Here's one I wrote for last month's prompt but forgot to post, so here it is! I would love to hear suggestions. 

 

 

The day her mother died, Lillian walked out of the hospital with a passionate fury written across her features like the snarl of a bobcat hunting a mouse. She wasn’t supposed to leave, of course. In fact, she probably wasn’t supposed to be there in the first place- but then, Lillian never cared much for rules.

Her footsteps quickened on the cracked sidewalk, and soon she broke into a run. Behind her, she could hear the distant shouts of a portly police officer- “Hey! Kid! Get back here!” She ran harder. Lillian passed an ugly pea-green building that looked as if it were falling into the dirt. Miss Rutkowski’s Home for Orphaned Children, where the police officer wanted to take her. She was now sprinting so fast her sweat streaked off her cheeks in neat rows, or perhaps those were her tears. Lillian wasn’t quite sure. 

As she entered the woods, Lillian slowed to a trot. She was quite certain no one would find her there. The dense trees manifested into an ominous barrier to the outside world, and whether that was good or bad no one quite knew. Her feet crunched on dying Autumn leaves, and she kicked a pile into the air, only to have leaf dust rain down into her eyes. Her face contorted into a scowl. Lillian’s mother had loved Autumn.

Once upon a time, Lillian had loved Autumn, too. The crispness of the air, the cozy olive green sweater that had been her father’s and did not compliment her features at all (like Lillian cared), and the way the shimmery leaves seemed to hold ancient magic depicted pure paradise to her. Lillian did not believe in such frivolous happiness anymore. 

Her mother had gone on a hike at the very crescendo of leaf peeping season. Just a little trot and back, she said to Lillian, in that foreign Southern twang, kissing her forehead. I’ll be back before you know it. Lillian, her eyes glazed over with Saturday morning cartoons, said nothing, did not even look up. It would come to be the greatest regret of her life.

It was a hole that killed her, in the end. A very deep, old well that had not been used for a very long time. There was all sorts of caution tape around it, of course, covered with fallen leaves. Lillian’s mother stepped blindly, her trust in the leaves outweighing all else, with catastrophic results.

Lillian screamed at the leaves, punishing them with her shrill voice. They deserved to suffer, to burn in an agonizing sea of terror, to pay for their malicious deeds. She punched the ground with her tiny fists and willed all her fury into the Autumn air. Finally, she collapsed, tears filing down her ashen cheeks. She lay there for what felt like hours, though time was distorted in the old woods.

Lillian shook her head slowly from side to side. She knew she could never go back. She felt so weightless, so unreal, like she could just float up to sit upon the stars and never come back down. Like the tiny amount of space she took up in the universe absolutely, positively didn’t matter. Without her mother, she really was no one. The only reason Lillian hadn’t flown away before was because her mother was there, the steady rock to hold her down and bring her back to reality. Without her mother, Lillian was a lost soul.

Lillian stood up, brushed the leaf dust off her hair, and began to walk a purposeful, unhurried pace. She drifted through the woods and skirted around the towns, and by nightfall, she had gone quite a long way.

Lillian crawled under a pile of leaves, deciding to make peace with them at last. The stars winked down at her, almost like a good-night kiss. A distant owl hooted a whimsical tune, almost like a lullaby. And the leaves encircled her, numbing her sorrows and drying her tears, and Lillian slumbered peacefully. In the morning, she was no longer poor, orphaned, tiny Lillian. She was a wanderer. 

This is such a good idea! May I suggest making the December theme 'winter holidays' and not Christmas, because not everyone celebrates Christmas? Thanks!