The Timekeeper

Chapter One

My eyes brimmed with tears as I packed up the last box of my belongings. The last seventeen years of my life could fit in exactly five cardboard boxes, filled to the top. That, coupled with the two suitcases that held my clothes, was all I had to carry with me to my Uncle Richard's country home. Wiping away the looming tears I took what would be the last lap of my childhood home.

"Where I took my first steps." I said, gesturing to the hallway.

"My first words." The battered couch in my living room.

"Where I broke my arm." This time the worn wooden stairs, the same ones I fell down when I was ten.

I came to the front door and paused, my voice cracking halfway through my sentence.

"Where I was when....they told me."

The sobs racked my body as I collapsed into my sparsely furnished living room, and I couldn't help but think of all the good memories I had with my parents and how there would be no more.

It has been six days since I got the news that my parents were killed in a ship wreck off the coast of Isla Santa Maria, and the wound is still fresh. They were chosen to participate in a study of marine biology off the coast of the Galápagos Islands, and less than a third through their four month voyage they encountered stormy seas and capsized, drowning in the process. The bodies weren't recovered, but in the SOS message I...heard them die.

"Al-Alexandria! Can you hear us?! Alex, I-I don't think we're coming back. We're leaving you all the money in our account, you'll stay with your dads brother, Richard. Don't worry about the house."

Then my father came on the comm.

"Lexi, baby, we love you so much, we're so proud of you. This is goodbye for now, but always remember that we love you with all of our heart-"

The message was cut off by the sound of screams, ripping metal, and then bubbling water. The shrill scream that escaped from my mother in her last moments is a sound that will be burned in my mind forevermore. My thoughts were interrupted by a loud honk of a horn outside of my home, peering through the small window by the entranceway, I spotted a yellow taxi cab on the street. After taking a few breaths to gather myself together, I wheeled out my luggage to the sedan that would take me onwards to my new life.

Fifteen minutes later all of my belongings had been loaded into the trunk and I was taking my last regretful gaze at the apartment that I loved so much. It was all I had left of them, just a month ago they were standing there hugging me and playing Monopoly on family game night. It wasn't much, but this collection of deteriorating bricks and peeling paint was all I knew for my whole life, and leaving it all behind has got to be one of the hardest things I've done. With a solitary tear running down my face, I took my pawn-shop iPod and clambered into the cigarette- smelling cab.

"Alright cabbie," I said sullenly. " I'm ready."

I tried to force myself to not look back, but as the faded red building receded into the background, I couldn't tear my eyes from it. I finally glanced down to the crinkled family photo clutched in my hand, and it finally hit me.

Everything I love is either dead or gone.

Authors Note

Aww poor Alexandria

So this is my very first book I've written besides just random short stories, and I'd really appreciate any and all comments, and suggestions/feedback. Based on the description, and this first chapter what do ya think? Any suggestions on where to take the story? Thanks so much to anyone reading, and yes, the chapters will be way longer in the future :)

~Em