For Elise

Chapter 2

Someone was following her, and this person was playing games with her. She rushed to her library and removed a book. The book which was in fact her diary had a personalized cover page that read; A Comprehensive Exposition to Modern Day Mythology and Its Evaluative Contrast with Ancient Historical Folkloric Fables. That was the most boring title she could come up with, and sure enough, no one has dared to open its pages since. Her dad always thought her that the best place to hide something was in plain sight. Thinking about her dad made her cry. She decided not to dwell on it. She sat at her desk and began to write.

October 4, 2015

She looked up at the clock, recalling that she intended to confirm the time. It was 01:38am. She continued.

***

"You're late."

"Sorry, boss. The weather held her up, so I had to wait."

"What's the situation?"

"She's as vulnerable as always, I'd suggest we just capture the bitch and torture the..."

"No! Follow my orders!"

"Okay, I was just saying..."

"Leave."

"All right, all right. I'd just take my pay and..."

"Leave!"

"Okay, chill."

***

Elise jolted up from her sleep. She had one of those dreams again. They weren't nightmares, no. But she cried every time she had them. She cried because she wished for them to be real, she could give anything for them to be real, for her to have her dad smile at her and say, "That's my little jellybean." But he was gone; there was nothing she could do about it. She wiped the tears off her eyes and looked at the alarm clock. It read 04:56. She made to get up, but the dream flashed through her mind again. This time, she shut her eyes and let her vision seep into her conscious.

She was six years old all over again, her yellow dress fitting her as perfectly as it did then.

"Dad," she called out over the dining table, "what really happened to Mom?"

"Sunshine, you really want to know what happened to Mom?"

"Mmh" she sat up the over-sized chair

"Well, Elise, everyone has a life-clock. Heard of them?"

"No."

"I have one, you have one, your mother has one. Now do you know what a life-clock's for?"

"No." she said, looking at him intently, as though he told another of his mysterious bedtime stories.

"Now, a life-clock is what makes us do all this hard work; It's what makes you go to school, it's what makes me go to work." He took another glass of apple juice."Now when your own clock stops...you sleep."

"Wooah! So, you're saying..."

"No, I'm not saying that." He smiles. "Not that kind of sleep. You sleep and have a lot of amazing dreams and adventures; dragons, unicorns..."

"Yay! Is there Pegasus and Pegasus babies?"

"Yes, there is Pegasus and Pegasus babies! You have so much fun, that you never want to wake up."

"So Mom's in dreamland now? Having fun?"

"You could say so, jellybean."

The blare of the alarm clock yanked Elise out of her thoughts.

"No...no!" she found herself mumbling. "NO!"

And as though she called for the tears, freely they came running. Again.

***********************

There you have it, folks. Chapter Two. I could weep for comments right now! Even if it's "Hey, you're not talking to empty space," I'd really appreciate it.

Next up, Chapter #3

Love y'all.

:)