u/Jumpy_Ingenuity_5963

While sitting in the safest place here and waiting for her grandmother to come, Lucesta did not know why the sky was becoming even more muddy. Or why the snow, which should be white, was turning black for her. She was used to the snow being black. But she was not used to the sound of a car at the end of the street coming this close. Her grandmother would never get in a car. She was not used to those people standing in front of the door that opened with a noise; bald, massive, tattooed, and with their faces tied with scarves. She was not used to them approaching her silently with big steps either. That is why she screamed, that is why she was afraid. "Grandma!" she shouted. While looking for a place to escape with every foot approaching her, she could not do much. She was powerless, weak.

Lucesta realized this while being dragged in the snow. She realized it from the hands not moving while she was clawing at the huge arms with her fingernails. Battered she was, pushed she was. She was screaming loudly so her grandmother would hear. "Grandma!" she was shouting while struggling. But heard her voice, no one did. No one poked their head out saying "Where is the sound coming from?" In this land, a sin it was to help. Lucesta was waiting for her grandmother with her heart flapping like a bird, because her only assurance she was.

Suddenly fell silent, the surroundings. A strong wind blew. The shouts suddenly ceased, as if tongues cut. As if breath stolen... At the house window looked she; sounds replaced by widened eyes, an expression full of terror. A shadow had Lucesta seen; quickly looking and hiding. To the sound of a betrayal, ears closing... Her grandmother’s shadow, her grandmother’s escape. The hands dragging her, arm gripped and to the back of a car carried. Her body the car hit; it was hurting but pain, felt not Lucesta. Into something she had hit, maybe a human it was. A sound she had heard, faintly because. But Lucesta still at the same place was looking. Her eyes widened; inside, thousands of emotions: Denial, waiting.

The car slowly began to move; the wheel hitting the stone, shaking the car as it began to move away. It was shaking from one side to the other. Faces were moving away. But she was still looking. Still denying. Still waiting for her grandmother to come. But she did not come; neither a sound nor help.

​The car moved away, different views took its place; time changed, day mixed into night. Pale breaths came, laughs passed but Lucesta still frozen where she fell, was looking at the road. Still waiting. Foolish was Lucesta. She was waiting. How could she not wait? She was family, a warm hand. She, the only light in this darkness was. The light had turned off. The light had betrayed. It had stopped burning. But how could a human see in the darkness?