A/N: A One-shot for the Caesar's Palace Monthly One-Shot Challenge. Prompt: Innocence.
Little Interruptions
A flash of dark hair. The young girl runs, teetering down invisible tightropes between the endless rows of gold. Bright, grey eyes sparkle from behind a wall.
She's alone, but she's not lonely. She was never lonely.
Until now.
Now, curled up in a shadow-filled tunnel, she wishes for her old games of hide and seek; her mother's stories, so enchanting she still believes them now; the double bed and a sweet voice – "Don't worry, Bright-Eyes, the lights are always on."
Cloudy eyes follow bobbing rows of fireflies, lighting up the night sky. Her apple-red lips part to reveal pearly white milk teeth. Locks of chocolate hair fly out around her head like a halo as she spins. Round and round, round and round, only stopping when she falls over, giggling mischievously.
She loves the way the world spins, tipping the world on its head and back.
Oh, if only it would go back.
No chains of fireflies illuminate her eyes any more, and she can't make her hair appear to be a halo.
Pearly white teeth dig into the skin around her lips like her feet did on the path that brought her down here. They are no longer apple-red; they are blood red.
A clatter stops her endless nibbling, making her glance up.
Something sharp glints above her. Grey eyes narrow.
"What is it, my Bright-Eyes?" Bitter tears brim over short eyelashes. "Darling, flames don't last forever; they all turn to embers at some point."
A shiver rips through her. Even those embers would help her now.
The sound rings out again. She wraps her arms around herself, closes her eyes and hopes for the very best...
The mother watches through a crack between her fingers as the monsters come.
As they come and go, leaving her Bright-Eyes shattered on the floor.
A scream of pure torment reverberates around the room. A scream that no-one hears but the woman who made it. The woman who now kneels on the icy floor, shaking and pouring her troubles into a puddle of salt water on the ground.
"Mama, why is the moon on the ground? Shouldn't it be up in the air?"
She never saw the moon that last time.
Oh, my Bright-Eyes…
"Look, Mama! Lights!" The fireflies weave through the air, making her eyes dazzle. Rows of gold reflect the glow, like ranks of stars in the sky.
Trapped in a hole. Trapped with those monsters. Trapped forever.
Come back to me…
"Mama?" Wide eyes gaze up, filled with curiosity. "Why is this family-?"
Torn apart. Shattered into fragments of themselvesherselfafamily.
Don't leave me by myself…
A gasp. "Where did all my maize go? Mama!" Those cloudy eyes brim with tears. "But I don't want embers, Mama, I want my fun!"
I want never gets. But she doesn't want her daughter, she needs her. The house is so hollow without her.
I can't live without you…
"Mama, I hate it! I want to play all day and they won't let me!" Her pearly teeth dig into her red lips in an act of defiance.
I never said goodbye… Never told you I love you more than anything…
Oh, Bright-Eyes…
You're still an innocent.