The Beginning of The End Part 3

Marley Ella lay on her back, trying not to think, but she couldn't help it. Remembering that night when her life had been turned upside down. She was only seven years old, she shouldn't have to experience this kind of pain, shouldn't even know what this kind of pain felt like. She shouldn't have the memory of her little sister plague her mind all the time.

She was in the nurse's office of her Elementary school, laying on one of the cots, her arm draped over her eyes as she tried unsuccessfully to fall asleep. She had been feeling sick a lot lately, even more so than immediately after her sister's murder. Then again, she had mostly just felt tired then. Now she was vomiting constantly, getting nauseated and strangest of all she was always hungry, and somehow despite all this she felt stronger than ever.

She could feel the school nurses eyes boring into her, wanting her to go away. She sighed a little and took her arm off her eyes and sat up.

"Do you want to go home or back to class?" The nurse asked her, sounding bored.

"Can't I stay here?" Her voice came out small, and high pitched, like always.

"No." The nurse said flatly, motioning to a boy sitting in a chair next to her desk. "Tommy needs to lay down, and all the cots are full. You've been her the longest."

Marley stood up, and looked around the room quickly. Somehow she hadn't heard all the other kids come in. She allowed herself a second to think about how it was strange that she could feel people watching her, but couldn't hear a handful of noisy, sick Elementary schoolers coming into the room where she was trying to sleep.

She shrugged it off, and left the room without another word. The nurse would not be expecting anything more. She always came down to the nurse, and never went home. As she walked back to her second grade classroom she breathed in and out slowly trying to look like a normal little kid.

She must have done a good job, because the other kids barely looked up from their arithmetic books as she walked into the room, and sat down quietly at her table. They worked on math as her world shook, in more ways than she could possibly imagine.