The little girl couldn't have been older than five or six. Small and adorable, she clung tightly to AiLin's legs, her tiny hands gripping as if afraid of losing her mother to the crowd.
Mother?
Mama?
AiLin's heart plummeted, the world around her seeming to turn icy in an instant. A knot twisted deep in her stomach, cold and heavy. Her face went pale as she stared down at the girl, her mind racing. If her own baby were still alive- she would have been about this age.
Was this real? Or was she dreaming again? Another cruel illusion of seeing her child from the nightmares?
"...AiLin!"
Her eyes snapped open, the dream, or maybe it was a nightmare? The blur between nightmare and truth vanished as reality came crashing in. Her breath was uneven, her chest rising and falling with labored gasps as her heart thundered like a drum inside her.