Last Hope

Chapter one

My name is Katrina. I like to burn things. I am...

Unreachable.

On days like this, days where I spend my time constantly flicking on a lighter, my knees against my chest, I feel at my loneliest. I feel at my weakest. On days like this-when the rains hitting the Earth so hard, I can feel my window cracking under the pressure- I wonder about what would happen if this flood, this major flood built up and washed us all away, leaving nothing behind except remnants of the lives that used to go on here, artifacts- like dolls or colorful pins and letters- left sodden in the ground.

If we all just disappeared, would anyone even bother trying to save the things we left behind? Would they keep us alive in the memories this artifacts gave off? Would people, years later, even remember us?

I don't know. 

I stare at my bedraggled face, combing my fingers through my dark hair. Would anyone remember me? Would they find my things, my lighter, and turn it over in their hands? Would they look through the letters in the shoe box in my bed and try to piece together my life before the Great Unknown pulled me away from the world?

Would they?

"Nini?" My doorknob rattles. Then, there's Freddy, grinning at me. He's twenty. He's never had a job.

He's my brother.

"Are you coming out with me tonight?" He walks over to me and sits, placing his hand on my shoulder and squeezing. I open my mouth and lick my parted lips as I stare at my lighter.

"Maybe. It depends on how I'm feeling." 

He scrunches up his eyebrows. "You-" then he closes his mouth. I know what he was going to ask, of course.

You feel? I do. I'm more human than people think.

Instead of talking more, he leans over and pecks me on the forehead, ruffling my hair and smiling at me. "I'll see you tonight, then?"

"Where are you going?" 

His eyes twinkled mischieviously. "To Liv's. Duh." Olivia's got long, pale blond hair and blue eyes. Fred has a picture of her sitting on his nightstand of the two of them lying together in a haystack. That was back when she had broken her arm, so he never had any time for me. It was always Liv. Liv. Liv. Liv. She was always breaking something. A foot, a hand, a finger. She was clumsy.

I always thought she had Histrionic Personality Disorder or Munchausen.

"I love you," he says and then he's gone, leaving me alone. I stand after a while, stretching my legs and walking downstairs. My parents are lounging on the sofa, cuddling and feeding each other fruits. When they see me, their eyes widen.

"Nini?" My lips twist into a smile and I walk over, squeezing in between them. My mother makes a noise in the back of her throat and I wrap both of my arms around them. There's just enough room for me to spread my legs across my dad's lap and lie my head into my mother's lap. She strokes my cheek, still frowning.

My dad is tall and skinny, with a slight beer gut, and my mother has these bags underneath her eyes that she uses makeup to cover up. She's got brown eyes and blond hair. Dad's got brown eyes and black hair. They married after I came along. My mom twisted her ankle walking down the aisle, so the wedding had to be relocated to behind this hospital. It smelled like blood and we saw these victims of car accidents, banged up and bloodied, enter in. It was pretty macabre.

This is us now. Me and my parents and Fred. I have blue eyes and pale skin, and my mother says I wear to much eyeliner. I'm short and skinny. My brother has this light brown hair and my same eyes. People say we could be twins. Dad says we're,"Joined at the hip".