Prologue
As the sky darkened and the storm clouds brewed over, the cracks of thunder echoed through the still night. Soon after, rain started pouring down, each drop growing louder and louder as the rain intensified.
It pounded against the windows of the public hospital that served the small, secluded town of Cypress Grove. The heavy patter of raindrops drummed in the ears of five-year-old Lucy as she sat beside her father in a dimly lit hospital room.
The steady beep of the heart monitor, located beside the hospital bed broke the mournful silence. There, Lucy’s mother lay unmoving, her face pale, eyes closed, struggling for each breath. Her frail body rose and fell shallowly with each labored breath she took; her facial bones protruded visibly, much like the bones of the rest of her body.
Lucy reached out and gently touched her mother’s thin, feeble fingers as tears welled up in her eyes. She didn’t fully comprehend the magnitude of what was happening, but she could feel the sadness in the room.
“Mommy, please don’t go,” she whispered, her voice tiny and trembling. She couldn’t tell exactly where her mother was going, but she knew it was someplace far, far away, and that she would never be coming back. Lucy feared that she was going to miss her too much.
Her mother was deeply adored by both Lucy and her father, for her gentle nature and the unwavering love, care, and support she gave them, even in the days of her extreme sickness.
Suddenly, the door handle twisted open, and the doctor stepped into the room with a somber expression on his face. His gaze locked onto Lucy’s father’s as he approached them, his eyes heavy with the weight of the news he was about to deliver.
“I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but we’ve done everything we can. Your wife’s condition isn’t improving. Her illness is incredibly stubborn, and her body is unresponsive to every treatment we’ve administered.” The doctor spoke to Lucy’s father, whose words landed on him like a ton of bricks. He refused to leave the hospital, clinging to the faint hope that she would get better, like a lifeline. The doctor sighed as he exited the room, shutting the door quietly behind him.
Silence dominated once again, except for the regular beeping of the heart monitor. Lucy glanced at her father, seeing the fatigue evident on his face and the hopelessness in his eyes, despite his earlier resolve to remain hopeful about her recovery. She then realized they were losing her, and there was nothing they could do.
As the night wore on, the beeping began to slow. Each pause between the sounds felt like an eternity, filled with fear and worry. Both of their hearts raced while their eyes flickered back and forth between the monitor and the person in the bed.
Before long, the inevitable came to pass. The monitor’s steady beep faltered, giving way to a long, piercing tone that resonated across the room, signaling that the end had come. Lucy felt like she was in a haze, everything that happened afterward was a blur for the poor girl. Her father broke into tears and quickly left the room, unable to bear it any longer. The nurses rushed in upon hearing the prolonged beep. To Lucy, it felt like she was witnessing all of it from a distance, as if she was lucid dreaming.
After all the chaos had quieted down, Lucy found herself alone in the middle of an empty hospital corridor. There was no one there but herself. She had no one to mourn with, no one to cry in their arms as they held her and offered her comfort. Lucy covered her eyes with her palms as she cried her heart out; tears streamed down her face, their salty taste felt on her lips.
Gasping between her sobs, she lost track of how long she had been crying. She paused briefly, only to sense a presence nearby in the silent corridor. Lucy looked around, but no one was there. Gradually, that eerie sensation of the presence faded, and the feeling of being watched vanished.
She sighed and was about to start crying again when something strange caught her eyes. Right beside her foot lay quite a familiar stuffed animal. It was a worn-out brown teddy bear that she thought she had lost months ago. This teddy bear meant a lot to her since she got it as a gift from her mother before she fell ill. Lucy thought she would never see it again, and finding it now seemed to lighten her heart a little.
There was no way it got there by itself, and she was certain the corridor was empty when she entered. Confused, she went to pick it up, only to find that it had the same missing eye on one side, leaving a small hollow spot where it used to be. She also noticed the same little tear on its head, which revealed a bit of the stuffing–exactly how she remembered it.
She had no doubt it was hers, but how did it end up back in her hands? A lot of questions waiting to be answered,
What awaits her as she grows up a little? What’s going to happen when she’s finally an adult? Is she ever going to get the answers she desperately seeks?
