When it's all over...

Chapter 1

Eliza is a young, average teenage girl with nothing special to talk about. Her only pride is her long, brown, wavy hair that she inherited from her mother. She's not smart as the kid next door or as pretty as the prom queen. But why did I choose her as the main character of this story? You'll have to find that out yourselves. That's just the way of storytelling.

One day, Eliza was just chilling on the streets, listening to some music while admiring the shops and houses. She was singing along to "Another Love" by Tom Odell, not caring at all about the looks that she received from people passing by her. She stopped at a certain shop with pastel pink walls, decorated with bouquets of flowers in front of some large glass windows and rose vines climbing up to the sign that read "Elise's Boutique and Bookstore".

"Hello hello, how can I- Oh it's you..." A girl who looked exactly like Eliza, only her hair is shoulder-length and more of an indigo color, rushed over to the door excitedly. But the smile on her face obviously didn't last long when she saw the person standing at the doorway. "What have you done now?" She asked with a bit of annoyance added to her tone.

Eliza didn't seem to care about Elise that much. In fact, she walked right over to the bookshelves and started browsing. "Ehem!!! Hellooo? Lizzyyy???" Elise followed her and gently shook her shoulder. "What do you want?" Eliza suddenly snapped at her, causing Elise to trip and nearly fall down. "Nothing nothing. I just wanted to ask why are you here out of all places, that's all." Elise sighed in relief, knowing that she wouldn't be scared like that anymore. Well, at least for today.

"Can't a person visit her sister in peace and because she misses her?" Eliza glanced at Elise and took a book out of the bookshelf. "Oh really... Is that all there is?" Elise stared suspiciously at her little sister, who was using the book she just picked out to shield her face. "And because I can't find anywhere that sells 'Pride and Prejudice' except here." Eliza mumbled while she flipped through the pages of the book.

Elise sighed and returned back to the cash register where she flipped through her newspaper. The whole room was in silence, except for the occasional sound of paper flipping now and then. "Hey, did you know about the mysterious entities in the news recently?" Eliza looked up from her book and Elise put the the newspaper on the counter. "Here, front page and all." Eliza took a good look at the low quality photo printed on the page, above it are the words 'MYSTERIOUS ENTITIES AROUND SCONEVILLE LURKING BEHIND BUSHES: IS THE GOVERNMENT TO BLAME?' in big, bold letters.

'Recently, sightings of a winged-beast with white hair has been seen in backyards of Sconeville city. It could possibly be a reckless teenager obsessed with dress up, trying to "find" their true self. However, detectives are still on the lookout for the disappearance cases involving chickens and cucumbers. Could this be related to the mysterious entities?... "But seriously though, everyone knows these types of articles are bullshit. The title doesn't even have anything to do with the article itself!" Elise snatched back the newspaper from Eliza's hands and flipped back to the food column.

"Excuse me..." The two sisters looked up to see a teenager poking his head through the door. He looked similar to a model in a magazine Eliza once read when she was younger. The boy pushed back his messy golden hair to reveal a pair of big hazel eyes, his shirt slightly damped from sweat. "Are you open right now?" Elise hurriedly put down her newspaper and stood up. "Yes, yes of course we're open. What do you need?" He scanned around the room and his eyes laid on Eliza, or more like the book Eliza was holding. Then, he focused back to the woman beaming in front of him. "Do you have another copy of 'Pride and Prejudice'?"

Elise blinked twice, as if she didn't really understand what he was saying. "Yes, I believe that we do have another copy. Just wait here for a second, I'll go get it for you." With that, Elise hurried off to the storage room and the bookstore fell into silence once more. The sunshine slipped through the glass windows, illuminating tiny dust particles floating around in the air, creating a romantic atmosphere surrounding the two teenagers.

"Hi, are you new around here? I don't think I've ever seen you before." The boy spoke up. "Yeah, we just moved here." Eliza replied coldly. "Well, I reckon you still haven't finished school yet. Are you planning to start school soon?" He itched closer to her and stood in front of her. "My sister enrolled me into Stonewall High or something, I can't even remember anymore." Eliza said while rubbing her head.

"Alrighty, here you go. That will be $13 please."The boy was about to open his mouth once again but was interrupted by Elise handing him the book that he asked for. "Thanks, here's your money." He was halfway to the shop's doors when he turned around and said "I don't think I caught your name yet. Oh, and I'm Zach by the way." "Eliza, nice to meet you." Eliza extended her hand to Zach and he gladly shook it. "Maybe I'll see you some other time." He said as he stepped out of the shop.

"What was that about?" Elise asked while looking intensively at Eliza, whose head is now deep into the pages of the book once more. "He said hi and asked me basic stuff, that's all." She shrugged and flipped the page. "Well, he seemed nice, I love his hairstyle. You should really make some new friends here, Lizzy. Mom would love that." Elise said as she looked at a picture on the counter. "Yeah, sure, maybe." Eliza closed her book, returned it to its original place, and head up the flight of stairs to the second floor of the shop. "Heyy, you can't just read a book then leave it here like it's a library!!! You'll have to buy it!!" Elise yelled after her sister, and after she made sure that all the doors and windows are locked, she chased after her sister up the stairs.

The rays of sunshine during dusk slipped easily through the windowsill of the shop, filling the room with a gentle and romantic atmosphere. The light shone on the framed-picture still lying on the counter. It showed a family of 3 people, smiling and laughing together, most notably their waves of long brown hair and porcelain white teeth. Behind it were the words 'Be safe my children, mama loves you."