Black Birds

Prologue

Kalista's POV
I grabbed a trowel and two small clay pots. I adjusted my backpack, which carried my emergency first aide kit and oxygen tank, before heading towards the front door.

"Kali! Baby, why don't you stay inside? It's really warm outside and I don't want you to exert yourself before the flight" my mom began fretting. I turned around to face my mother, Renee Dwyer.

Renée and Bella look alike in their features. She has medium length straight reddish hair, innocent, childish blue eyes and a round face full of laugh lines. Her height is around 5'4 and she has a pointy chin and full lips. She is also sometimes mistaken to be Bella's older sister. She's very eccentric, an experimental chef, forgetful, and very perceptive in a childish way. She tends to shift her hobbies and interests from one to another, such as yoga, but never sticks with any of them for very long. She's also overprotective and at times more of a best friend than a mom.

I sigh and say "I'll be fine, mom, you promised that you'd try to relax and stop worrying so much" she frowned but before she could argue Phil, my stepdad, came up behind her and plopped his baseball cap on top of her head as he carried mine and Bella's suitcases downstairs with ease.

Phil is is bald, has blue eyes and is around 6 feet tall with tan skin and an athletic build. He also has a small brown goatee on his chin.

"She's right hon, don't worry I'll be outside with her and keep an eye on her" this seems to soothe my mother's previous concerns and she smiles went Phil gives her a loving peck on the lips before walking outside with me.

His actions reassure me in my decision.

"Thanks for the backup, Papa Phil" I say and he smiles "No problem kiddo" he says and tassels my hair before headed towards the red station wagon and opens the trunk before loading it up. I shake my head and walk over to the desert that's nexts to our ritzy, low rent house in our cup-de-sac neighborhood. I kneel down on the sandy ground and begin my work. After successfully repotting the baby cactuses, I stand up and take a few minutes to bask in the sunshine.

"My whole world was surrounded by death, and yet I'd never given much thought to how I would die as I already knew how my story would end. I had already begun to think that I should stop fighting and let the mysterious illness take me....... But if I was given the option in another death then dying in the place of someone I love seems like a good way to go. All I can do is hope that when my time comes, that I'll be surrounded by the people that I love and it'll be painless."

I start headed back towards the station wagon as my mother exits the house with my older sister Bella in tow as she talks about her cellphone and how she'll 'figure it out'.

Bella has a very pale complexion with long, straight, dark brown hair, a widow's peak, unique chocolate brown eyes and a oval-shaped face with a wide forehead. Her eyes are large and widely spaced. Her nose is thin and her cheekbones are prominent. Her lips are thin and go well for her slim jawline.

She's pretty, but a bit of a Plain Jane like me.

I have frizzy/wavy reddish brown hair with chestnut brown eyes and a heart-shaped face. I have a button nose and petite features with plump lips that fit along my jawline. My skin isn't as alabaster as Bella's and is actually more fair.

Upon seeing me my mother immediately walks over to me and checks my temperature with the back of her hand "Are you feeling alright? Do you need to cool down a minute inside before we leave?" I chuckle at her overprotective nature "Mom, I'm fine. I promise" I say which doesn't lessen her frown "Are you sur-?" She's cut off by Bella snapping "She already said she's fine, so she's fine! Can we just go already?!" I frown at her rudeness but before I scan say anything Phil yells "Guys! I love you all, but we have to go! We got a plane to catch!"

We head towards the car and I try not to take Bella's attitude personally. She's just been more snappy since we were told that both of us would be moving to Forks. 'She's stressed as I'd being a teenager with a dying sister and now she has to be the new girl at a school with weather that she hates? I shouldn't burden her anymore than I already am' I think as I get in the car.

I buckle up and then proceeded to offer the orange clay pot to my sister and say "Here, I got you a piece of Arizona to take with us" Bella scoffs but not one to decline a present she snatches it up from me.

I sit back and slowly watch Arizona pass us by. Before I know it were in the airplane watching the clouds steadily grow thicker and darker before we break through and enter Seattle airport.