Crown of Glass

II

She was awoken by the sound of her alarm clock going off, indicating that it was six in the morning and time for her to get ready for school. Reluctantly, she climbed out of bed and walked across her cold bedroom floor to open the door. As she made her way into the bathroom, the eerie silence of her house made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up as she walked down the hallway. Once in the bathroom, she looked at herself in the mirror, visibly groaning at her early morning appearance.

Her brown hair was tangled and messy, there were visible bags under her eyes, and her eyes were sunken. Exhaling sharply, she turned on the tap for the sink and began washing her face and brushing her teeth. The water ran slowly from the faucet, making soft dripping noises as it hit the ceramic material of the sink. When she finished and turned off the water, she went back into her bedroom and sorted through an arrangement of different outfits and selected one to wear. After she had pulled her shirt over her head, she heard a voice calling out to her from the other side of the bedroom door, it was her father.

"Willow, are you awake? It's almost time to go!" he yelled
from behind the closed door, his tone still soft.

"I'm almost done getting dressed, dad. I'll be downstairs in a minute," she said in confirmation.

No sooner than she said that she could hear her father's footsteps walking away from the door and heading down the stairs, the sounds of the stairs creaking along the way as they went. Willow never liked the creaky stairs, fearing that one day she'll fall straight through them and into the basement of the house.

The basement was the one place in the entire house that she had never been, even if she could access it. There was a huge padlock on the door that leads down there, and she was never quite able to crack the code and get the door open. She's heard rumors that the bodies of the people who once lived in the house before she did are hidden down there from people in the nearby neighborhood on her way to school. While she had gotten lost in her thoughts, she was snapped out of it by her father's voice yelling at her from the bottom of the stairs.

"Willow! Let's go or you'll be late for school, I'm already running late for work!" her father yelled to her, his voice loud.

She immediately ran out of her room and nearly tumbled down the stairs in a hurry to meet up with her father. Diane was also waiting alongside her father. Once Willow entered the room, she walked over, leaning down to kiss her daughter's forehead and hand her a lunchbox for school that day. She also kissed her husband goodbye before he disappeared out of the front door.

"Have a good day, Willow. I love you!" she said, patting her shoulder before sending her off.

Willow walked down the steps of the front porch and around the side of the house to the driveway, climbing in next to her father and buckling her seatbelt. As he pulled out of the driveway and onto the road, he couldn't help but notice that his daughter was quieter than usual, her head leaning against the window. She was just looking out into the open, the trees passing by as he drove. The entire car ride was filled with a numbing silence as neither of them spoke.

They finally made it to Willow's school, and she climbed out of the vehicle and closed the door. She watched her father as he drove away, soon only the backs of his tired being the only thing visible as he rounded a corner. Taking a calming breath, she turned back to face the school, holding the strap of her backpack firmly in her left hand. She set one foot in charge of the other as she walked up the stairs and through the glass doors.

"Well, if it isn't weeping Willow," came a high and snotty voice from behind her. It belonged to the school's resident mean girl, Katherine.

"What do you want, Kath? I have nothing for you to pester me about," said Willow, her tone of voice clearly displaying her annoyance and want to not be bothered so early in the morning.