All Buffy characters were created by Joss Whedon. Not me.
Written for Open on Sunday LJ community's challenge #72, Patterns.
Memories
by Zzilly14
The next thing she takes out is a picture of her in a play when she was in kindergarten, maybe first grade. She had been a flying monkey in "The Wizard of Oz," and remembers vividly the horror of tripping on her own feet. She had decided to never watch that movie again.
...She finds a piece of unfinished cross-stitch. Her mother had taught her how to follow the pattern and make little X's on the cloth, finishing one color before starting the next. The design is of two bears – a mother bear cradling her baby. The words surrounding the picture say, "Mothers are Beary Special!"
She was going to give it to Mom as a birthday present, but it had been forgotten. She sighs heavily, wishing she could turn back the clock and finish it before her death. She stares at it sadly before deciding to leave it incomplete in the box.
...
Her hands grasp an old family photo. She traces her fingers along the pattern of each face, wondering why things had to change.
Her parents had gotten divorced, putting Dad out of the picture. But the past year was the toughest for her. Mom died, so now she had no parents. And just recently, Buffy...
She is the only Summers left. But then again, she's not. All the memories she has were created to protect her. She's the Key, a green ball of energy.
There is no Summers family, not anymore. She angrily pushes the box back under the bed.