Brink Of Sanity -Volume one- The Desert Of Shadows

Chapter two : The Woman With A Voice

On the outskirts of a desert lay the half buried ruins of a pre-war skyscraper, taken back by the forests that now controlled the earth once again. All around the building small clay pots were placed on the floors and windows. In the pots was dark moist soil and sprouting from the soil were unimaginable exotic flowers, the likes of which you would never see in a million years. The flowers covered the building from top to bottom and had a wide variety of different colours and shapes. Some were orange with prickly stems and others were maroon with blue tints in the roots, that grew from its oddly shaped base. Although the building was full of these wild and untamed plants only one stood out from the rest. Atop an old wooden cabinet was a small clay pot, inside a withered Lilic Lilly that was close to death. It's stem was a sickly green colour and its soil was bone-dry. For some reason this Lilly seemed like the most important out of them all and for Amelia; the girl who lived in this building and planted all these flowers, the Lilly was a symbol of what she had built and the life she was trying to give to an otherwise dead planet. Amelia had lived in the building for as long as she could remember, not only did she believe that planet earth could still be saved but she also had another secret. You see Amelia was no ordinary girl, she had a life or death secret which she had been able to hide from everyone she had encountered in the wasteland. Amelia...had a voice.

Amelia was on the roof of the building and she was painting what she could see to the east, the opposite direction of the desert. To the east lay more ruins and forests gathered together in a large complex of tangled roots and rotting bricks. Amelia was trying to capture the simplicity of the view but she was running out of paint for her canvass. After adding one finale splatter of colour; to the already intriguing paining, Amelia stepped back and took a long hard look at what she had created. As she daydreamed about the painting she had created a strange occurrence happened which caught her attention almost immediately. A droplet of rain had fallen onto the canvas and was now making a zig-zag pattern downwards, disturbing the freshly laid paint. "Shit!" Amelia yelled as she began to gather up her things. More droplets fell onto the roof and the dry grey stones were now becoming damp black bricks. She quickly glanced up at the sky and noticed a swirling despair of dark clouds. As the seconds flew by the rain got heavier and the only thing Amelia thought about was about the canvas she had so foolishly left behind. "Shit!" She shouted again, dropping everything and running back for her painting. By the time she had reached her painting the colours had drizzled off and formed a murky puddle on the roof. she stood looking at the puddle with disappointment in her eyes. "...shit." She said with a sigh.

Clouds began to clash in the sky and strikes of lightning scorched the heavens. Amelia was still standing above the puddle, gradually getting soaked by the rain and looking like she was ready to punch something. Surprisingly, she didn't lash out at anything, instead she pushed her shoulder length auburn hair behind her ears and walked away. Amelia was a puzzling person. She cared too much about everything and never gave herself any pity. She thought caring for a dying animal would be more important than caring for herself. Amelia loved the world, but the world hadn't accepted her, it forced her to be shunned by the human race for her ability to talk, it forced her to live in isolation surrounded by flowers, it forced her to be independent and emotionless. Amelia was the candle in the dark but she never had the strength to become the beacon.

Now that Amelia had retreated inside she had the chance to water her many flowers. She had invented a highly sophisticated mechanism that allowed her to water the flowers from the roof but only when it rained. She pulled a small bit of string attached to a mysterious socket in the wall and the fun began. On the roof a bucket; that was filling up with water, had the bottom pulled down, releasing the water into three different pipes. The water traveled through the pipes and eventually into a cauldron that hung from a wall. Once the water had been in their it was sent through several straw sized tubes and into a water pump of some kind. The water pump sent the water into small sprinklers that had been placed on each level of the building. Amelia walked over to a long control panel; that had buttons and knobs of different sizes, and she pressed a large red button which sounded off an alarm. Suddenly the sprinklers on each floor began to shoot water in every direction and it almost covered every inch of the building with water. Rivers formed on the stairs and in the cracks, the plants started to come alive and shower, Amelia had brought happiness to herself but it wouldn't last much longer.

As the rain began to stop, Amelia ventured back out onto the roof. The clouds parted in the sky and rays of light burst through the cracks and lit up the land. A warm breeze brushed Amelia's hair over her face and behind her ears. Then after a few seconds of silence a faint barking noise came from the bottom of the building. Amelia immediately turned around and froze where she stood, staring at the side of the roof wondering if she should peer over the edge and see where the bark came from. Slowly she inched over to the edge, every hair on her neck stood up. Once she had reached the edge of the roof she slowly placed her thin white fingers on the cold wet brick and looked down.

At the bottom of the building; rolling in the sand and chewing on a stick, was a filthy looking dog with half of its left ear cut off. Without hesitation Amelia leaped down the stairs and practically threw herself down each level of the building. Each step down was a step closer to another living thing; something Amelia hadn't seen in months, another living being. As she rushed down the stairs she knocked over empty cans and pots of water, she even pushed over a few of the plants causing them to shrivel and die on the floor. But killing a few of the flowers didn't seem to bother Amelia at this moment in time, she was too focused on meeting the dog outside. As Amelia approached the finale staircase she gave out a huge burst of laughter and became nervous with excitement. She had reached the entrance of the building. It was a huge archway of stone covered in winding green vines and 2 metal fences coated in barbed wire. As Amelia squeezed through the gap in the two fences she noticed an unopened can of beef behind her so thinking on her feet she grabbed the can and proceeded outside to find the dog. Slowly creeping around the corner of the building, She opened the can of beef by smashing the top down on a jagged shard of metal sticking out from the sand. The beef began to pour out of the can and onto the sand which caught the attention of the dog, which was closer than Amelia thought.

The dog carefully walked over to Amelia sniffing every inch of the ground making sure it wasn't a trap. It started to growl a little and scratch at the sand. Amelia stepped back away from the beef and said. "Don't worry...I brought it out here for you. I'm not going to hurt you." The dog got closer to the beef and didn't really acknowledge Amelia talking as the scent of the food was so luscious and inviting. Amelia scanned the dog to see any key features. It had a ruffled grey coat of fur and two emerald sized eyes; bluer than the sky. After the dog had begun eating the beef and sniffing at the can excessively Amelia reached out and started stroking it softly. The dog looked up with its long red tongue hanging from its jaw, after a couple of seconds it started to lick Amelia's hand covering it with the beef juice. "Yeah, thanks for that dog...if your going to come live with me I can't exactly call you dog...you need a name. How about.... Sin." Amelia said softly while wiping the beef juice off her hand and onto the dogs fur. The dog just barked and started sniffing at the can again. Amelia continued to speak "Come on sin... Nights here. Let's get inside... It'll be cold soon." After saying this she stood up and walked back inside, the dog soon followed with the can loosely hanging from its nose.