"Ahh," I woke up with a gasp, taking deep breaths to calm my frantic heartbeat. My entire chest ached, like someone had ripped my heart apart and then roughly pieced it back together.
After several deep breaths, I realized it had only been a dream...my most feared dream. Why did I dream it again after so many years? Why did it replay the worst day of my life and my mother's?
I wanted so badly to remember her, to dream of her...my sweet mother, who had once gently cradled me to sleep and always played with me.
But not this scene. Not this nightmare. My trauma... I never wanted to see it again.
I felt like I had been dragged back to that day, the day I lost everything and witnessed my mother being cruelly abused in front of me. Her endless cries echoed through the night, and I had been forced to listen, helpless.
No… no… A scream ripped from my throat. Unknowingly, I grabbed the bedside lamp and hurled it against the wall, screaming, "No! Mother!"
