Alexandria's Genesis

The Enlightenment

The sun streams through the windows. Aleissia's face happens to be right where the sun lands. She laid there as long as she could before the light was too much for her to sleep by, and then gave up. She sits up in the bed and yawns. Aleissia was in the middle of stretching when she realized, light.

Aleissia opens her eyes wide and gasps. She looks through the window once more. Shielding her eyes, she looks up into the sky to see it completely clear.

"Oh my god," she whispers.

"Oh my god," she says again, louder and faster. A smile crept onto her face.

"Oh my god! Avrel! Wake up! There's sunlight!" Aleissia calls to Avrel. Her smile is wide and open and she is giddy with delight. She only saw this a few times her entire life. Aleissia notices the silence and calls out again, more commanding this time, as she turns to Avrel's bed, "Avrel, come on. You really need to see-" But the bed is empty. Avrel is gone.

"A- Avi?" she asks the empty room as her heart drops. Looking around the room furiously, she finally sees the window near Avrel's bed is slightly ajar, just enough that it won't lock. Aleissia jumps out of bed and rushes to the window, the wood floor thumping with every step of her bare feet. She bursts her upper body through the window frame, slamming the window out of the way.

"AVREL!" she shrieks.

At that, Avrel's mother busts in in a chaotic hurry.

"What's wrong?" she asks Aleissia.

"I'm sorry. I've got to go," Aleissia replies hastily.

Aleissia sits on the frame of the window and pivots outside. Avrel's mother runs to the window, but Aleissia jumps out and runs away. She gets to the window and calls out, "Aleissiaaaaaaaa!"

Aleissia doesn't know where Avrel is, but her first instinct is to head to the trees. She runs over the dirt in her bare feet. Dark dirt flings into the air behind her ravenous steps. She forgot about her jacket, but it was warm enough anyways. Beelining for the trees, she forgot to look around to see if Avrel was there anywhere. Her foot catches and she falls forward hard.

"OOF," she exhales. She gets back up and hurries for the trees.

~~~

Aleissia gets to a point where she can see the trees, but no sign of Avrel. He must be sitting down. Her feet hit the ground faster and harder. She gets to the trees to find there is no sign of anyone. Her breath is heavy and she wonders where he could be next. She decides to get help from Sevantei and Nikal. She charges off again, to Nikal's this time.

As soon as she reaches the door, she pounds wildly.

"NIKAL! OPEN UP!" she screams. Aleissia pauses a moment before resuming her banging on the door. The door flies open and Aleissia almost loses her balance.

"What the hell are you doing?! My entire family just woke-"

"Avrel's gone!" Aleissia interjects.

Nikal's face fills with surprise. "What do you mean he's gone?"

Aleissia's explanation flies from her mouth. "I mean I woke up and looked over at him but his bed was empty so I ran away from his house to look for him at the trees but he wasn't there and I didn't know what to do so I came here to get you and I still need to get Sevantei and we-" she stops herself to take a few breaths. Her eyes swell up and her mouth is upturned, "and we walked back last night in the roads we aren't supposed to go on and-" tears stream down her face and she lets out a short cry, "an-and we saw something. We saw a monster and I was so scared but it left before it hurt us but I think it came back and took Avrel and I'm so scared!" As she finished, her legs give out and she falls into Nikal's arms, and starts wailing.