Work Text:
The cabinet doors swung open and the little girl climbed out of her hiding place. The footsteps had stopped a few minutes ago. She hoped they were gone. She creeped towards her mom’s room, only to silence a shriek at the corpse. Her mother had a kitchen knife wedged in her arm and chest, and was dripping blood. Her mother’s gasping breaths heightened with the sight of her daughter, but it then slowed until her body went limp as the blood loss took her life. The girl’s cheeks were wet with silent tears, but the thumping boots going down the stairs stopped her mournful cry. She darted away and ran out the gaping front door. The man did not appear to hear her, but suddenly the smell of burning drywall pierced the air. She turned in surprise, and tears came to her eyes as she saw smoke rising from the open windows of her childhood home. But she knew she had to get away, so she ran away. Away from death, the pain, the blood. Her mother was dead. And she would be burned to ash, taking away what little life could be left in her.
The mother awoke to fire all around her, but she wasn’t hot. In fact she couldn’t smell the smoke either. She felt eerily calm, not normal in this situation. She peered around, looking for a way out. But there wasn’t one. She put her hand into a burning part of the wall to test something. She couldn’t feel it and her hand went through it. Why can’t she feel anything? She heard a loud thumping sound from something falling, the roof collapsed on her. She screamed, expecting to black out. But when the dust cleared she was still standing, her legs simply were phasing through the rubble. She started to try to climb out, but then she started floating slightly above the rubbage towards a clearing. Panicking, she fell into some parts of the roof a few feet before she reached it. She felt so strange, her brain felt foggy, and she wasn’t acting like the normal mature her. “Abby. Crap Abby!!” She zoomed around, panicking as she didn’t see her daughter near here. Suddenly she remembered a place her daughter loved to go, that treehouse in the forest. The one he had built. Just by thinking about it, her vision suddenly blurred, and when she could see again she saw a memory from a few years ago. She was handing a hammer and four nails in the palm of her hand to him. She looked up and laughed at the silly face he was making. She looked up at the half built treehouse, It was beautiful, like him before.. Before… Question marks flashed around the treehouse and she looked back in confusion, blood on his face. A wide grin. He started running away, She shook herself back to reality. A small sniffle arose from the treehouse, and she climbed the ladder. She figured out that she can touch things at will, which means she can move certain things, but still cannot touch living beings.
“They won’t find me here. Please don’t find me here. Mommy’s gone..” She was whimpering. Her stomach grumbled and she started rocking back and forth, clutching it. “Hungryyy…”
Looking at her daughter, the mother looked around and saw a small granola bar. She brought it into Abby’s view, getting as close as she could to her.
A large gust of wind knocked down a granola bar from a nearby shelf. The little girl picked it up quickly.