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Raven was 88 years old the day it happened, she had just come of age after all it was her birthday! She had just woken up on her big day, running down the stairs nearly faceplanting but catching herself as she barrels into her mom, Vorless Akolight,
“Mama! It's my birthday!! Is papa gonna be home?” her mother sighs, her father, Tebryn Akolight, was a workaholic but it was for good reason they could barely afford the home they lived in. Raven's two older sisters, Lydryl and Drasra mainly focused on school and her brother Tarnet helped her father with making an income. Most nights her dad and brother would come home exhausted and go straight to bed but Raven hopes that her dad will come home early today. But now it was just Raven and her parents, her older siblings had passed away due to the wilting a few months back. And Vorless looks at Raven
“Sweetheart you know that might not happen…you know papa has to work.” Raven's shoulders drop with defeat, she knows she's not getting gifts, after all they are poor and can barely afford to have her siblings buried in a proper graveyard. Raven looks up her mother
“But.. It can be my gift! I know we don’t have-” her mother cuts her off sharply
“Rav. Quit it. You know they have to work. Now hush, I have to take this call.” her mother walks off, screaming into the phone at someone, leaving Raven alone in the living room. But like what kids do she plays. Raven goes to play with her old hand-me-down toys that live in her little toy chest, her favorite toy being this old stuffed rabbit Drasra gave her just days before she passed. She hums to herself as she plays with the rabbit she's named Bubbles, it's an old white stuffed rabbit that's ear is slightly torn and it's dirty but she loves it anyway. Time passes by quickly and Raven eventually starts to tear up, she knows her parents won't celebrate her birthday. Raven gets up, grabs a hoodie and shrugs it on, it's huge on her, after all it was Tarnet’s hoodie. Raven grabs a small bag and sneaks out the front door past her mom and starts to make her way to the graveyard to visit her siblings, as she walks she stops by a flower shop and buys some Bluebells with the last of her piggy bank money to set on her siblings graves. The shopkeeper looks directly at Raven, his eyes looking pitiful towards the young elf.
“You buying this for someone?” he asks kindly, counting out the money and despite Raven being short money he doesn't say a word. And Raven looks away slightly,
“Yeah.. for my siblings… they passed away…” The shopkeeper freezes and goes to grab a flower holder.
“How many siblings did you have?” he asks from the back of the shop.
“I had three older siblings, two sisters, one brother” she says solemnly “I miss them alot…” she quickly looks embarrassed that she's ranting about her dead siblings, the shopkeeper comes back with three flower holders and some extra flowers mixed in with the Bluebells, now there's Chrysanthemums, Hyacinths, and some Snowdrops mixed in. Little did Raven know, those flowers would have so much meaning to her later on in life, but for now she takes them gratefully and distributes the flowers evenly to the three flower holders.
“Thank you…” she mumbles and starts to walk out to go to the graveyard in which her siblings will lie there forever never to move again. As Raven approaches the graveyard, the flower holders in hand, she starts to cry, she misses her siblings and the family she used to have when it was full. She walks around sniffling and she finally finds her siblings' graves, all laid side by side as if they couldn't be separated even in death. She sits down in front of the graves, placing the flower holders into the ground and setting the flowers in each of the holders.
“Hi Lydryl, Hi Drasra, Hi Tarnet.. I miss you all.. Papa still works all the time and he's barely even home.. And mama.. She's trying her best but she still can't get a job… I'm scared.. W-what if I get infected..” she starts to cry once more as she keeps talking
“W-what i-if mama and papa g-get infected?! I-ill be all alone- why did you all have to leave me alone!? “ She hits her hand against each headstone, her knuckles splitting open, blood dribbling down her wrist as it finally drips onto the pristine white headstones, tainting it with the guilt of surviving. Around 11pm Raven finally starts to head home, to her mama and papa. As she opens the door, she freezes, they are both home? Maybe they actually wanted to surprise her for her birthday! She quickly drops her bag down and rushes over before realizing they look pale..like they are infected with the wilting. Raven staggers backwards
“M-mama? P-papa?” she whimpers out of fear and they both look at her, their eyes hazy and sickly. She quickly runs into the kitchen and grabs her Papas switchblade which sits in a drawer. She slowly walks back out into the living room, the blade drawn and glinting in the light as she slowly creeps over to her parents.
“I-im sorry M-mama, I-im sorry P-papa!” she whispers as she raises the blade, digging it straight into her mothers chest, blood splatters onto Raven's face as she pulls the blade out letting her mother fall onto the ground, her body twitching as life leaves her body, blood pooling around her chest and seeping into the floor. Raven turns to her father
“P-papa s-say hi to everyone for me okay? I-I love you all” she says as she raises the blade once more and brings it down into his chest. He collapses next to his wife, the knife still in his chest, he takes a final breath of air before his eyes fully glaze over. Raven stares at the two dead people in front of her as her knees give out, she falls onto her knees in the blood and she cries.
“I'm sorry! Please forgive me mama and papa..” she wails into the air, but not a single sound responds back to her.
What an amazing birthday gift!