Death of An Innocent Soul
In the middle of the night the cry of a child could be heard, couldn’t be any older than seven years old.
“Mommy stop! It hurts! I’m sorry!!” She cried in a panicked voice. The mother took no heed to the child’s plees and continued hitting her. Though, inside she was crying, she didn’t want to hurt her child; she didn’t want her daughter to fear her. The mother was around twenty seven years old and she was a single mother with no support of her family. She had no idea of how to care for a child or to punish properly. Whenever she does this she thinks to herself, “If he hadn’t left, he could protect her; if he were here, she would be happy…” She stopped and her child ran to her room.
One would have thought to call the police on her for the child’s good but that call never happened, the neighbors just ignored the cries, the screams and the yelling. They simply did not want to get involved. The little girl had bruises all over her that night and she could not go to sleep as she was too scared that she would get hurt again. Her name was Amethyst. All she knew was the terror of home, so she liked school she never wanted to go home. As would any child that went through that every day.
“Get the hell out of bed!” That was the first sound in the morning. Little Amethyst who had bright blonde hair, blue eyes that were rather dim; her hair shoulder length and pale skin. Knew to get up, if she did not she would get beaten for not doing as she was told the first time. She knew that mom never said anything twice, she did it the first time or she got beaten. “Amethyst! Don’t make me come in there!” The mother yelled. Amethyst walked out of her room all dressed. She wore torn blue jeans and a blue shirt with a kitten on it and sneakers. “Good..now get going to school.” The little girl nodded and grabbed her bag and started to walk to school.
As she arrived people stared at her, wondering what happened to her. Some laughed at her choice for clothes. Teachers looked at her concerned. She went to class and sat in her desk waiting to start doing her school work. While handing out homework, her teacher caught eye of all of her bruises. She had a sad look on her face when she passed her. The bell rang and she dismissed everyone.
“Amethyst, can I talk with you for a minute?” The teacher asked. Amethyst nodded and waited until everyone was out of the class. “Is everything ok? You keep getting more and more bruises everyday, I am worried. If you have anything to talk about, I am here to listen. I want to help you..” She told her. Amethyst shook her head and gave the fake smile.
“ I’m fine…I’m just clumbsy…I trip a lot” She told her teacher looking away. She didn’t want her mom to get in trouble and she didn’t want her mother to be all alone. The teacher nodded and let her go to lunch. Amethyst sighs and sits at a table all alone with the lunch that she made herself. She looks at all of the kids who have friends and she feels like crying. “ I couldn’t trust them with my secret anyway” she muttered to herself.
As lunch ended, they all made their way back to the class room and she sits in the same seat that she always sits in, away from all of the other kids. She felt that she couldn’t trust anyone; so, she always stayed by herself, away from everyone else. She looks outside and thinks that she sees a little boy but doesn’t say anything and just watches him. He smiles at her and stays by her window for the rest of the class. She smiles slightly and goes back to doing her work. At break, she runs outside to meet with the boy.
He had sandy hair, green eyes, freckles; blue jeans, a white shirt and pale skin. He invited her to sit on a bench next to him. She accepts the invitation and sits next to him.
“What’s your name?” She asks him. He smiles at her slightly and then he holds out his hand, “ I am Justin” He said to her. She smiles and shakes his hand and sees that his hand goes through her’s.
“Are you…dead?” She asks him. She looks shocked and a little scared at the same time.
‘Yes….yes, I am” Justin said sadly. “ I want to be here with you though; you and I are a lot alike and you know what I mean as it is your secret,” he tells her sadly. Amethyst looks at him with a sad smile. “Yeah, then I do know…I don’t want to go home.” She tells Justin scared.
“You should tell someone, Amethyst; they may be able to save your life…they are here to help, don’t ignore that.” He tells her sadly. She shakes her head. The bell rings and she goes back to class. Justin watches her sadly and he knows that there would not be a good ending to this. Amethyst sits in class and thinks about what he said. She wanted to tell but she was too scared because she knew that her mother would hurt her more than ever if she learned that she told a teacher. Her teacher didn’t get after her for thinking, she smiled sadly and let her sit there and think.
At the end of class, she went outside and Justin was there waiting for her. “Justin? What are you doing here?” She asked a bit surprised. He laughed slightly. “I am going to walk you home of course,” He said with a broad smile. She smiled shyly. She didn’t think that he would do anything like that. They walked to her house together. Her mother was sitting on the porch wearing a nice blue dress, smoking a cigaretter and drinking beer. She looked at her daughter and gave a small smile. “Welcome home, now go put your things away and you better do your homework . I want it done by dinner or you don’t get dinner.” Her mother told her. Amethyst nodded and went inside. Justin sighed and went with her in the house.
Five O’clock rolled around and she hadn’t finished her homework, she was frightened and started rushing to finish it before her mother walked into her room. “I won’t finish it in time…it’s hard…and she won’t help me…” She starts to cry. Her mother walks in with a large paddle. Amethyst looks at her in fear. “You didn’t finish did you? If you had finished, you wouldn’t be crying like a weakling…get over here now!” her mother yelled. Justin looked alarmed. He told her to run and she did but her mother caught her and started hitting her without mercy. Amethyst cried in pain.
“I’m sorry mommy; I will finish the homework. It is hard..” her mother ignored her and continued to beat her with the paddle. Justin gasped and covered his eyes and he started to cry. The neighbors turned their lights out as if they were not there.
“Why won’t you help her?!” He called out to the neighbors though he knows that he would not be heard. There was nothing that he could do and he knew it. He looked down at the ground and tears just came non-stop. When her mother stopped she noticed that Amethyst no longer was moving or crying. She dropped her child and started to shriek and cry. The light of the neighbors flicked on. They shook their heads, and moments too late, they called the police and the ambulence.
When the police arrived they saw her on the ground, and shook their head. Some of the officers muttered, “Poor child” , where others didn’t say a thing. Her body is put on a board and a white blanket is placed over her body. Two officers take her out of the house. The mother is taken into custody for child abuse. Though, the mother is crying; she knows that it is what she deserves. She didn’t want to lose her daughter but because of her, Amethyst is dead.
The spirit of the little girl stands in her house and she looks at Justin who is crying. Amethyst goes over to him and hugs him. He hugs her back and he apologizes over and over again for not being able to protect her.
“Don’t blame yourself, Justin. Nothing could really be done since she was with me alone. Somewhere, I knew that I wouldn’t live to be ten. Guess I was right. Thank you though, you were my only friend…” Amethyst told him. He smiled at her and he hugs her back.
“How could I not be your friend? You were going through something that I went through myself. Let’s be friends for eternity then. Maybe we can find all kids that go through what we did and guide them to the afterlife and we can all be friends…we can only hope that some of them survive..”Justin says sadly. She shakes her head.
“Why stay and have to watch things that we went through over and over again? There is nothing that we can do for them..let’s just go…” Amethyst told him. He nodded and agreed with her and they left the house behind. She looked down as they floated to the clouds away from the cruel world.