Camille Ellison had six sisters, but each one died. One after another, each on the full moon of the first six months of that year.
She believed the first was accidental, the second, third, and fourth could be passed as coincidence; But as the death...
As it happened every year, the morning after the ball the town looked like a ghost town. All of the off-islanders had stayed in this morning, and only a few of the people who actually lived in Astrea were brave enough to weather the chilly morning.
It was supposed to be summer, yet winds whipped through the streets, causing people to bundle tighter in their cloaks, and usher children indoors.
Plenty of shopkeepers had closed their windows and locked their doors. Only a few were left open. Thankfully the post office was one of them, yet Henry's shop was not, and I'd left the letter at home, so I couldn't recall if it had said anything about what shop it had been.
Slipping inside, I let out a sigh of relief, grateful to be out of the blistering winds.
All of the yellows of the Masquerade Ball had been taken down, not replaced with anything of importance.
"Sir," I said, walking up to the man behind the wooden counter. He glanced up at me from the paper he was reading and squinted. Yet he didn't say anything, just looked and then looked back down at his paper.
Glancing at it, trying to see what could be so interesting I saw my sister. He was reading an article about the death of Hattie. It was dreary, and in the center of the paper was a picture of the service. I saw all of my sisters sitting there, except for me.
They were dead though.
Shaking my head to clear my imagination, I glanced up from the paper.
"Sir." I tried again, but this time he didn't even glance up. Poor man, he must be hard of hearing.
Growing tired of waiting for something that would never happen, I placed the letter, addressed to the same address that the letter Hattie received came from, down on the table in front of him. Hopefully, he would at least pay attention to it and place it in one of the crates that were to be distributed out by the mail boy tomorrow.
On my way out I snatched a newspaper out of one of the crates, leaving a coin in its place. Hopefully, it would cover the cost of the paper.
I stepped into the streets, which had just grown colder. There was not one cloaked figure insight, and even the stores that had been opened earlier were all closed down. Perhaps the man at the counter thought if he just ignored me, and I went away then he could close up his shop sooner and return home to the warmth of his fireplace.
My flat was quite far from here, so instead of making the trek back, I huddled underneath an awning for who knows how long.
My teeth began to chatter, and goosebumps rose on my skin, making the hair on my arms stick straight up.
The fog began to cloud my vision, and it left me wondering why I had decided to stand out in the cold anyway.
Just as black began to slip into the corners of my vision, I heard my name being called. Luc appeared right in front of me, pulling me into his arms before I collapsed.
"Whatareyoudoing?" I mumbled incoherently. I was only half sober, the other half of me was hallucinating.
I heard a small smidge of something Luc had asked, "die twice right?" before everything went black, and the sounds of the world ceased to silence.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Short chapter today! Literally only like 500 words I think. That makes me feel awful but whatever. I have decided that I'm not going to finish this in time for the Wattys, and I'm actually going to turn it into a short story. :/. I'm guessing it will be around 15-20 chapters. To be honest, I have no idea where I'm going with this, so bear with me seeing as it doesn't have much of a plot at the moment.
This story so far is actually horrible to me. It's so underwhelming and Luc is kinda boring, but I'm hoping this is just me because I hate every single thing I've ever written.
This short story is going to have to go through some serious revision, and who knows, maybe I'll submit it to some short story contest IF any contests start. I literally haven't seen any and I've been checking every day.
So yeah, also school is REALLY hectic so I'm trying my best. It's currently 11:20, and I've been trying to shut my laptop by 11:55 each night to try to at least get some sleep. It's a Thursday, so with tomorrow being a Friday hopefully, I'll have some time to HOPEFULLY finish this and start the revision and editing process.
This is the worst chapter in my entire life. It's actually embarrassing to read and see how short it is. I'm terribly sorry and humiliated. Thank God my friends at school don't see this.
Ok, long author's note, sorry guys. -Elle
This piece is completely written by me. If there are any references to any characters, places, or themes, it is purely coincidental. This novel is exclusively on Wattpad so if you notice it anywhere other than here, it has been illegally stolen. Please notify the author right away if this happens.
