The Last Petal

Prolouge

"Mommmmmmm!!!" Jacob wailed. "Alex hit me!!!"

"Alexandria come down here right now," Her mom called. Alex muttered under her breath too quiet to hear.

"Why did you hit your brother?" her mother asked, frustrated. Her mother was already stressed because her husband was returning after a month of him leaving for a huge business trip.

"Well he was messing up my room after I had cleaned it. Plus I didn't hit him that hard." Alex said, upset that she was getting in trouble. Her mother gave a look as if trying to say 'you're ten he's four, use common sense'.

"Go say sorry," Her mother commanded.

Alex then shuffled off to her room, "Sorry," She said, her good mood ruined by her brother. She was about to start re-cleaning her room when just as he bent down to pick up the first toy, she heard the doorbell ring.

She ran down the stairs in an instant and called. "I got it!"

"Ok." her mother replied.

Alex opened the door to see her Aunt Sydney smiling at her. "Hi. You rea-" Aunt Sydney tried to say but Alex interrupted her with a giant bear hug. "I'm going to take that as a yes," Her aunt said, smiling.

After introductions, Alex went straight to the living room, got her stuff, and ran straight to her aunt's car and put her bags in. Then she ran back to her house to said bye to her Mom, Will, Jacob, Jackson, John, and told her mom to say hi to dad for her.

And just like that, Alex and her Aunt were off.

They were going camping for her and her aunt's birthday. Alex and her aunt had been waiting and talking over phone ecstatic for their trip together in the woods out by her aunt's house. Yet as they got closer and closer to their camping place, her aunt got more and more nervous. At first Alex thought she thought her aunt was nervous that they would fall off the cliff they were driving along, but her aunt got even more nervous as they left the cliff. The closer they got to the woods where we would be camping, the tenser and more nervous Alex's aunt became, tapping on the wheel and eyes flicking across the terrain, her muscles tensed up.

When they got to the parking lot, they climbed out of the car and as the fresh air hit their faces, Alex's aunt calmed dramatically. She stopped tapping and seemed relaxed finally. Sadly, they had to walk two miles to get to the spot near the creek where they were camping, but they passed the time by talking and catching up.

When they finally got to the creek, Alex nearly dropped her bags, witnessing the beautiful sight. She was also slightly surprised that her aunt acted like it was normal too see such beautiful sights, but then again her aunt lived in the woods in a beautiful Victorian house.

Her aunt volunteered to build the tents so Alex decided to go and explore the creek near the campsite. As she got farther, the current got faster until at the end the creek turned into a beautiful waterfall. Although about 100 feet down right in the middle, a ledge stuck out about twenty feet long, seemingly random. The thought of falling down there sounded terrible and yet she wasn't that scared of it. When she returned to their campsite her aunt had set up the tents and was getting dinner out. Her aunt looked nervous once again, but Alex didn't notice because she was more focused on the delicious food that her aunt had prepared.

Alex and her aunt talked the rest of the evening away until it was time to go to bed. And they did or, so Alex thought, because, in the middle of the night, there was a rustling that stirred Alex, but didn't wake her. If only she had awoken...

Aunt Sydney walked down to the waterfall. She looked down at the ledge

"Hello" a voice said from behind her. (Paige- Male or Female?)

"Hello" replied Aunt Sydney without turning. She finally turned around to look at the person who was talking to her but right as she did, the person pushed her down and down she fell.

Aunt Sydney screamed as she fell then a sudden 'SPLAT.' The once-beautiful Aunt Sydney lay on the rocky floor, her body misshapen and bloody.

The next morning Alex woke up so excited to celebrate her Aunt Sydney's birthday but, when she woke she saw there was a letter which read:

Dear Alex,

I'm so sorry I just need time to think. I will be back by noon hopefully.

love, Aunt Sydney.

Alex thought it was suspicious but just decided to just overlook it and wait until noon for her aunt to return. One hour passed. Then two. Then three, four, five, six. At around 7 o'clock, Alex was getting nervous, so she decided to walk down to the waterfall to calm her nerves.

As she got closer to the waterfall, her heart sank deeper and deeper. When she got to the edge, she felt like she was going to faint. Then she saw a pathway and decided to see where it led. She carefully followed the path and it ended up behind the waterfall on the ledge.

She looked around then a light caught her eye. The light came from the ledge so she looked around and found a way to get out on the other side of the ledge without getting that wet. She followed the path out to the other side of the waterfall and then she looked around for the glimmering object.

Alex took one look at the ledge, walked forward, and then dropped to her knees. Alex put her head in her hands and saw that the object that she had spotted was her aunt's.

It was a necklace. She then took the necklace adorned beautiful silver rose on it and put it on, choking on a sob. Alex was more broken-hearted than ever before. She cried all day and she did not leave her aunt's side at all for the rest of the day and all night she waited begging her aunt to wake up. Saying that her joke wasn't funny.

Alex knew it wasn't a joke, though.