"The light is almost blinding me,
And yet I can see you.
But why can't I find my beloved?
The one I long to meet."
Ronnie Mitchell was curled up in a tight ball on her bed, desperately trying to block the sound of her own lung-bursting sobs. Her empty flat seemed so echoey and hollow and everytime she inhaled between her desperate cries, the noise bounced back against the walls and rang through her ears. She could hear every single intricate noise surrounding her... The tick of her bedroom alarm clock was as loud as a giant's footsteps, the drip of the stupid old tap in the kitchen seemed to resemble a waterfall and no matter how hard she tried to resist it, she could still hear Danielle's painful cries as she was hit by Janine Butcher's car, flooding through her head.
It had been exactly a year now since that horrific day... When she discovered that all important secret on her father's wedding day, about her beloved daughter whom she believed was already dead. Archie had told her that her daughter had died over ten years ago and yet here was this girl claiming that she was 'her Amy'. And Ronnie didn't believe her. How could she have been so cruel? Her poison words echoed in her head everytime she passed the spot where she had thrown Danielle out of the Vic. 'Who would want a daughter like you?'
And yet today, that was exactly the daughter she wanted. She wanted to hold her precious girl and tell her that she was the most beautiful person in the world, she wanted to jokingly say that her blonde hair was absolutely perfect and didn't need another going over with the GHD's. But most of all, she wanted to take her baby in her arms and whisper softly in her ear that no one else in the entire world could love her as much as her mother. But she couldn't now... It would never work like that. The only time that this would be possible would be the times when Ronnie drove all the way to Telford to stand in front of her daughter's gravestone and lay a bouquet of flowers, with small tears falling from her deep blue eyes.
'I love you, Danielle, my beautiful baby, my precious girl, my guardian angel.'
Ronnie slowly dragged her body into an upright position. She caught sight of her reflection in the mirror on the bedside cabinet. Her soft blonde hair was tousled and untidy, her cheeks were bright red from the tears and her eyes were bloodshot and sore. But as she looked at the picture of Danielle that was also on the table and looked back at herself, she couldn't ignore the similarities between the both of them. How could she have been so naïve and ignorant? How could she have failed to notice that her Amy had been living on the same street as her for over nine months? How could she have let any of this happen?
Now Ronnie could barely see in front of the wall of tears that had formed in her eyes and yet she could still make out the glinting image of an almost full Vodka bottle and packet of painkillers on her dressing table, just waiting to come in to contact with a lonely, damaged soul.....
