Skye woke up on the Saturday feeling happy and delighted, it was a weekend and she had promised herself that she would spend the day alone in the forests. It was a favorite thing she loved to do, it gave her the space to think about whatever was bothering her throughout the week. She cleaned up fast and dressed quickly, her favorite button down denim dress that reached above her knees and her sandals. She was going to make it out very quietly to avoid any confrontations with her parents. She got downstairs and saw Ramone in front of the TV watching Naruto.
‘Going out again to play?’ he teased smiling at him.
‘I just need some space,’ she said.
‘I’m all about space,’ he smiled returning back to the TV. She moved toward the back door when it opened and Mick came in wearing sweats. She stopped short and waited for him to say something.
‘Where are you off to?’ he asked gruffly.
‘Out,’ she said vaguely, ‘I’ll be back soon.’
‘Hope you’re not sneaking around with those scum, trust you to flaunt yourself,’ he sneered.
She glowered, he was hateful and full of spite, and she never flaunted herself. She brushed past him and ran out the door into the woods behind her house. The sun came out soon and she forgot all about Mick, the day was unexceptionally clear and beautiful, the sky was a clear blue and there was a gentle breeze that blew her hair around her face. She sighed and allowed her mind drift to the previous day, with Ariel. He made her feel things that she shouldn’t and she didn’t like it at all. He was deluded in thinking that she actually felt something for him; his ego was just blown out of proportion. But he was just so different from all the other boys at school; he wasn’t loud and macho, just polished in a teenage boy way, a way that she had never seen before. He was like a swashbuckling hero from some of Carlie’s romance stories, not that Carlie wasn’t infatuated with him. She shook her head and patted her cheeks as she realized that she had been thinking of him, something she had promised herself she wouldn’t do. She stopped in the meadow and lay on the grass, closing her eyes; before she knew it she fell asleep.
She sat up as two big drops of rain fell on her face. Opening her eyes she looked up and saw the blue sky had now turned into a menacing and dreary gray with thunder rumbling and lightening streaking the sky. She covered her mouth in fear, as a terrified sound escaped her throat. The rain began to fall then and she jumped up instantly with terror making her tremble. It was irrational, she knew, but no matter how much she tried, she could never get over her phobia of thunderstorms. It had begun that night she had stayed up with her mother during a particularly horrible storm, waiting for her father, Ben, to get back. She remembered the way her mother had held her, equally frightened as the lightning flashed over and over again, the power had gone out that night and so the place was dark. When it was all over, they had gotten a call that her father had been killed in a car accident when a tree fell on his car. Since then she had always been scared during thunderstorms. With tears streaming down her face she ran as the rain came pouring down, soaking her to the skin effectively. She cried out as thunder sounded again, but through a flash of lightening, she spotted an old in the meadow not far from where she was. She ran to it and burst through the door forcefully. She ran to a corner of the room and fell down in a heap crying.
‘Hey, that was quite an entrance,’ a gentle voice said. She looked up in fright, the room was dark, but a figure got up and went to close the door where cold air was streaming in from. A green thin light pierced the darkness illuminating a boys figure, he came closer and she pressed back into the wall.
‘Hey,’ he said again and hunkered down in front of her, through the light she could recognize his face and the tears came again.
‘What’s got you into this state?’ Ariel asked studying her, ‘Is it the storm or is the Kraken after you?’ he smiled but she didn’t smile back. ‘It’s OK, I won’t hurt you,’ he reached forward and took hold of her shoulders bringing her from the corner; she went willingly into his arms and allowed him to hold her.
