak. My eyes widen, and my hand fly to my mouth. My heart beat races as my vision blurs by the tearts forming in my eyes.

    "Mom," I choke out. Shock and hope spreads across my entire body. A possibility that what I've been through last night has just been a nightmare. A mistake.

    She turns around. Her brown hair is up in a bun, though strans have come loose. Flour covers most of her face and apron. She wipes her hands with a nearby towel before looking up at me with her big dark brown eyes. She gives me one of her beautiful smiles, and says, "I baked a chocolate cake, Cass. Are you gonna want a piece?"

    "Mom," I say again, but in a whisper this time. I want to believe this, but I'm scared. Scared that I'm gonna fall, hitting the floor hard.

    Her eyebrows furrow, the way they always do when she can tell there's something wrong with me

    "Honey, what's wrong?" She expands her arms, ready to hug me. To console me.

    "Mom," I say one more time before running to her, to her embrace.

    I wrap my arms around her just to find that I'm hugging thin air. She isn't here. There's no chocolate cake. Nor will ther ever be again. My mom won't set foot in this kitchen again. Or in this house, or anywhere.

    Everything I'd been holding in spills out. I gasp as I collapse onto the floor. All of those tears that couldn't be cried, the cries that couldn't be screamed; everything is coming out.

    I fell, and now I lie shattered in pieces.

    WHY?!