Evil Heart Trusts

Chapter 8

 I fell through the end of the black spiraling portal and as soon as I was out I realized I was miles up in the sky far away from the ground. I screamed as my remaining tears flew up in the air as I fell down. I flew right down into the branches of a small forest. The sharp branches and twigs scratched up my delicate skin and rustled up my already windblown hair. I screamed again wondering if anyone was around to hear me. I finally fell down to the ground and my rear slammed against the hard ground. I screamed once again in the pain feeling I broke something. I let out a whimper and looked around at my surroundings. There was a small town in front of me. Soft, green, fresh grass. Puffy, white clouds up in the sky. Patches of beautiful flowers with a large variety of vibrant colors flooding the ground. The place was beautiful.

 The place looked.. happy.

 The town was full of people. Every single face was staring right at me. I felt my face burn with embarrassment. I cleared my throat and got up off the ground in my tattered clothes and ripped skin. As I stood in front of the many faces I felt more left over tears flow down my dirty cheeks. "Uh.." I could only mutter in the horrible silence. A short, old woman seemed to push her way through the crowd. She hunched her way over to me by walking with her cane. Her wrinkled face smiled at me kindly. Her silky, grey, long braid laid over her shoulder and down to her waist. She had an olive green, stitched up, long shirt on, and a red skirt, and black slippers. She wobbled closer and closer to me. As she finally stood in front of me, she smiled widely at me ever so kindly. Her kindness shocked me. I don't know if I've ever been treated like that. Except maybe by Kalli.

 Kalli..

 What is she going to do when she realizes I've gone missing?! How will she react? Will she send a search party after me? Or maybe she'll assume I've moved away and didn't tell her? I don't know. I'll see if I can get to her later.

 I snapped back to reality and the woman grabbed my roughed up hand gently and led me to the town. I wiped my tears as the town people cleared a path for us, everyone watching me. I looked around at everyone who was watching me. A little tan girl with dark brown, braided pigtails, deep hazel eyes, and an off white casual-ish dress came out the crowd and walked along side of the old woman who grabbed my hands. The crowd just continued staring as the three of us walked past them. The woman and child led me into a small hut that resembled the rest of the huts. The straw roof, the white walls, the holes for windows, and the beautiful flowers on vines that grew up the walls. We walked into the hut, the woman pushing open the straw door. As the three of us stepped inside the house, the old woman let go of my hand and walked into their kitchen.

 "Nani can't speak." the sweet little girl explained to me. She looked up to me and smiled widely. I smiled weakly to the small child. The precious girl gently tugged on my tattered shirt. I looked down to her. "Follow me!" the girl said excitedly. She grabbed my hand and pulled me to follow her into a small hall and into a room decorated with pink and stuffed animals. "This is my room!" she said as she organized her small stuffed animals along her shelves. She smiled so brightly and pulled my arms and gently pushed me to sit in a pink wooden chair in front of a mirror that stood on a pink wooden desk. I sat in front of the mirror looking at a girl with wigs in her tangled hair, and bleeding skin everywhere, and scratches and bruises everywhere. I felt so lonely and hurt, I couldn't speak, not even to this sweet girl.

 "My name is Honey!" the little girl said excitedly. The little girl pushed a small, furry, smiling teddy bear into my arms. She opened a drawer in her dresser and grabbed a blue hair brush, and brought over the brush and a pink trash can. The kind old woman walked into Honey's bedroom and handed me a warm cup of tea. I cautiously took a sip of the warm tea, being careful not to burn my chapped lips. The warm drink flowed down my throat warming me up. The woman then handed me a white china plate with a sandwich on the plate. I examined the sandwich, seeing simple white bread, lettuce, tomato, cheese, and mayo. I smiled at her bright eyed and attempted to say, "Thank you!" ever so gratefully. She kind woman smiled back at me and walked out, leaving me and Honey.

 "Finally, someone I can talk to!" Honey said excitedly, smiling widely. She seemed excited to have me. She began gently pulling small twigs out my horrible, tangled hair. "I don't have many friends, so the house is pretty lonely, except this one girl named Mary, she seems pretty nice. Nani lost her voice I for good so she can't speak. I feel really good helping you!" she rambled on and on. She continued rambling as she pulled twigs and many leaves out my hair. "You don't much do you?" Honey asked concernedly. I decided it would just be rude to continue not saying anything. "Not really.." I managed to say as I continued sipping the warm tea, and quickly eating the sandwich. Honey nodded.

 "Can I ask you questions?" she asked. "Sure." I said, wondering what questions she wanted answered. "What's your name?" she asked. "Oh, Ellen.." I said, realizing how rude I was, not even introducing myself. Once she finally got all the leaves and twigs out my hair, she began brushing my hair with the big blue brush. I winced as she tried to not hurt me, pulling out the millions of tangles in my hair. "How old are you?" she asked. "Fourteen." I answered. "My brother is fourteen. He's cool, but mean for a brother." she included. I finished my sandwich and took the last sip of the tea. "People call you the Sky Girl, since you fell from the sky. How did you fall from the sky? That was so cool!" she exclaimed, looking up to her roof, as if looking up to the sky. "That's a long story.." I said, knowing I would sound absolutely insane if I said the truth. "That's ok, if it deals with magic, my Nani secretly does magic! No one knows though!Plus, I'm bored. I don't care if it's long." she said sounding plain. I didn't know if I should be shocked or not surprised her Nani did magic. "Well," I began, "My dad wanted me gone for good. He tried to get rid of me, but I flew away from him and used a portal to get away, and I landed here.." I said, not wanting to mention death or anything graphic for her small mind. She continued brushing and brushing my hair. "Wow, that's so cool!!" she exclaimed. "Why did your dad want you gone?" she asked curiosly. I know the girl is young and curious, and excited about me, but I didn't want to talk about it. I felt I would feel better if I talked about it, though. "I was to take control of a land, but my dad wanted to rule the land for himself." I said, trying to keep it simple. I didn't want to suddenly say "Ya, I'm princess of the Underworld." or something. She nodded and continuously rambled on and on.

 The girl finally brushed my hair out, getting all the painful knots out, and set the brush down. "It's two o'clock, and my brother comes at three o'clock today, from his job at a smoothie shop." she said. She began parting hair from the sides of my hair, taking the parts of hair from the sides of my hair, bringing it to the back of my head to join together, and pony-tailed the hair together where they met in the middle in the back of my head. She began braiding the joined hair, and finished braiding my long hair, and pony-tailed the braid. She was great with hair, considering my hair is so thick. She walked out the room and into a room across the hall. She came back into the room with some bottles of what seemed like glitter or something? Nani walked in and gently grabbed the bottles out of Honey's arms and shook her head, but smiling. Nani took cotton balls and let a small amount of the glitter substance fall on the cotton ball, soaking into the cotton. She rubbed the soaked cotton ball onto my cuts and bruises and they all disappeared. Magic!

 All the bruises and cuts and sores were gone from every part of my body and I smiled widely. "Thank you, thank you!" I said to the kind, frail woman. She nodded, and patted my shoulder. She walked out the room, leaving me and Honey together, and walked back in with a cotton, fine, sleeveless navy blue dress with ruffles and buttons at the top, and strings to tie around the waist, and jean shorts to wear under the short dress, and soft, velvet, black slippers. I gasped at the sight of the beautiful clothes I would now wear!

 Considering if I stay here..

 The woman laid the clothes hanging on my arm and I ran into the bathroom and closed the door and put on the soft dress and wrapped the strings around me making a bow in the back, pulled up the cotton jean shorts, and slipped on the black slippers, that fit so perfectly. I ran out the bathroom and ran to the unbelievably kind woman. "Thank you, Nani, thank you so much!!" I squealed. I had never been happier in my life! I twirled around in the flowy cotton dress "Ellen, you look pretty!!" Honey squealed, her deep brown eyes twinkling. "Thank you, Honey!" I said, smiling brightly. Nani patted my shoulder once again and smiled widely. I smiled back.