A little girl, just ten years old, stared down at her floor. She heard the fighting in the next room, just like every night. Sometimes her mom came out to tuck her into bed with bruises completely obvious, but the girl doesn't say anything.
But, not tonight. Her mom and dad stayed in the room. She heard the dull fuzz of the old T.V. Meaning her mommy had gone to sleep and her dad had stayed up to watch sports center.
The girl started counting the boards on her floor. 1.. 2.. 3.. 4.. she kept counting. Boards began joining together, creating a big platform. The girl looked up. The walls around her had floated away. The skies were a mix of lavender and orange.
She didn't know where she was, but she could no longer here the cries from her mother. She ventured onto the platform, her bed evaporating into a million bits, floating off like snow. She tip-toed across the platform that was once her bedroom floor.
She realized a little too late that the floor was floating in midair. She fell right over the edge.
The feeling of weightlessness was satisfying. She wish it would never end, staring up at the purple filled sky. She fell, and she fell, and she kept falling. She thought her dream was going to come true. Falling here forever sounded pretty good. She began thinking about her mother, and how if she was to stay here and fall forever, she would be leaving her mother all by herself. No one to comfort her. Suddenly the idea of falling was not so good anymore.
All the sudden she felt solid ground. The girl slowly stood up, her legs shaking and her chest aching. She felt plush grass under her feet. The grass was blue and the stream in front of her was green. She giggled at this thought, everything so mixed up.
The grass beneath her feet was cooling and so soft, almost like clouds. The girl looked the left, where she saw a bridge made of clouds. The bridge led to nowhere that was in eye distance, but that didn't bother the little girl.
The put her foot on the cloud, testing it. The cloud surprisingly withstood her small amount as she climbed onto the fluffy cloud.
Climbing onto each new cloud, one after the other became a bit boring after the fifty-sixth one. She didn't get tired though, no use of stopping now. She just wished she hadn't committed to such a long journey, not knowing what was ahead was scary. Especially enduring all this pain.
All the sudden, all the clouds into front of her disappeared and cloud number seventy-two carried her all the way to her destination.
This place was a pure white foundation. Nothing else. The sky was stark white and the land was so flat that she seemed to see for miles. No one or nothing was there, and she was lonely.
She thought for a second, and thought in her mind a picture of a cupcake. She was hungry after all. She opened her eyes and sure enough, a cupcake that looked perfect was sitting in the palm of her hand.
She picked up the cupcake and ate it. It tasted of vanilla and strawberry, her favorites.
She tried something a little bigger. She closed her eyes and opened them. Sure enough, in front of her was a bicycle. One more time, she closed her eyes. When she opened them a tall skyscraper stood before her. She painted it blue with her mind, and she started skipping. Putting a house here and a store there.
Before long things were coming out without her control. She had no idea she could have so many great ideas inside her mind. A rainbow zebra ran past her, whilst an astronaut talked to Michael Jackson, while both doing their own versions of the moon walk.
She turned back to look upon her creation and was pleased. She turned back around to continue her path of creation, but standing in her way was a house. This house was in fact her own house.
She was confused, why would she want to create her house. Upon further inspection, she realized it was her house from when she was much younger. She grabbed the spare key from under the big rock beside the door. Putting the key into the lock and turning it created a satisfying clank. She walked in and saw the living room clean and beautiful, before her parents started fighting.
Voices came through the hallway, she followed them, tip-toeing all the way. When she found the source of the voices, it was coming from her room. She peeked in the doorway. Her parents where holding her, kissing each other every few minutes. Her mother had the biggest smile she had ever seen, she hadn't seen that smile in a very long time.
Her father even seemed to be happy, laughing when the baby yawned or gurgled. They seemed so happy, the girl wondered how something so beautiful could turn into what it was today.
The parents talked for a few more minutes and finally put the baby back in the crib, kissing her goodnight many times before actually leaving. Her parents walked right past her, as if they couldn't see her.
The girl slipped into her old bedroom and crept over to the crib and stared down at herself. Her baby self awoke and gurgled and babbled, reaching up, trying to touch the girl. The girl asked herself if everything was her fault, if her becoming older was what turned her parents so unhappy.
She looked down at the baby with a mix of disgust and sadness. She imagined her bed right beside the crib, laying down she stared at the baby.
She began crying, she finally broke. She would sacrifice herself for her parents to be happy again. When her tears finally dried up, her baby self was staring at her.
The girl reached inside the crib and held the baby's hand as she fell asleep, forever leaving this fantasy land.