Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times when one only remembers to turn on the light

"And STAY OUT!" My stepmother shouts. My bedroom door slams behind me. I hear her stomping back down the stairs. I fling myself onto my bed and I hear something crash to the floor. I find myself hoping whatever it was, broke. I lie on my bed seething in anger. Oh how I despise her. Just thinking about my stepmother makes me breathe harder and faster. The faster I breathe the heavier my head feels. I start to feel a change. Less anger at my step mother and more self hatred.

I start to cry unwillingly. I can feel my eyes swelling with tears and I let out a single wail so the tears will fall. Holding in my tears would only make the pain worse later. I feel the tears running down my face and as they do they become like my hopes. Falling far away from me.

I will never again have the life I used to have. I will never feel my mother's arms around me again. That comforting voice in the dark telling me it's going to be alright. I will never have that again. Another flow of tears run down my face.

I look at the clock and see it has been almost two hours since the incident. I don't even remember what I did wrong. It's starting to get dark so I dig around in my drawer until I find what I am looking for. It's a ball and it glows bright and strong. I sit on the edge of my bed holding it in my hands between my legs. I look forward l, into the mirror across the room from me, and notice the light is bright enough to illuminate my face.

At the sight of my face I start to writhe I'm self hatred. Everything about me is wrong. I meet my eyes in the mirror and whisper, "you are horrible. Everything about you is wrong. You're so selfish. And ugly. And just awful. You should die." The idea of dying seems to hit deep in my heart. My mother died a few years ago, and I miss her very much. Will this finally be the night I see her again?

Suddenly my thinking stops. I hear the unmistakable sound of someone slamming on the breaks. The squeaking sound is almost enough to make me cover my ears, almost. Then there's a crash. And a scream. The scream pierces through the silence of the night like a knife piercing the skin. It is harsh and wrong. I almost get up, but I know what happens next even before I hear the wails of the siren, and the screams of the child, and the blue and red lights illuminate my bedroom. For this is exactly what happened the night my mother died.

It was so unfair, the way my mother died. You see, my mum, like me, was a witch. She went off to fight in the Battle of Hogwarts. She, unlike so many others survived! But on the way home...she decided to take a cab when she got close enough instead of her usual walking and...

I accidentally drop the orb. It rolls carelessly across the room and bumps into the object that fell off the shelf. I walk over there and pick it up. It's a book, a journal, and it's written in my mother's hand. I want to read what it says so I walk over and turn on the light.

Once my room is finally illuminated in a warm, soft light, I feel my mind begin to calm. All thoughts of death leave me and I am left with the wonderful memories of my mother. They flood my mind like a dam breaking for a river longing to be great and free again. I turn the page and see there is only one phrase: "Happiness can be found in the darkest of times if one only..." she never finished it, but I know how it ends now.

"If one only remembers to turn on the light."