Mom was deteriorating before my eyes. If unkempt embodied a person then she would be it.

There was no use begging for her to seek help or to remind her to take her meds. She'd drown my words out with her hums, the same one she used to lull me to sleep when I was little.

Unanswered messages and calls from her friends occupied her phone…the phone that she neglected even more than herself.

All throughout my beggings she'd only look at me with such affection that it broke my heart in a way that went beyond what's possible.

Her pale skin hanged on to lithe bones that I found myself losing appetite, I thought it unfair to nourish my body while hers was destroying itself.

She'd fought off sleep just so we could talk a little bit longer and her blood shut, souless eyes would scorch into mine that I found myself sleepless too.

The want to leave the house became an action of guilt for before I could even turn the knob, her weary voice would call my name as if asking me not to abandon her.

As everything held a breaking point…I reached mine.

My tone of voice became so tyrannical when I screamed my want for freedom.

"I want to be with my friends again! I want out of here! Mom I am begging you! Please just take your medicine so you can take care of yourself too!"

The weight of my words became unberable at the sight of my weeping mother that my feet immediately carried me towards her.

Hands that were once so soft now felt like carrion when they stroke my face, an act of love that made me surrender to my tears.

What she said next though threw me in such a confusion that no gravity could keep me grounded.

"But if I take them…I won't see you anymore."

The turning of the knob along with the voice of another person asking a question only solidified my horror.

"I know you said you needed time but I've been so worried Rita…who were you talking to?"