Saving Greer ((Prequel to "Red on my Ledger"))

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Greer

Every time she thinks about that day it opens an old wound.

She was unaware of what was to come, yet she was aware of the tension travelling into the old, wooden cottage. Sickness radiated from the walls, the once comfortable sensation she received in the home had sooned turned sour.

Her footsteps echo off of the empty hallway as she makes her way up towards the mahogany door at the end of the hallway, shining from the dim light of the lanterns. Her limbs were stiff from lack of sleep, her eyes aching and bloodshot from drying exhaustion. She moved with a stiff lack of grace, her mix-matched socks dragging across the hardwood floor.

She stood in front of the door for quite a while, her face examining the painted wood as she had done for years before. But today was different.

She swallowed what was left in her dry mouth for a moment before she placed her trembling hand onto the doorknob and gave a small push.

Afraid of what she would see she closed her eyes, the darkness filling her vision, drowning out reality. She itched to walk away, yet she forced herself better of it, her aching eyes awakening back into the dimly lighted room, before she took a step inside as she had done many times before.

The room was cold, the fire burning on its last piece of hay, the smoke beginning to steam out into the chimney. The space seemed empty without the few men and women bustling the small area, the equipment no longer lining the cream-colored walls.

Slowly the girl itched towards the bed, her stomach churning as she clutched her arms closely to her sides. Regret itched her insides as she took a slow seat besides the bedside table. The same way in which she had done for every day for almost a year. Very carefully she crossed her hands over her lap, examining the crippled, occupied sheets.

She sat for several minutes, her crusty eyes beginning to gloss over. There was no sound in the small space besides the ashes, eating away at the last log of wood. Sadness and sickness radiated throughout the carpet, ceiling, and bedside. She knew not of what to say because she had too much that she wanted to. All of what had been left unsaid jumbled together behind her mind, causing her face to boil over in a mixture of depression, anger, and perhaps a bit of a mix between loneliness and hopelessness--all to intense to comprehend for someone of her young age.

She had dragged her to church every single sunday, yet the girl still knew not of what she believed in. She had hoped that, when you died, you ended somewhere. A part of her seemed to doubtfully believe, however, that she would simply end up wormfood in the ground, all the sound of eternal life lost in the mess of pages and scriptures that others spent years comprehending. Yet, now, as she stared silently at the sheets of a desperate lost soul, she wished that she believed in the book for, perhaps, it would allow her a small flicker of her otherwise emptiness of hope.

She took a shaky inhale of breath, outstretching her small hand, her hand finding the rim of the sheets, slowly pulling it back. The hollow ghost of the once-beautiful face would haunt her sleepless state for years to come. Her stomach churned as she leaned forward just slightly, an involuntary small whimper escaping her closed mouth as she flicked a single, cherry-colored curl away from her otherwise closed eyes, the girl slowly setting her hand onto her cheek which was cold and otherwise lifeless, no longer pumping from her heartbeat.