Letters From An Angel

Chapter 7

Tony's POV

The forest was such a great color and smell. The greens and the browns blended together making the smell seem even more wonderful. The mud stuck to all of us in splashes making the girls obviously uncomfortable as we followed Levi and Gwen past the Circle and to the Stone Room.

I crawled through the dark space, only thinking of getting out of there. I heard Emily in front of me and Ava behind me. Suddenly the darkness was filled with a light at the end of the tunnel and Emily stepped out. I wonder is this is what it's like to die. Crawling through a dark space till you finally reach the end. The light. I wonder if this is what it was like for Sophie. Probably not. She was alone. I had my friends with me. I got out of the tunnel and looked around the room.

It was about the size of a small classroom, rectangular. The entrance was on one of the smaller walls and it was in the right corner. There was a pile of pillows in one area that didn't match; some of them were regular white pillows while others had cases, all in different sizes. Next to the pillows were nicely folded blankets and sheets of different colors, styles, material, and sizes. There were three wooden chairs that didn't match each other. It smelt like the rest of the forest, but gave off this cozy feeling that made me instantly like this place.

I slowly brushed my hand on the wall.  Different colored phrases were all over the wall, some were old some were new. Hope fills our minds with love....It will be okay....Even as I run, I can find no place to go....Fear is the heart of love.... The words were in all different handwritings. I recognized some of the words for song lyrics and poems we read in school. We all gazed around in silent amazement. I read a beautiful poem or song or story about a girl with a power to see others pain but couldn't do anything about it. It was written in orange.

Levi came over to me "What do you think?"

"What is this place?" I asked, putting my hand on someone's blue handprint on the wall. Their hand was smaller than mine.

"Well," Levi said loudly. "If you want an explanation then you all better listen." We all stopped reading the walls to hear Levi. "So a long time ago some kids, we think they were about 15, were wondering through the woods and one fell upon this room. They wrote on the walls, being stressed teens like us all, they wrote what they felt just to get it out. They actually started meeting up here with other kids of the neighborhood, but no one told their parents or friends at school. Soon, kids of all ages started to bring in things like this table and pillows and blankets. This is where we come to run away." Levi pointed to the wall were it said that in green. "I wrote that when I was 12 and ran away from home."

Ava spoke up. "Isn't this place dangerous though? A rock could block the entrance. It could flood."

"That's why we have this." Gwen said smiling and getting on a chair and pushing on the ceiling, which also has writing on it. The ceiling gave away and you could see the sky. Gwen climbed out and stuck her head back inside. "See?" she jumped back down.

"So why did you guys bring us here if it was only for kids in the neighborhood?" Emily asked.

"There are special circumstances." Gwen said. "People who need somewhere to go. Special friends. Lovers."

I exited the conversation and walked around a bit more.

On the longest side of the room was a long, but not wide, wood table. On the table were sharpies of all colors and paints and paint brushes, matches and candles. There were old white flowers on the table, surrounding three framed pictures. The picture on the left was in a gray fame with a fake glass rose in the corner. The picture was of a girl, about a year older than us, with jet black spiky hair and green eyes surrounded by a lot of makeup. Her smile was soft and her face was round as she gleamed at the tilted camera. She was pretty. There was a slip of paper underneath the picture that said Briana Blake and a date that I realized was her birth and death date. This was the girl that died as a freshman in a motorcycle accident four years ago. The picture on the right was of a girl about two years younger than me. Her frame was red and circular. The girl was adorable, African heritage with puffy curly hair and shining brown eyes. Her smile made her look like she was grinning because she knew something you didn't. The tag said KaMaya Jones. Her death date was last year and she was only 11. She died by a heart problem a few days before her 12th birthday. The middle picture was of Sophie Anne. I don't remember where it was taken, in this country or not, but she was on a beach with a white shirt over her bikini top and jean shorts, her hands in her pockets. Her hair was lit golden because of the sun and the ocean wind made it flow like the wind. Her eyes were gleaming and she had a beautiful grin on. It was my favorite picture of her. The frame was the biggest and gold. It said her name underneath and like all the others said her birthdate and death.