𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐀𝐋 𝐌𝐘 𝐓𝐇𝐔𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐑! ℧ 𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒏𝒔

𐚁 𝟎𝟎. 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐠𝐢𝐜 𝐡𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐚 𝐠𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲

.°˖⋆ ℧ 𓃗 .°˖⋆

"I DON'T WANNA go!" Arizona Clark cried, her seven year old body being dragged towards the front door of their home in the outskirts of Kansas City.

She pulled against her mother's grip, the woman's eyes wide in fascination of the dark clouds beginning to funnel only a couple hundred yards away from them.

"Mama," Arizona called, tears streaming down her face. She saw the sky looking stranger with each second and knew of the damage that would ensue only a few minutes from now. "Mama, we need to hide!"

"Not yet," her mother's voice said softly, putting a finger to her daughter's lips. She had an amusing smile on her face, her eyes watching the wind blow the wheat over with a single gust.

"Mama!"

"Arizona! Come here," the woman took hold of her daughter's shoulders and brought her in front, her face pressing against the sliding screen door. She bent down to her daughter's height, pointing a finger at the sky. "See the clouds? They haven't touched down yet. Probably never will with the way things are moving. You have nothing to worry about, darling."

Arizona's lip trembled, her eyes puffy and red from crying. The way she saw it, when the sirens went off, bad things were going to happen.

Well, the sirens had been going off for the past ten minutes. And yet here they were, watching the winds blow down everything in their path. Their next stop? Arizona's house.

"Mama, I don't feel good," Arizona mumbled, clutching onto her stomach. She had never been good with bad weather. She had seen the news and the destruction it has caused.

Sighing, Arizona's mother stood up. She led her daughter towards the basement, pulling a thin string and lighting up the room. She pointed to a corner of the room, saying, "Stay here until you hear silence. Until then, keep your head down and don't look up. Ever."

Arizona didn't like the tone of her mother's voice. "You're staying with me, right, Mama?"

Her mother shook her head, her body already leaning towards the basement door. "I can't, darling. I gotta—"

From above, the tornado sirens cut off. Arizona thought that maybe the storm was a false alarm, and she was safe to get up, but she was far from being right.

Quicker than a blink of an eye, Arizona's mother was gone. Pulled away by the dark clouds circling over their house. Arizona screamed, curling into a ball and grabbing the sturdiest thing she could find.

It sounded like a train. That was the best way she could describe the piercing screech of the tornado destroying her home and taking her mother's life.

Wood flew everywhere, old artifacts that Arizona didn't even know they had slamming into the walls, which were barely holding up. It was pitch black, the small light overhead shattering and sending glass flying.

Arizona cried, her tears being swept away by the rest of the storm. Her knuckles turned white from her tight grip on whatever was holding her down. She could feel random things dropping and cutting her fragile body, but that was the least of her concerns.

As long as she made it out alive.

Just as quickly as it came, it was gone. Arizona didn't move for a long time, her body trembling and numb. She didn't have any more tears left to cry. All of them gone in the wind.

When Arizona finally picked her head up, a small part of her wished that she was swept away with everything else. Her house was left in ruins, nothing left standing except for a seven year old girl with blood running down her body.

She pulled herself up and somehow made it outside without damaging herself anymore. Arizona was all that was there.

Searching through the mess, Arizona weakly picked up her teddy bear, which had somehow survived the disaster. It was covered in dirt and had one eye missing, but overall, it was in one piece. Something Arizona's heart was not.

The young girl stumbled down the long gravel road that led to the city. It may have been at least twenty minutes before someone found her and helped. Arizona knew that other people had to take care of their own houses, so when a van pulled up and she found herself sitting beside another girl that looked like her life just got destroyed, she smiled faintly.

In her dusty pink tank top and matching colored boots, Arizona held her hand out, waiting for the other girl to take it. "I'm Arizona."

The girl hesitated, her eyes glossy from crying. She reached out, grasping Arizona's hand and shaking it. "I'm Kate."