7: Nightmares

Chapter seven of Remember Innocence.

7: Nightmares

      Noah couldn't sleep. Her feet kicked at the legs of the bed; her red hair was tousled; her covers were half-off of the mattress; she was overly drowsy from perhaps too many sleeping pills, but she still couldn't sleep.
      Maybe if I imagine a happy time, I can fall asleep. Noah thought, collapsing onto her mattress. But... I can't really remember a completely happy time. I can't think of anything happy that really stood out...
        As she laid there in the milky moonlight pouring in from her window, her breathing slow and sleepy, she closed her eyes and thought. The only thing she could hear was the muffled sound of a few cars driving past her house in the dead of night. A few faint images crept into her mind. They appeared in front of her closed eyes like a silent ghost, the memory there, but no sound to go along with it. She hoped it would be a happy memory as she slowly drifted into sleep. But unfortunately, it wasn't.
       
        A woman stumbled clumsily into the kitchen, causing a ruckus of falling dishes. One of the china pieces landed on the linoleum floor and shattered into thousands of shards; a little redheaded girl held up her arms to her face as a few tiny glass pieces flew into her skin. The woman's hazel eyes were glazed and her hair was filled with knots and nastily tangled in a frenzy of dirty blonde strands. She muttered something in a slurred tone and tried to grab something off of the counter.
        "Mommy," the little girl said, "are you sick?"
        "No," the woman replied with a drunken giggle.
        "You dropped the plate, Mommy. You might get hurt."
        "Then clean this up," the woman demanded, stumbling closer to the girl.
        "I don't know how to pick it up without cutting myself," she said.
        The woman giggled again and grabbed a kitchen knife off of the counter. She held it up with a drunken smile on her face and pointed it at the little girl.
        "If you don't get it done now, I'll cut you worse," she laughed. The little girl, not knowing what else to do, go to her knees and carefully began picking up the glass with her soft, tiny fingers. They were cut and bled all over the floor as hot tears ran down her cheeks.
        "You're getting blood all over my floor!" the woman screamed angrily. She grabbed the little girl's shirt collar and yanked her up off of the floor.
        "You can do this later. Go clean up the blood from your hands," she said, shoving her daughter towards the bathroom. As the girl walked to the sink, her mother grabbed something out of her back pocket and examined it. It was a little silver pocket watch whose numbers were drawn in by the little girl. It looked new and shiny.
        "Mommy," the little girl cried, "give that back!"
        "No," her mother replied. "You can forget about this. You can't even write the numbers!"
        "But daddy gave me that before he went away," the little girl wept.
        "Exactly. Now go clean the blood up!"
        As the little girl ran to the bathroom, tears clouding her vision, her mother threw the watch down on the ground into the pools of blood. The glass became cracked as it collided with the linoleum. The woman stormed out the front door and left the house.
        When the little girl came out of the bathroom, she knelt down and picked up her beloved keepsake. The glass was now a golden color from the blood that had soaked in, and it now ticked a bit faster from beings smashed. She held it to her heart and cried. It was the last memory of her father, and she would keep it forever.

        Noah's eyes shot open as her heart was racing. She had cold sweat running down her forehead. She lifted her hands over her face and examined the skin; there was still all of the cut marks from that broken plate on her hands.
        She rummaged in her pocket and was relieved when she felt the cold metal of her pocket watch against her fingertips. Noah always knew what horrible memories the keepsake held, but now it carried new, memorable ones, too.

Author's Note

Another short one. Please don't tell me I should write longer chapters lol, I don't really want to hear it right now.
Please point out any mistakes, spelling errors, and grammatical errors. I'd like to hear any suggestions or opinions, give me your complete honesty.
CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM ONLY! I don't want to be slammed or flamed by someone who doesn't know what they're talking about, please. <3
I hope you enjoyed this chapter! ;D

Reviews

[_thesovo]

Lol, i really like this one. xD KEEP IT UP, TWAS A GOOD STORY. lol.

[Keevan]

I don't understand how in the dream, or memory, the glass was cracked, but you only mentioned that now. And, how did the glass turn gold from blood? I don't really think it adds. up. But I'm emjoying this story. Keep it up!