Last Day

• Pyper Frazer, Grade 8
• Short Story
• 2017

Her long red locks shift slightly if the feint breeze as she watches the sun set over the hills, her eyes as big and green as the meadow she now looks over. Oh how peaceful it all seemed, how so very pristine. She smiles then, so perfect is her smile, that is lights up her face the way a thousand diamonds would light up a dark cave. The red and orange light cast by the dying sun reflects pearly white skin and twinkling eyes. The dress she wears so perfectly matches her eyes one would think they were made of the same fine silk. Tiny feet come running towards her and she turns, her smile wider and even more beautiful. She scoops the small child up in her arms and twirls her around. The child laughs and begs for more, but there isn't enough time for more. She sets the child down on the ground and reaches behind her head to unclip the single silver chain from around her neck. The child reaches out to touch the golden amulet threaded onto the chain, tiny fingers tracing the engraving of a great tree, it's limbs reaching out as if to embrace the world, and the small blue diamond set into the heart to the tree. She fastens the chain around the child's neck where it will stay forever. The child looks at her wonderingly, small face so resembling her own.

"Be strong my child," she whispers, "be safe, Cynthia."

Then the wall behind her explodes in a burst of flames, she has only time to wrap her body around the child's before the world dissolves into blistering heat and the screams of the dead.