Learning to Love

❝Chapter 1❞

Noah's death hit Ella hard. One minute he was there, arms wrapped tightly around her body, the next she was left in the arms of a ghost. A quick death, the doctors said; he didn't feel a thing. But that didn't matter to Ella, all she knew now was the heart numbing pain that had become her companion these last few weeks.

Noah had been her inferno, feeding her flickering flames, but now that he was gone she could feel the flame still inside her, slowly being snuffed out by the blinding coldness.

That's why she must leave. Staying here was almost as much pain as Ella could bear. If she stayed she would become a shell of her former self and Noah wouldn't have wanted that. She had to stay his little flame, his burning butterfly, as he called her.

So, in the night, as her parents safely slept upstairs she packed a bag and left. Her destination was uncertain but all she needed was to leave. She left a note on the kitchen table explaining her disappearance to her parents and ran.

She was 17 years old, she knew she could handle it, after all it's only the world out there. A big wide world, with new opportunities springing themselves upon people every day. That's where she wanted to go. The World.

Though she knew that a train ticket probably didn't cater for "The World." So she slung her grey backpack over her shoulder and with a final glance at the door, left.

A rush flew through her body and she felt an insane sense of freedom as she took of running down the streets.

Her feet rhythmically slapped the cracked concrete and she'd often stumble upon broken twigs and various objects that were leisurely spread about, but finally she reached her goal, the train station.

It was a small old building with an ancient brick archway marking the entrance and she couldn't help the involuntary shiver that coursed through her as she stepped through the fresh hold. The station was eerily quiet and she couldn't help but relate it to a haunted house she'd visited with her friends.

The station was dimly lit and she knew that at that moment, she probably looked like a ghost as her pale skin reflected the sickly lights that hung from the ceiling.

Walking past a fat, old man that had passed out on a bench waiting for his train, Ella approached the large desk that stood at the far end of the entrance.

Her eyes darted around and she let her fingers run through her fluffy hair, an action she was used to doing when she grew anxious. As she walked up to the desk, her footsteps grew harder to make, as if her body didn't want her to continue, but she was stubborn and forced herself to keep walking. She had always been small for her age and as she reached the desk she noticed that her eyes only just reached over the top of the humungous desk.

Who even needs a desk this big, she thought to herself?

Clearing her throat, she craned her neck over the desk and said in a loud voice "excuse me, I'd like to buy a train ticket please."

She'd obviously spoken just a little too loud as the woman behind the desk jumped into the air in shock. Putting a hand to her heart, as if Ella had actually caused her a heart attack, She stared down at the girl, her eyes magnified to an enormous size from her glasses and her silver hair tightly rolled into luminous yellow rollers.

"Oh yes, yes dear, a ticket, isn't that wonderful!" the old woman spoke in a sing song voice that belonged in a Disney film. Ella just nodded, a smile too wide to be real plastered on to her face.

"Where would you like to go?" The woman asked.

Ella's mind raced with thoughts as her eyes found the train timetable.