Blue

Chapter 1: What's that?

A small eighteen year old girl waits at the bus stop. Clad in a grey-green dress, with cream coloured leggings and black woollen socks in dark brown leather shoes. A thick grey coat covers her small frame. The warm white scarf around her neck almost drowns her. The girl, Ellie, does not like being cold.

A heavy backpack hangs tightly around her shoulders. Filled with books, sketchbooks, a journal and pencils. After six long hours of brainstorming, drawing and creating, she is tired. Art school sounds easier that it actually is. Way easier. The process to create something that school thinks will be good enough for the world, is exhausting. But after five long days of school, it's finally weekend! Ellie can't wait to arrive home, to drop her things and to throw herself on the sofa to take a well deserved nap.

After what seems like forever, even though it was only twelve minutes, the bus arrives. The trusty, old, blue coloured bus that brings her to and from school every day. The warmth of the inside of the of the bus that escapes when the door opens urges Ellie to quickly step inside to warm her hands. Of all things to forget on this cold day, she forgot her gloves. Her hands are painfully cold, red and blue coloured. The only thing she feels with them is a slight tingle.

Ellie stumbles through the bus, trying to find a good spot to sit. The small space, the shaking of the driving vehicle and her heavy backpack making it difficult for her to stay in balance. Good thing there aren't that many people in the bus, maybe around ten. An old couple and a few other students, ready to go home. Ellie spots her favourite seat (close to the second door, so the bus driver doesn't have to wait too long for Ellie to exit the bus) and sits down, dumping her bag on the seat next to her. After moving her shoulders around to ease the pain in her muscles, she allows her tired self to get comfortable. It's an hour long drive to get home, so she might as well rest a bit. Shuffling around in her grey, leathery seat she leans against the wall, her head resting against the cool window.

She lazily looks out of the window, watching the enviroment slowly turn from busy streets and grey buildings to empty green meadows and forests. The sound of the engine and the shaking of the bus make Ellie even more tired. She feels her eyes drooping, asking for sleep. She watches the trees, some are still green, others are orange and some have already lost all the leaves it once had. All this while the beautiful pines now stand tall and proud, all its needles still attached. Even though it slowly gets colder and colder, Ellie loves autumn. The beautiful colours and hearing the crackling of the leaves as she wanders through the forests, looking for mushrooms with her little book about mushrooms and a sketchbook. But Ellie also adores being inside her warm house, with lots of burning candles. Some scented, some just regular candles. And of course the warm calming tea with a cinnamon cookie, or hot chocolate with a scoop of whipped cream!

A small smile creeps upon her face as Ellie watches birds fly south. It seems that these birds don't like autumn like she does. They probably only see the cold weather, not the beautiful enviroment or the cinnamon cookies.

A long yawn escapes Ellie's mouth. She quickly loops her arm around the loop of her backpack (she doesn't want her stuff to get stolen while she's asleep) and repositions her head against the window, trying to get comfortable again. Her half closed eyes are preparing to fully close as she sees something that makes her eyes widen.

It was only for like a split second, but Ellie saw it very clear. There, in the middle of a large meadow, is a black figure, looking at her. A roundly shaped silhouette, but not an animal or a human, but there's still daylight. How can it be a silhouette? This startles Ellie, a lot. Now fully awake with a gasp, she quickly turns in her seat and looks back to where the bus just passed the silhouette. It's not there anymore. Was it her imagination? She was really tired, maybe her mind was making up things. Her sudden movement caused some people to strangely look at her, making Ellie feel embarrassed. She blinks and quickly turns back in her seat, making her red-faced self small, hiding behind her long, dark brown hair, trying to disappear in the grey seat.