The forsaken girl slumped on the cold brick wall that ended the tiny alley. Her hands were numb and her feet blue with cold, having been walking barefoot in the New Year Eve's snow. Her face was pale with chillness, exhausted and hungry.
In her hand was a bundle of matches.
She was thirteen and was trying to get a living out of what she had for winter. She took the gamble of giving her few silver pieces for matches she thought she could sell. She heard her stomach growl, and she winced in pain. She hasn't eaten for days, and it was the peak of a terrible blizzard.
The snow's cold bit at the edges of her fingers and toes, frostbite threatening to become.
I need to be warm, her mind thought out, because she couldn't tell it out in words. She rubbed her hands on her forearms, seeking for heat her tiny body needed.
The bundle of matches fell from her hand, and lay scattered on the ground.
"Fire."
She took a match and gingerly rubbed it onto the wall, and out came fire. It was warm, and she felt like she was standing before a glowing fireplace.
As quickly as it came, the flame faded away.
She lit another, and another, and another. The warmth was addicting after days of cold and bitter emptiness. It felt happy, pure, and dancing even.
When she lit the fourth match, she looked up and saw bright streaks of light crashing from the sky above. From the shadows and illusions the lights caused, she thought she could see an image of her family, eyes red, reflecting the flames, with arms stretched out to her. They were just like when she remembered…
"No," she said, finally managing to ignore what the cold as doing to her disturbed mind. She had none to return to anyway, so why bother? She blew on the match, killing the spark that lit it. "I won't come yet, I won't come back home yet. I still have to fulfill…"
Then she stood up, continued her plow of match selling, hunger and cold forgotten.
A/N: Have you figured it out? It's KURAPICA. Haha.
I was reading this children's story version of LITTLE MATCH GIRL [yes i'm soo pathetic i know] and then I was thinking, "awww.."
So, with candles by the table (there was a storm and the electricity was shut off) I wrote this on a notebook. Bam. So it's really amateur.
So, like I said, it did end up Genderbender-ish and one-shot-shortish...
But I like how it is :)