Prologue
“I’m shattered into a million pieces, but I will make it”
In a distant city, the haunting cry of a child can be heard, muffled by the pillow that she holds. Her tears soaking into it and her heart aching with pain. She felt as though her entire world had shattered and could never be repaired again. Shaking with bone shattering sobs, she couldn’t even voice the cause of her misery. Any child or adult that saw her could not help but want to help her but had no clue what they could possibly do to make it better.
Outside the door two people are talking, their voices hushed and considering.
“Poor child,” one of them says, “it must be terrible.”
“Yes, no child should ever have to go through this, it is worse than anything else could ever hope to be,” the second person replies.
Then they fall into silence, each considering and alone with all the crowded thoughts in their heads. They’d got the call but still couldn’t believe it, how could fate be so cruel? Their hearts broke for the child but with her every shuddering sob. Alas, there was nothing they could do. No one, no matter how powerful, could bring back those that were lost.
Just as it seemed that were ready to continue their conversation, they heard the sobs come to a halt. The little girl sat up and wiped her face with the back of her small hands. She looked up to meet the eyes of the concerned onlookers with a smile that was obviously forced, “it’s ok, you don’t need to worry about me, I’ll be fine” she says in a soft voice.
It felt like she was trying to convince herself of the words, forcing them to be true, like she needed to hear them more than anyone. No one believed her, but they couldn’t think of anything to say, it was none of their business. Slowly, they hesitantly walked away, trying to think of a way that they could help, but there was none.
Once the children scattered, the two at the door kept watching, they couldn’t walk away just yet. Couldn’t leave a little girl to be all alone when she was obviously in pain. What they didn’t expect was for her to walk right up to them and ask where she could find some food.
“You don’t need to worry about me. I promise” she said before walking towards the direction that they had pointed towards. Her steps seemed to be uneven, like it took all her strength not to just break down right then.
“She’ll never get over it, you know”
“True.” They both let the impact of those words sink in, she would never be able to fully get over this, no one could. But, the way that her steps kept going forward even though her heart was broken told them that she was a whole lot tougher than she let on. The fact that she could still force a smile amidst the pain for the sake of others proved that even more.
“But in time, she’ll heal.”
