What If We Believe [on hold]

1. Believe in what your heart is saying

If you haven't read What If We Drown, please go read this first. What If We Believe is a holiday companion to Ashlyn's story, which begins there. Thank you ♥

SNOW DANCED UPON the delicate twilight; a beautiful piece orchestrated by the gentle wind. With wide-eyed gazes and suspended breaths, three little faces pressed to the window, their sounds of awe and wonder reaching towards Ashlyn in a blanket of warmth.

Her three favorite girls.

"It's so pwetty," Sage mumbled against the glass, her head turning until her squished cheek granted her a better view.

"I like the way they twirl and dance," Poppy agreed, her hands framing her face.

From her position in the living room entryway, Ashlyn watched in the window's reflection as Sage's smile grew wider. When she pulled away, the smiling face imprinted upon the glass winked from across the room.

"I can dance like a snowflake too." Sage giggled and launched herself from the sofa, descending in a flurry of uncoordinated turns.

"Ashlyn, look! I'm a ballerina." The joy in Sage's cheeks and the concentrated furrow in her brow through her next turn were adorable.

I see you, sweetie, Ashlyn signed, her own joy warm upon her features.

Shifting her weight, Ashlyn leaned against the doorframe, her gaze fixed on the childlike wonder that filled her home. In just eight months, everything had changed, and her heart was filled with more love and wonder than Christmas' past. Gone were the numb nights and desolate eves spent in silent agony as Christmas came and went, another blemish on the solitary damnation she'd swiftly succumbed to.

Everything had changed when he'd come along. He'd broken through the pain and washed away the stains left by darkness. He'd rescued her from those darkened depths and sung hope over her, every bit the siren he claimed her to be.

With all that had transpired in the last year, his presence had been a resurrection for the love, joy, and good Ashlyn had fought tirelessly to reject. You've always been a lighthouse to me, the bright light guiding me back to who I am. That's what she'd told him, and she still wholeheartedly believed.

"Faster, Sage!" Poppy squealed, her laughter coaxing Ashlyn's from within.

Sage continued her impromptu performance, her giggles rising while she spun faster and faster, fueled by her captive audience. She stumbled towards the sofa, and Poppy jumped off to catch her, the two of them falling to the floor in a fit of laughter. Their sound was a symphony to Ashlyn's ears.

Everything about this evening was perfect.

Her home was fit to burst at the seams, and, for the first time in years, the volume of people and noises in her world didn't overwhelm her. They felt right. Ashlyn's heart softened, and with the unscripted whispers that echoed the joyful wishings of her own heart, she found herself drawn into this tiny fraction of time that etched itself into the vault of her happiest memories.