"Ow. Why did you do that?" Amber gasped, rubbing her painful arm, trying to bite back tears. The stray ball lay forgotten at her feet. "You better stop hurting me, or I'm going to tell my mommy."
Mommy'd made Amber swear that she'd always tell her if anyone was mean to her.
"Oh no!" the older schoolyard bully sneered, winding up for another hit. "What's she gonna do, tattle to the principal?"
Pouting, the little girl tried to put on a brave face. "She'll just make you stop."
That's what her mommy'd promised her, and mommy always kept her promises.
Cruel, mocking laughter. "Oh yeah? I'm so sca—"
Amber could already feel her memory of the boy fading, his name escaping her. She couldn't even remember what he looked like, now. She frowned. Who? What was she doing here again?
"What's taking so long, Amber? Just pick up the ball and throw in! Come on! We're two points behind!" Suzy yelled from the field, exasperated at her best friend. Amber was such a daydreamer. There she was again, just staring off into space all by herself.
"Sorry!" Amber called, tossing the ball to one of her teammates before running back to join them, laughing. She hoped they'd win, so she'd have something to tell mommy tonight.
It was so nice that even though mommy worked really hard for Moira Inc, she always had time to ask Amber about her day when it was time for dinner.
Just a (potential opening?) scene that's been bouncing around my head for a week.
I'm currently seeing too many possible paths - ironic, I know - to nail it down in long form.
Does Amber keep thinking it's cool that her mom works for the Fates (if she even knows that), or is mommy too controlling, overreaching as she guides her daughter's life the way she wants, even going as far as eliminating people Amber liked because they weren't "right"... and will older Amber rebel when she starts noticing all these... holes in her memory, all these times she just spaced out for seemingly no reason?
Is Amber's mom abusing her job's systems to basically commit the worst possible crimes, erasing entire people from the weave, and will this have potentially disastrous fallout?
Does someone else notice what Amber's mom does from time to time to protect her daughter, and maybe they start messing with the Fates' systems as well?
Anyway, I'm not even sure I want or need to turn this into a long form story (I have so many stories in progress already... help), so have this barely edited, messy little vignette as a standalone thing for now.
(I know, I know, I don't mean for most of my output to be creepy, it just... is, I guess. Sorry.)