Over the Edge

Ch. 1-Where the Heart is

~Emmalyn~

There were a lot of things I never expected to happen in my lifetime. When I was little I wanted to fly, but one jump off the porch and a broken arm crushed that fantasy. Afterwards I wanted to find a unicorn and keep it in my backyard so I could breed more.

Needless to say, my unicorn community never happened either.

But I never, not once, thought I would ever want to kill myself. It just goes to show how unpredictable life can be.

“So are you excited about starting at a new school?” my mother asked, her soft voice breaking through my thoughts. I turned my glum gaze from the pouring rain beating against our car window to my mother’s questioning eyes. They were about the only thing I did inherit from her. Expressive, depthless grey eyes. The stick-straight brown hair with a slight curl at the end came from my father and so did, I supposed, my love for cop shows and basketball.

“Oh, yeah,” I responded, rolling my eyes with the usual teenage attitude. “Just about to jump out of my shoes with it.”

She pursed her naturally cotton-candy colored lips. “Emma, if you walk in with that attitude you’ll be no better than I was. The goal is to make new friends, not scare everybody away.”

I sighed, slouching down in my seat. “Whatever, Mom.”

She huffed out a breath and flopped back around to face front. “That’s your child,” she said to my dad who was driving, and he just laughed. “You handle her.”

He reached out and grabbed her hand, interlacing their fingers. “I beg to differ on that one. She’s so much like you were and you know it.”

“Psh, that’s ridiculous.”

“Not really.”

I rolled my eyes again and slouched down farther. As far as parents went, mine weren’t that old. A year shy of forty, actually, but you would never know it. My mother was naturally beautiful and my father’s job kept him in tip-top shape. But they were so sickeningly in love they never stopped flirting. In my opinion, when you reached a certain age, the flirting should cease.

Sagging in my seat, I returned my attention to the bleary landscape that surrounded me. It was mostly trees, and houses breaking up the arboreal cluster every so often. I could see the tall, bright lights of the high school football stadium in the distance, cutting through the foggy haze. How I just wanted to get this year over with.

An abrupt turn to the right had us meandering down some winding road, travelling deeper and deeper into the trees. It was actually rather perturbing in the dark and rain. “Uh, dear parents who claim to love me so much, where the heck are we going?”

To my irritation and confusion my mother just laughed. “Wait and see, Emma. Wait and see.”

That was never good.

“Here we are!” my father exclaimed, cutting the engine. I leaned forward so I could peer through the windshield.

“A cabin?” I questioned. “Why the heck are we at a cabin? I swear to God if we’re camping out this whole time—”

“No, it’s nothing like that!” Mom cut me off. “My aunt and uncle live here.”

Oh. Sure. Yeah, as long as we knew the whackos who wanted to live in a cabin in the middle of the woods, then everything was cool.

I flicked my hood over my head and jumped out of the car, urged by my father to go ahead and run to the overhang at the door. I did so, gaining a better view of the house as I did so. It looked like a few additions had been added on to the back, as they weren’t wood like the rest.