Forever (Original)

Forever [17: Starting Over]

Forever: Starting Over

A young girl with long hair and freckles lay unconscious on the rocky bank of a small river. Her chest rose and fell very little. Several pale gray feathers were clumped in the wet sand and between rocks around her. The white dress she wore was tattered and stained. Bruises were forming on her clay-covered skin, as she had taken a hard fall on the rocky bank.

On the other side of the river, two figures emerged from the woods that closed in the clearing. The smaller one pointed his finger across the water and looked at the woman next to him. She nodded curtly.

He stepped out from the shade of the trees into the blistering, midday sun and waded across the river. At the other side, he knelt at her side and picked up one of the feathers and pushed it into his shirt pocket. He picked up the girl bridal style and went back across.

The woman looked stern as she turned and trudged back into the woods. And the boy followed her.

On the other side of the woods, there was another small clearing. In that clearing, there was a simple cottage. That’s where the woman and the boy were taking the girl.

They stepped into the kitchen and the boy moved past his mother into the hallway. At the last door, he nudged it open with his foot and went inside. He set the girl gently down in the small cot and pulled the blanket over her.

“Please be okay,” he murmured before the left the room to face his parents.

“Why her?” his father asked in a rather harsh voice. “Of all people, why her?”

“It’s not my fault,” he told them quietly. “I couldn’t help it.”

His father glared coldly down at him.  The man’s mouth was moving, but no sound was coming out.

“Father, please,” said the boy. “Don’t you remember when you fell in love with Mother? Didn’t you want to break every rule there was to be with her?”

A flicker of something flashed over his eyes. He glanced at his wife, who’s stern face had become thoughtful.

“Your mother and I are going to go talk about this,” he said. “We’ll be back later.”

With that, they were out the door and gone.

The boy sat down next to the window. He could see his parents walking away from the cottage and toward the shady woods. He pulled out the feather he had taken from the bank.

It was almost black.

~x~

“Do your chain hang low, do it wobble to the floor? Do it shine in the light, is it platinum, is it gold? Could you throw it over your shoulder? If you hot, it make you cold, do your chain hang low?”

The phone echoed through the quiet, sunlit room, and Maria cracked her eyes open. She sat up and picked up her phone, which lay on the covers.

1 missed call

Tossing her phone back onto the bed, Maria sat up and rubbed her eyes. Her feet touched the soft carpet and she raised herself from the bed. She moved slowly and groggily down the steps and stopped at the bottom, staring.

Another human being was in the house, in the kitchen, making breakfast.

“Since when do you make bacon?” asked Maria.

Kirsten glanced up at Maria and chuckled. “Since always.”

“How did you get in my house?” Maria narrowed her eyes at her.