A Graduation Gift

"I honestly have no idea why this occurs. She seldom relapses into that state, to be completely honest. Moreover, she appears to fear her own cat whenever her disease attacks recently, which I might add, has never happened before,"

Whitney answered, her eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"That's weird, I thought she loved her cat," Cassandra wondered out loud. Her face indicated that she too, was quite puzzled.

She could still picture in her mind how Courtney was holding her cat in her arms when they met for the first time. It was a white bi-eyed Persian cat that left a strong impression on Cassandra.

"She does. She has always loved animals ever since she was little. She did develop some fear awhile back, but gradually grew to adore them as she grew older. It's just odd to see her sudden bouts of fear for them every once in a while. I tried asking her the reason, but she outright refused to tell me..."

Whitney sighed with despair clear as day in her eyes. She had always thought of herself as a capable woman. But when it came to her daughter and her ailment, she would become so worried and helpless like any other ordinary mother in an instant.

They kept talking about Courtney's current condition, and failed to notice that Cloris was staring at them with a weird look on her face.

Staring straight ahead, she anxiously bit her lip as if she wanted to get away from something as fast as possible.

Tears formed in Whitney's eyes as she spoke. Cassandra quickly grabbed a tissue from the table and handed it to her. It pained her to see the tears of a poor mother.

'If only Courtney could recover, ' Cassandra sadly thought, 'Whitney wouldn't suffer so much.'

At that moment, the bedroom door swung open. A long figure with a look of terror on her face appeared in the doorway—it was Courtney.

"Mom, the bunny... the bunny is dead!"

there like a dear caught in a car's headlights, looking at the three of them in extreme panic.

Cassandra noticed Cloris wince as if something Courtney said had struck

no time to think more on it, since Courtney had

knees and covered her head with her

was too shocked to move for a brief second, then immediately

dear," she whispered over and over to the frightened girl for comfort. "Mother's here now. There's no bunny, not even one. Don't

daughter's head in their embrace, tears streaming

we should take her to

in a soft voice. Courtney's current condition was

her head slowly without a word. Cassandra could only sigh deeply and

for Courtney, proper bed rest without disturbance might

you want to go home now? Or do

gently stroking her

mom. She killed the bunny. It

as she burst into tears. She

you have a nightmare, you poor thing?" Whitney asked in a soft voice. "It's okay. It's all

a choked voice.

was her!" Courtney screamed. "Mother, believe me, I know it was

the nearby corner, wordless

hearing her accusation. Whitney and Cassandra looked at Cloris, both

her throat as she swallowed. As she met their gaze,