Scyphozoa Castilian

Prologue

    I slowly sat up in my bed and reached out my arm to pick up a faded picture from my nightstand. It had an aged, wooden frame that smelled like a log after a rainy day. It was an old picture of me and my recently graduated sister, Melody. She had deep blue eyes that somewhat resembled sapphires, freckles spread across her face like stars, and long, dark, flowing hair like melting chocolate. I stared at the picture, noticing a strange figure in the woods behind us. I shrugged and stood up, putting my slippers on.

     I haven't seen Melody in forever. She's always too busy with college work, and when she is free, she just visits Heather. She's never told me where she's going but I see her standing by the woods, talking to her almost every day, which is strange because she says she's always busy with college work. I guess some people are just more important than others. Heather is Melody's strange friend that comes over every Thursday night. I don't know why Melody never goes to her house, now that I think about it, I have never seen Heather's home, they usually just talk in the same place right outside the woods. 

      Really, the only thing I like about her is that she occasionally brings me candy from her work. I swear she's a psycho though; I saw her writing a bunch of random numbers on a piece of paper, her usually green eyes tinted amber. I told Melody about it but of course, she didn't believe me. She never does.

   I headed for my bedroom door, thinking about her. What was wrong with her? Why did I always get that strange feeling that I was in danger when I was around her? She's never done anything wrong to me. I shrugged it off and quietly headed for my bedroom door. It was December twenty-fourth, Christmas Eve. Me and Melody used to play in the snow together on this day when we were younger, but now she seemed to forget about me on holidays. 

    I grasped the handle to the door and pulled it open, stepping into the living room. It was quiet, the only noises were my father's soft snoring. I opened the front door and stepped out, feeling the cool winter breeze on my face. My mother called me immature for a seven-year-old. I guess she's right, I thought, falling back into the soft snow and making snow angels.

   Pulling myself up, I carefully started rolling the snow into balls to make a snowman. I found a small carrot inside a bowl in the house and took one of my father's cigarettes sticking them in the snowman's face. I took some rocks from my mothers water fountain that was almost completely frozen over and gave the snowman a smile. "Now all that's left are arms." I said. After grabbing two little sticks from and old dead tree in my back yard, I stuck them in the snowman and put some mittens on them. I hesitantly took the beanie off my head and placed it on the snowman's as if I were crowning a king.

    I slowly sat down in the snow and looked at the clouds lazily drifting across the sky, thinking of when me and Melody were little. I sighed as a tear slowly trickled down my cheek. Angry, I quickly wiped it away. I didn't want to think about her today. I sighed and zoned out, staring at the snowman for a little bit before I heard a low rumbling noise. It sounded like a car engine. 

   I quickly stood up as the car pulled into view and stopped abruptly. I looked at it, confused as to who it might be before I saw the car door whip open. I saw a girl, she looked around sixteen years old with emerald green eyes and honey blonde hair stepping out of it. Heather. I thought and stepped in front of the snowman I made, shielding it from Heather's view. 

     "Oh, hey, Feyah! I didn't expect you to be up this early!" She said, in a rather friendly tone. I gritted my teeth, angrily, "And I didn't expect to see you out of all people at my house today. What do you want so early in the morning?" I asked, in a rather unfriendly tone. She giggled, "Oh well I wanted it to be a surprise!" I clenched my fist. A very unwelcome surprise is what it was. I expect my mother will be happy about this little "Surprise." She loves Heather.