“It's dark. I'm cold. Where am I?”

Cynthia Matthews was on the verge of death. She laid, barely moving on the cold concrete, as blood slowly poured from her head. The Thirteen-year-old girl heard the faint sounds of ambulances in the distance while her consciousness faded. She heard a man call out to her, right before the darkness settled in.

“Everything will be okay. Stay with us.”

***

“So, you're finally awake, I see,” a voice said worriedly.

"Huh? Where am I?" Cindy asked.

The young half-elf had awakened inside a hospital room, one day after her mind went blank. Greeted by a young human nurse in her mid-twenties, the young girl's head was aching severely for some reason. As she slowly came to, Cindy tried to grab her aching head with her right arm, but she could not; it was no longer there. Calmly, but with rising panic, the young girl started to speak.

“My arm,” Cindy said, tightly gripping at what she had left of her severed limb. “Where is my arm?”

Raindrop sized tears started to well from the confused child. The lack of feeling from her missing limb gave way to a floodgate as she frantically searched for it.

“W-what happened to me? Where is my mother?”

The half-elf searched wildly about for her mother, her eyes quickly scanning the small room before falling on the nurse by her bedside. Cindy's mother was not there.

The young nurse looked at Cindy grimly, not knowing what to say. The silence in the air felt like an eternity for Cindy. Finally, the words that left the nurse's mouth rendered Cindy unconscious once more.

“Ms. Matthews… I'm sorry, but your mother is-”

The young girl, unable to comprehend the words told to her, felt her mind break. It was too much. Everything around her suddenly started to fade to black again, as she fell into a deep slumber once more.

Cindy finally regained consciousness after two more days had passed. Her mind was still hazy, but she remembered the young nurse's words, as they came pouring down like a storm on her head. She was hoping those words weren't true, as she laid flat on her back on the hard hospital bed. Surely, there must've been a mistake, Cindy thought. Cindy's mother could never die, according to her. She would never leave Cindy behind, all alone. After all, Abigail was the only family that Cindy had left.

“Mother... are you really gone?” the half-elf said, staring a hole through the ceiling. "It's not true... I refuse to believe it."

Cindy, all alone in her quiet hospital room, was too distraught to even move an inch of her body. She was hoping to wake up from her nightmare soon, and be greeted by her mother in her own bed. They would have breakfast and talk, then play games like they always did.

"Just wake up already!" Cindy yelled to herself. However, the nightmare did not come to an end.

A film of melancholy across her eyes, the young girl finally started to accept her reality. Her mother... was gone. The mother that would sing her to sleep every night until she was seven. The mother that would take time out of her busy day to play video games with her. The mother that would chase away the bullies that picked on her for being a half-elf. Cindy's life, as she knew it, was over.

“Mother... mother,” the half elf cried out softly, tears streaming down her face and dampening the pillow beneath her.

As her mind reeled to come to terms with her mother's passing, the half-elf reached to grab the stub of a right arm she had left; at least, that's what should've been there. She felt something hard stuck by her side, as she lifted her blanket up. Gazing down at what should've been her severed right arm, the girl was met with a prosthetic arm of steel attached to her body. Her eyes widened as she started to panic once more.

“What's happening to me? M-mother, help me.”

Before the half-elf could even have a moment of solitude, she was met with even more questions pouring into her still aching head, as the young nurse walked in to greet her.

Cindy was confronted with her cold reality once again. The nurse, struggling to properly address the situation and stumbling over words, told Cindy what happened.

“I-I'm so sorry, Ms. Matthews. You and your mother... were in a car accident," the nurse explained.

Cindy suddenly remembered in an instant. She was on the way to the store to pick up a new video game, riding beside her mother in her comfy Beetle Car. They had planned on learning a new game together and play it all afternoon until the sun had set. Cindy adored her mother's compact car. To her, the vehicle seemed to embody the best parts of her mother and her childhood, all at once. Her mother had it for as long as Cindy could remember. They rode in comfortable silence to the store that day, she recalled. Until, the girl felt an impact. Everything after that was a sickening blur.

“Do you know where my father is?” Cindy asked the nurse

“I'm so sorry. We were not able to locate him,” the nurse replied

“I see. I haven't heard from him in years, anyway. W-what about my grandparents... on my mother's side?”

The young nurse quickly averted her eyes downward, with a look of shame upon her face. Her hands were shaking as she handed Cindy a letter from her pocket.

“This is all we have. Your grandparents... I'm sorry.”

As Cindy slowly gazed upon the letter, her face changed from a look of shock and confusion to one of relative contentment and relief. The letter that was handed to her read:

'Tell that damned disgrace of a half-elf that she's on her own from now on. We will be burying her mother on our private residences. Do not step foot on our property. We will be selling the house that we bought for her mother as well. Now that our dear Abigail is gone, there's no reason for us to support such a disgrace to the Elven race. Damned girl, consider that right arm of yours the last favor that you will ever get from us. Be grateful, Cindy. Go find that dead-beat father of yours and live a wasteful life in shame of your unworthy heritage.'

“Thank you. You finally said it,” Cindy said aloud to the letter.

Now, as tears found their way onto the young half-elf's cheeks, they were accompanied by a wry smile that encompassed her entire face. A smile of relief, an unburdening, even.

“I-I don't need you people," she continued. Saying it aloud seemed to empower the girl further. "I don't want any help from an elf ever again!”

“I'm so sorry," said the young nurse. "W-we will try our best to find you foster care while you recover, but... I don't know if we'll be able to. You can stay here for as long as you'd like. The doctor has agreed to that as well.”

It was a harsh reality of this mean world: both the young nurse and Cindy knew all too well that nobody in their region would even think of taking in a half-elf.

Cindy was ruminating on her mother's passing, her family's cruel behavior, and the absence of her father. She laid out straight on her bed, gazing at the slow-moving ceiling fan above. She had always known that this would be the outcome of an event like this. Furthermore, she did not even know any of her father's family. Her mother's family would always look at her in disdain for being a half-elf. She knew that they would only support her if her mother was around. The black haired youth was all alone in this world now, with nowhere to call home.

“Mom...why did you leave me here...all by myself...alone? I always knew this would happen if you left me, but still...this is just too much. Why couldn't you have just married a nice elf, like grandpa wanted? Daddy's gone...he left us. And now you're gone too. If... If I was just able to live a normal life, I wouldn't be...”

Cindy stopped herself from thinking. She quickly remembered her mother's smile and her kindness. Her mother never yelled. Her mother was always there for her. She would always make the most delicious food when Cindy was feeling down. When Cindy ran home from school after being bullied, her mother was always there to comfort her. Her mother was her world, her everything. As those bittersweet memories flooded her thoughts, Cindy decided then and there that she could not let her mother look down from the heavens to see such disgraceful behavior from her daughter. She recalled her mother's sweet voice, and how she had once said:

'It's just love! You'll understand it someday, sweetie.'

“I-I'm sorry mother. You were always so kind to me, but... I'm all alone now. I-I have to...”

Cindy composed herself in an instant to address the young nurse. Her face quickly changed to a look of unwavering resolve. The half-elf was prepared to take on the cruel world she had been thrust into, unwillingly. She was young, but she was determined to find a way; alone or not.

“It's okay,” Cindy said to her nurse with a faint smile still on her face. “I'll be just fine on my own.”

The young nurse stayed with Cindy as long as her duties permitted. She was very sympathetic, but spoke few words. Eventually, her shift ended, bidding Cindy goodnight as she left.

Cindy laid in bed for a while longer, her resolve slowly building. Painfully aware of her fresh injuries, the young girl finally lifted herself up slowly from her bed. She changed into a fresh pair of clothes, gathered what few belongings she had left, and walked out of that cold, lonely room, in search of a new home.