Cake

Whenever Ester wants to remember something, she bakes a cake. Today she bakes a cake to remember three girls on three occasions. [[Lemon Blueberry Cake]] [[Vanilla Raspberry Cake]] [[Chocolate Cake]] (enchant:?page,(text-colour:black)+(background:white))

A birthday party. Iris was turning seven years old, and she wanted yellow everything. Yellow balloons, yellow streamers, yellow cake. She invited Ester and Rose and no one else. When it was finally time for cake, Iris dug into her slice gleefully. Ester scowled at the cake, her hatred for lemon preventing her from taking a bite. Rose sat quietly and watched the two girls. [[Home]] [[Lemon]]

A tea party. Ester wanted to have a tea party. She brought out her mother's expensive blue and white china and made space on the table for three girls. She made tea and sandwiches and cookies, but when Iris arrived all she wanted was cake. Rose left her tea and cake untouched as she watched the two girls. [[Favorite]] [[Forget]]

A funeral. It was raining outside. Ester sat by the window, warm and dry, while Iris stood out in the rain, her black dress dripping wet. Ester watched her dig her hands into the soil. She was burying ''something''. When Iris came back inside, Ester saw her face and her hands were covered in (text-style:"strike")[chocolate]. Rose ... where was Rose? [[Seven]] [[Chocolate]]

Ester was not a sweet little girl. She had a perpetually sour expression, and she rarely smiled or laughed. It wasn't that she was particularlly unhappy, she was just unimpressed by what the world had to offer. [[Sour]] [[Bitter]]

Iris lived in a big, quiet house full of old furniture the girls were not allowed to sit on. Ester remembers thinking it was creepy. [[Alone]]

Vanilla rasberry is Ester's favorite kind of cake. She makes white icing and raspberry jam. [[Wait]] [[Jam]] (enchant:?page,(text-colour:black)+(background:white))

Rose will never forget. [[Cake]] (text-colour:white)[[Fight]] (enchant:?page,(text-colour:black)+(background:white))

Seven was Iris's lucky number. She had seven dresses, seven ribbons, seven pairs of shoes. [[Home]]

Ester is alone. [[Alone]] [[Wait]] [[Three]] (text-colour:white)[[Iris is not here. Iris is not here. Iris is not here.]] (enchant:?page,(text-colour:black)+(background:white))

Ester measures the flour and thinks that she is missing something important. [[Mud]] [[Forget]] (enchant:?page,(text-colour:black)+(background:white))

Ester can't remember the recipe. Was it three eggs or four? [[Three]] [[Four]] (enchant:?page,(text-colour:black)+(background:white))

Ester waits for her cake to cool before she ices it. [[Ice]] [[EAT]] (enchant:?page,(text-colour:black)+(background:white))

Ester grabs a handful of cake and shoves it into her mouth. Her tongue burns, and the cake tastes like cardboard. [[Cake]] (enchant:?page,(text-colour:black)+(background:white))

Ester drops the cocoa power. It spills all over the kitchen floor, and the brown stains it leaves remind Ester of Iris's muddy footprints. [[Mud]] [[Jam]] (enchant:?page,(text-colour:black)+(background:white))

There were three girls. Their names were Ester, Iris, and Rose. Iris was sweet, Ester was sour, Rose was silent. They wore pretty dresses and had tea parties. They played hide-and-go-seek in Iris's big, quiet house. They were very young. How young were they? [[Seven]] [[Seventeen]] [[Seventy]]

Ester knows she's not a little girl anymore. She knows she's old. She knows she bakes cakes. She knows that three became two, and two became one. [[Ice]] (enchant:?page,(text-colour:black)+(background:white))

Ester places the pans full of cake batter into the oven. While she waits for the cake to bake, she thinks about Rose. [[Rose]] [[Wait]] (enchant:?page,(text-colour:black)+(background:white))

Ester never thought the three girls would ever get old. Even now she can still picture them, young and beautiful in their dresses, like little [[dolls]]. [[Forget]]

Iris liked mud cake almost as much as she liked lemon blueberry cake. Ester would make it for her sometimes, when she was feeling generous. [[Not real mud]]

Ester remembers that Iris was joyful. She enjoyed everthing. She savored every bite of cake she ate and treasured every gift she received. She was never unhappy or ''unkind''. She never frowned and never cried. [[Home]]

Ester always wished Rose would eat her cake, but she never did. Her slices of chocolate, lemon bluberry, and vanilla rasberry all remained uneaten. Ester wasn't even sure she could open her mouth. [[Rose]]

Ester remembers what it was like to hold Rose's hand. She was always so cold. [[dolls]]

Dolls? Was that what they were? No, that doesn't make sense. Dolls don't grow up. Ester knows she's old. Ester grew up. Iris grew up, Ester remembers that. Rose... [[Closer]] [[Forget]] (enchant:?page,(text-colour:black)+(background:white))

Ester remembers that one little girl never grew up. She wasn't like the others; she wasn't even a real girl. [[She was something else]] (enchant:?page,(text-colour:black)+(background:white))

Ester scans the kitchen counter, looking for her phone. She needs to call Iris. Where is Iris? [["Iris is dead."]] (enchant:?page,(text-colour:black)+(background:white))

It's Rose. Rose, covered from head to toe in ~~mud~~, is in the kitchen. She has moved close enough to Ester so that she can see her familiar brown hair and dark eyes. She would be identical to the Rose from Ester's memories, if it wasn't for her face. The Rose from before was always blank and expressionless, but this Rose is smiling. "Did you make me some cake?" She asks. [[Cake]] (enchant:?page,(text-colour:black)+(background:white))

Ester used to think Rose was the prettiest of the three girls. She had shiny brown hair and inky black eyes that rarely closed. Her skin was smooth and unblemished in a way that seemed almost too perfect too perfect to be real. [[Ice]]

Ester should be eating her cake, but she can't ignore the sound of the front door opening. She is in the kitchen in Iris's big, quiet house. [[She's supposed to be alone.]] (enchant:?page,(text-colour:black)+(background:white))

Rose is gone. [[Fight.]] (enchant:?page,(text-colour:black)+(background:white))

Rose is gone. [[FIGHT]] (enchant:?page,(text-colour:black)+(background:white))

Rose is gone. [[FIGHT.]] (enchant:?page,(text-colour:black)+(background:white))

Rose is gone. [[fight...]] (enchant:?page,(text-colour:black)+(background:white))

Rose is gone. [[f i g h t]] (enchant:?page,(text-colour:black)+(background:white))

Rose is gone. [[f i g h t.]] (enchant:?page,(text-colour:black)+(background:white))

Rose is gone. [[fight!]] (enchant:?page,(text-colour:black)+(background:white))

Rose is gone. [[Fight!]] (enchant:?page,(text-colour:black)+(background:white))

Rose is not gone. She wakes up. She pulls herself out of the dirt. She looks for the horribly happy girl and the girl who can't rememeber. She is ready to fight. [[Cake]] (enchant:?page,(text-colour:black)+(background:white))

Ester bakes cakes, Iris eats cakes. This makes sense. [[Forget]] [[Cake]]

Ester finishes icing the cake. She opens a drawer and pulls out a knife. [[REMEMBER]] (enchant:?page,(text-colour:black)+(background:white))