The lighthouse [ in progress ]

Chapter 2: A new start

-one week later-

It felt like a nice Monday morning to start over. Alice opened the window in her tiny, white colored bedroom. The sun was hiding behind thorn bushes, but it was slowly shining out and distancing itself smoothly, flawless. That's how Alice felt. Like leaving the bushes behind, which have haunted her for years. Two long years. And now she felt like being reborn. Or at least she wanted to feel that way.

During the past week in Seattle, Alice had been sceptical. California, her home ,wasn't the only thing she had left behind. It was the hope. The hope that Grace was somewhere out there-- still alive.

Since the day she went missing, rumours could be heard in almost every street corner. Most of them weren't that realistic or convincing for Alice. She heard that someone had seen a dead body lying on the field with a bloody axe next to it. Or that Grace was seen being kidnapped by a man with a black hood and a knife in his pocket. Nobody exept Alice believed, that one day Grace would come back. Return from the dead. Alive.

The now 16 year old new Alice, was on her way to Ravensville High. She turned to Jackville-Street and almost fell as she didn't see the slippery mud puddle in the middle of the unmade dirt road. While walking, Alice was looking at her brand new, white, leather shoes she bought yesterday. She was also wearing a new jeans-jacket her aunt Jessie surprised her with at her birthday. A little oversized, the kind of style Jessie likes.

She was trying to forget everything about the past. The fact that she lost the closest person in her life. The fact that she thought Grace was just vanishing. The fact that Alice was having guilt feelings...

Without refreshing her make-up or checking on her hair, Alice opened the classroom door...