Finding Home

Chapter 1: Mom?

"Stay awake, stay awake!"

Vess was fighting with herself on the bus to keep her eyes open but to no avail. She felt drained from all her energy from the night before she was because attempting to B.S. her way to an at least borderline essay for her Psychology class. However doing so took away five hours away from her sleep, college was a whole lot more work than anticipated.

"You can't go to sleep now, you have to give in this damn essay on time."

Although sleep was the only thing her mind could think of, Vess had managed to keep herself awake to get onto the bus.

"Just a few more stops, you can do it!"

The low hum of the bus engine and the rhythmic bumps in the road almost seemed to be singing her a sweet lullaby. Her eyelids started to feel like heavy blocks of cement, and finally gave in to the greater power, and after a passing of several moments so did her mind.

Beeeep! Beep! The sound of traffic woke Vess to a very hazy reality of... the inside of a bus. A bus! Vess jolted up and looked out the window. Shabby houses and run-down shops lined the barren streets.

"Where am I" she thought, a deep anxiety taking over her, despite her exerting all of her willpower not to panic. Vess was those type of girls who only stuck with what she had to do and never ventured beyond her boundaries. To her something as simple as missing her stop would give her a panic attack. Now she was way past her stop. As the bus came to a screeching halt Vess grabbed her papers and ran to the front and pleaded to the bus driver to take her back to her stop. The bus has been apparently emptied and it seemed no one was waiting at the stop to get on. But all she got was the number of the bus to take her back.

"Thanksss for all the help" she mumbled to herself, huffing down the bus steps.

As she got off the bus, she noticed that she had no idea where she was. It looked almost like a ghost town, only one or two people were in sight. She navigated through the empty streets to find the right bus stop. As she checked the bus schedule something caught her eye, it was a colorful poster saying "If you're looking for used furniture in decent condition, look no further".

"Whos gonna buy furniture in this barren land," Vessa wondered But it was something else that really caught her attention, it was the name signed at the bottom-- Anna Kristina.

With that name a flash of memories zipped her mind. her sweet and beautiful smiles in the mornings, and her soothing lullabies and her sad, sad blue eyes.. Along with all that came the horrible pain Vess tried all her best to forget.

"Mommy, where are you going," inquired a 9 year old Vess. Vess's mom turned around in flashy clothes that young Vess couldn't really understand. "Mommy is just going to work, she'll be back when you're awake". But little Vess could tell when her mommy was lying, she always did that weird thing with her eyebrows when she lied.

"But, Mommy..."

"Tonight my name will be Anna Kristina."

She gave a small laugh and missed Vess's forehead and went off into the darkness of night,. She wouldn't come back until the morning. And the days to come Vess's beloved mother started acting differently, she dressed differently, and she began going out every night, leaving young Vess to herself in the scary darkness that engulfed the night. Vess shook out the terrible memory from her head and told herself that was a whole different life. Her mother, that she once loved dearly left one night and never came back in the morning and leaving her an orphan and broken for the rest of her life.

The sound of the oncoming bus brought her to the present. Almost involuntarily, Vess quickly pulled the paper from the pole and stuffed it into her green messenger bag. And on the way to school, she prayed to God with all her heart for something to happen, something to change, not knowing what she wanted to happen.