The Last Goodbye

"Daily Flash Fiction Challenge" 
Entry
- 03-02-01 -
- Word Count - 300 -

White. Everywhere. It burned the back of her eyes like the sun. She'd been in the hospital so long that the brightness, pulsing beeps, and emotionally starved conversation was a constant torment. It assaulted her. Sterile stifled every notion of humanity. She hated all of it but could only lay there.

What's the point of being alive like this? No flowers. No wind. No sounds of the playground; only the god-damned sounds of machines and doctors.

"Time is running out," a voice in the brightness said. 'She has a day at best. Her organs are shutting down.'

The warbling sound of plastic sheets cut the conversation.

"This line here shows brain activity in a normal brain. This is her's. There's no activity."

"What does that mean?" A little girl's voice asked.

"She's gone, sweetie." an older woman's voice replied.

The beeps boomed in her head like fists, over and over it hammered, hitting her face, arms, and legs. It hurt—everywhere.

Please make it stop. Please.

Whispered sobs sliced through the beating.

"Can you give her a minute to say goodbye?"

"Hospital policy says—"

"Fuck your policy! That's her mother!"

A sigh, "I'll be outside, take the time you need."

Silence and sobs.

A small hand, soft, warm, and filled with love, touched her face and embraced her hand.

"Mommy, I love you. I'm going to be ok. I'll take care of my baby brother. You taught me how."

Flashes hammered her mind. The smell of booze. He kept hitting her over and over. She remembered stepping between him, and the children—her babies. There was so much blood, but she killed the bastard.

The hand squeezed harder.

"I love you, mommy."

A kiss.

The beeping slowed. The beating stopped.

I love you too, sweetie.

I'll always love you.

Goodbye.

Every year, 16,000,000 people become victims of domestic violence. Between 3,000,000 and 10,000,000 children are exposed to acts of domestic violence between intimate partners. Of this sad and staggering number, 618,000 children were found to be victims of abuse or neglect.
Don't ever let yourself say they will get better.