The Black Swan

Chapter 6 - The Waiting.

December 18

2 days before The Day

10:02 am

Light shimmered above Brianna's head as she slept deeply, her eyes fluttering from her dreams. In her dream, she was with her dad, Mark, and her mom all as a happy family in a picnic. She was wearing a long red dress running bare foot through the moist grass in the garden. Her dress getting dirty was something she didn't care about. Her hair was down flying around her, some strands on her face and in her wide opened smiling mouth. She let out a loud laugh and it sounded unfamiliar. Her mother was singing. It was Brianna's first time to hear her mother's voice. Maybe it was how she imagined it, but it sounded very realistic. She was humming a song Brianna did not recognize, but the clarity of her mom's voice made her like the lyrics:

The fear of falling is the reason we fall.

The reason we fall.

The reason we fall.

Brianna was happy, and someone somewhere inside of her wanted to stay in the dream forever. But she knew it is never possible. 

Light rays penetrated her eyelids and hit her retina waking her up. She opened her eyelids slowly and observed her best friend, the ceiling. One half of her mouth crooked as she smiled. The voice of her loud laugh was still inside of her echoing, the feeling of her hair flying with the wind did not leave her yet. Her feet were still wet and cold. It was her 16th birthday and she had a wonderful morning already. 

She decided to wear a dress.

And she was going to tell her grandma that she's going to the attic.

Getting up from her bed, she moved to the white wooden closet on the corner. Before she opened its old door, she looked at the drawing she made above the door handle. A flower. Its petals emerging from the center, its color going lighter the more the petals. She opened the closet and look at what was inside. The only dress in her closet was her black lace knee length dress. It is cold for December. She told herself. Holding it in her hand, Brianna took a moment to make her decision. It was emotionally bigger than it looked. She hadn't worn a dress in ages. Nine years to be specific. And what made it worse was that it reminded her of her father's funeral. She was forced to wear a dress that day. 

Brianna pushed the memory away. She is sixteen now, not seven. She got it out and, finally, decided to wear it. It had two pockets, probably just for style, but for Brianna, that was terrific. It felt different the moment she wore it. Brianna usually wears the same black pants from Zara or Wallis with different shirts. She got out a gens short jacket and put it on, just if the weather went wild. Brianna put half of her hair backwards with a silver clip, the only thing she owned from her mother's belongings. 

Her thoughts shifted over to the attic. 

The white silver stones on the clip were arranged to look like a peacock feather with a red stone in the center. It was heavier than it looks, and it made Brianna feel kind of expensive or luxurious. She got out of her room on the first floor and darted towards Mark's room to show him what she was wearing. The first floor was made of a very short hallway with three rooms beside each other. One for Mark, the other was her grandma's and the third for her. Long time ago, it was one for her parent's, one for Mark, and one was for the future Brianna. She knocked on the door and when no answer was heard by her, she flung it open.

The room was a mess, not something weird though, as if a whole set of cows were set free inside of it. Brianna saw the clothes and papers, torn, scattered on the floor. She assumed he was searching for something, and got angry for not finding it. His room is usually always looking like that. Mark gets violent when he's angry, smashes dishes, rips paper and he even once had hit Brianna.