THE LOVELY BONES, daryl dixon

i. the beginning

  THERE WASN'T MUCH to say about Ellie Sommers. The entirety of her life, she had proven to be a mediocre, yet lovable, mother to her daughter. And that always seemed to be it.

  Her immediate family knew her as the girl whose smile could prevent a war, but to others, she was simply background noise. Unnoticed and often ignored, Ellie navigated her own way through life — alone and wholeheartedly devoted to raising her daughter the way she deserved it. It wasn't easy being a single mother at twenty-five, but not a single complaint had ever escaped her lips.

  Not even when the world had ended.

  The early morning sun of the hot summer's day of July beamed through Ellie's window, leaving rivers of gold on her blue, duck-egg duvet covers. As if by accident, Ellie had developed a habit; arising earlier than usual, checking on her daughter, cooking an entirely too large breakfast, eating and then leaving for work, only to come home and do the same until bedtime. Existing as a young mother was daunting, and her only means of assistance was through her brother, but she felt as though having her brother around too much was evidence of her difficulty in living an adult life.

  Despite her lonely life, she had the occasional fleeting moment where a friend or a lover would appear, only to leave upon discovery of her role as a mother. The notion of Ellie having her baby rather than abort her or place her for adoption had moulded her into the outcast she deemed herself to be. The shadow of rebellion hanging over an otherwise pristine and profoundly religious town left a bitter taste on the tongues of the neighbours.

  Ellie was everything that centuries of oppression had been forging. The intolerant tongues spitting venom at choices made by innocents. Choices forced upon desperate hands. On terrified hands. On young hands. Religion always had a way of shunning those who were the most desperate. And Ellie was certainly one of them.

  She had been the cliche all movies teach children to steer from, but she never once allowed it to define her. Even with her badge of dishonour, Ellie was always more. A scholar, a mother and a successful woman is all she needed to claim to be, as it was the very essence of who she was. Her bones were built upon the strength she carried through raising her daughter alone. She had never needed the approval to remind herself of the warrior she indeed had been.

  A teenager, no older than eighteen years of age venturing off with an older man seemed plausible when the world had only just begun. A dream of escapism led her to her ultimate fate — a young mother, with no marital partner; no partner at all as she steered through the debris of life. Ellie loved him. She wasn't sure if he had loved her, or simply enjoyed her company for an entire year of their lives. He had stolen her zest for life, and replaced it with am agonising reminder that she would never be able to live freely. The moment he had ran his hands across the softness of her skin, he had stolen her life.

  Ellie stuck out like a sore thumb. Her beautiful golden locks had always been fuel for jealousy; her daughter had always been the cutest around, but nobody dared to get close to the bubbling skillet that was her inner demons. She had faced the entirety of her struggles alone, and before she knew it, she was going to explode.