How do we get back
To a time when it was so easy?
Cause I need you and you need me
Oh, what happened to that?
~~~~~~

"There's no way." Clara denied the doctor's news, shaking her head to emphasize her emotions. Although she should've seen this coming for months now, the brunette refused to accept this new information.

That new information being that her mother was quite literally on her death bed, as her Parkinson's Disease took what little life she had left.

"I'm so sorry, but there's just nothing we can do. We've tried everything but your mother's Parkinson's is just too severe." Said the doctor. He hated having to break the news to families that their loved ones were near death, or already dead. It broke him to see such sadness on a person's face. Almost as much as it broke the person to hear such soul crushing news.

Clara's father, John, put a consoling hand on his daughter's shoulder as her body began to shake with horror. Her mother, who's name was Mary, had been the lantern of her life; guiding her through every dark path and enlightening her with wisdom and experiences. She couldn't accept the fact that her mother only had 3 more weeks to live, as the disease would take the rest of her life away. Mary's illness was already so severe that she could no longer speak, and had been wheelchair-bound for the 4 previous months as her legs could no longer function. Even now, she had grown so weak she could barely even swallow her own food or reach out for a glass of water.

"There has to be something you can do!" Clara begged. She refused to accept the reality of the situation. "There's no way that she's going to die. Not as long as I'm here."

"Clara," her father interrupted "it's ok. You have to let her go. I'm just as heart broken as you are, but her time has co—"

"No!" She rejected his soothing words crudely. "She's not even an elder! She's 53 years old, dad! 50 fucking 3!"

None of it made sense to the poor girl. Her mother seemed too young to have developed a sickness as severe as Parkinson's Disease. She couldn't imagine her life without the lantern that guided her through so much. Clara herself was only 15, she still needed her mother. Why would the universe take such an important part of her life away from her? What had she done to deserve this? What had her mother done to deserve this?

It just didn't make sense.

*****•*****

John stood with his daughter beside his wife's hospital bed. Clara had taken the only seat in the room, and was stroking her mother's hand with her thumb. Both family members looked down at the ill women with solemn expressions. It had been almost 3 weeks since they've heard the news. The young girl had since let the information sick in, but it all still seemed so surreal to her. She hadn't quite yet accepted Mary's upcoming death, but she understood the reality of it. The poor girl still wished everyday that the burdens of disease and heartbreak were none existent to her family. They had done nothing wrong; they didn't deserve this. Perhaps it just goes to show that the worst things always happen to the best people.

The heavy silence was interrupted by Clara's father clearing his throat.
"I'm gonna go down to the cafeteria to get coffee and a muffin, do you want anything?" He offered.

Clara shook her head, declining his offer. John sighed but accepted none the less. The reason he had even asked wasn't simply just to be polite, but was also because he was worried as his daughter hadn't been eating much those past weeks. As the middle-aged man left the room, Clara let out a sigh similar to how her father just had. She continued to stare at her mother's sleeping face, still stroking her hand with her thumb. The brunette had been sitting there for so long that even the droning chant of the heart monitor had become part of the white noise the rest of the room provided.

It blended in so well with the atmosphere that any disruption to the on-going monotonous beeping would catch Clara's attention. Suddenly, such disturbance had begun. However it started off slowly; the beeping noise of the monitor becoming progressively faster until it had reached full speed. Clara wasn't an idiot; she knew what the vast pace meant. But she was stuck in her place. She could not move as the first tears finally began to fall down her red cheeks. Alas, her body broke from its semi-paralysis as she shook with each sob. She did not dare look at the cursed monitor, all she could do was stare at her mother's soon-to-be lifeless face. As more and more tears pooled in her mud brown eyes, the noise had finally stopped into a dragged out flatline. That was it, that was the sign it of her mother's official end, and she began gasping for air as more sobs and cries wracked through her body.

Slowly, she looked over to the door where her father stood. His face was overtaken with a look of immense grief and sadness, and his lips quivered as he tried not to cry. With his coffee and muffin now forgotten as he dropped them from his hands, he ran to his daughter's side. With his arms wrapped tightly around Clara's shoulder, John let the first silent sob escape his body, until both father and daughter were crying with grief over the death of the woman who had once given them life.

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Hola muy amigos. As you've probably already noticed, I've started a new horror/thriller story called What Was in the Water. Now, I will warn you now, although it so far just seems really sad and not terrifying at all, it will progressively grow more gruesome and be quite graphic. So if you are triggered by the mentions of excessive amounts of blood, the mentioning of demons, mentions of psychosis, self-harm, violence, blah blah blah, other potentially scary stuff, then maybe you shouldn't read this story.

But let's just hope you're not triggered by that and you keep reading 'cause well... I like it when people read my shit.

Anyways, I think I just sort of wanna put up a sorta/kinda PSA here. So, one of the reasons I started writing this story wasn't just to give readers goosebumps or some adrenaline. Although that is my intention, I also intend to do some other thing. That thing being that I want to bring attention and awareness to some of the lesser known mental illnesses that deserve just as much attention. Such mental illnesses include depersonalization/derealization disorder. If you were to ask me to describe this mental illness, it's sort of like having an out of body experience, just it's very severe and not fun or "cool" at all. It's sort of like believing that your body does not belong to you and is in fact someone else's.

Another mental illness I'd like to bring awareness to with this book would be BPD, also known as Borderline Personality Disorder. Although this illness is more recognized than some, it's still not getting the right amount of attention it deserves.

I could go on and on about this stuff but I've already written 250 words of ramble... So I'll just go now

Song lyrics at the beginning of the chapter are from Left Alone by Sleeping With Sirens