4 chapter 4: small body, big nightmares

Lizzy woke with a start, she was no longer in that suffocating box, but instead laying in a bed of white roses, she felt as light as a feather, and it seemed like the prickly thorns weren't there to pierce her, this was nostalgic for Lizzy.

Her mother's favorite flower was roses, because it was portrayed as a symbol of love, at first, Lizzy didn't get why, she didn't like the thorns it had, how could such a pretty flower have such prickly thorns.

It was her mother's 37th birthday and, Lizzy decided to go pick roses from the garden at the corner of her backyard. She was cautious in not getting pierced by the thorns sticking outwardly on the flowers, and still ended up prickling her hands, it made her shudder in pain. By the time she carried it back, her hands have been dyed crimson. And when she presented the flowers to her mother, she dropped the roses, cause it was too painful, but to show her blood ridden hands to her dearest mother on her birthday, she dropped to the floor, and her mother got off, and embraced her hands in remorse.

"w-w-why did you do such a thing, you poor thing!" Lizzy's mother exclaimed in concern, "i wanted to pick your favorite flowers, mommy!".

Back then she was also dealing with some trauma, her uncle Lei and aunt Riley had come to stay temporarily at their house because of their financial situation.

And it was apparent that Lizzy wasn't comfortable with them. They had abused her every chance they got to be alone with her. Lizzy was too scared to speak up about the truth to her parents, because her mother was fond of uncle and aunt, so she stayed quiet and smiled.

Lizzy had nightmares every night of the same ordeal, she would always appear on a bridge, admiring the scenery, as her uncle and aunt would appear and start to torment her, at first she was defiant, but later on she found herself believing in their lies, like her very own sacred religion. Lizzy would then start to stagger back, touching the rails that stood at the side of the bridge, as the shadows of her aunt and uncle start to morph into demons, and then the safety railings would disappear and she would fall into the abyss that stood under the bridge. She often woke to find herself hyperventilating and sweating. The worse part was that she couldn't wake up, like a movie she was forced to watch, she proceeded in these terrors.

By the time they left, Lizzy was already scarred to the extent where she was just like a rag doll with no emotions, but there was definitely scars left behind, mentally and physically. It was found out in later years, when she had healed up and had mustered the courage to speak up and put an end to her nightmares of demons with the shadow of her aunt and uncle.

Lizzy was a little girl, back then yet she had been tainted by those horrors.

She had a small body but big nightmares.