the witch finally seizes me and clamps a hand tightly over my mouth, it’s Mom who screams and runs towards me. She cuts through the crowd like a hot knife through butter, only this time the butter is wearing pink frills.
I see it in her face that she regrets her decision 16 years ago, and that she would give anything to have me back. Real tears stream down her face. I have never seen her genuinely love me for me, and not for my future.
That’s when I realize how much I’m going to miss her too.
She grabs my shoulders and pulls me, trying to wrench me out of the woman’s grasp. I shriek in agony. My left arm hangs limply by my side, and my shoulder sags below it’s socket. Pain like nothing that I have ever felt before rages mercilessly through me as Mom continues to put all of her weight onto me.
And then she’s gone.