Chapter 1
Standing alone in a hallway, the girl couldn’t quite remember how she’d arrived at that particular spot. The details of her surroundings were muted and vague, even as she strained her eyes to focus on them.
As she looked around she could just barely make out a locker that seemed to be shrouded by a thick fog. Her heart beat erratically and unreasonably at the sight of the cool grey metal of which the locker was constructed. Without any warning the linoleum floor she stood upon began to roll over itself bringing her towards the locker. The girl tumbled over due to the unsteady ground, and began frantically crawling away from the locker which was now slowly beginning to open itself.
Her entire world was this fun house hallway with rolling floors and ghostly lockers. She couldn’t remember an existence before it and she was very afraid that there would be none after.
From deep within the locker there came a dull roar. The sound rattled through the girls bones, her very core, and sent warning signals firing all throughout her body; She then began to fight even more urgently away from it.
The locker door swung all the way open with startling speed and the door crashed into its’ side.
Braelynn slept soundly in her twin bed, covered with soft warm blankets. Her breath made small noises as it passed through her delicately curved lips. In the distance birds were calling out to one another as a single ray of sunlight peeked through the dark curtains hanging over the only window within the room. The morning was picturesque in its’ peaceful grace, that is, until Braelynn began thrashing frantically, her breathing intensified to hurried gasps and her eyes popped open and she sat up very quickly, whipping her head around as if searching for a beast hiding in the shadows of her dimly lit bedroom. As her fast panicked breaths slowed she realized the actual reason for her terror was just on the edge of her memory, barely out of reach.
Hesitantly she dismissed the first wave of panic in favor for the second caused by one horrible thought: What time is it!?
Braes head whipped around to look at the clock on her bedside table, then let out a sigh of relief.
Only 6:45, I have plenty of time to get to school.
Her heart was still beating a bit faster than was comfortable and she put her face in her small hands.
Breathe... She told herself as she tried to steady her shaky hands.
After a moment the girl begrudgingly swung her legs over the edge of the soft warm oasis that was her bed and placed them onto the chilly hardwood floor. Standing, very ungracefully, she glared at that one ray of sunlight, resenting its existence in her otherwise dark bedroom.
“Honey, you awake?” Her father asked in a soft voice on the other side of her bedroom door.
Brae glared in the general direction of the voice knowing that he would open it before she could anyways. Sure enough the door swung open revealing the kind faced man.
“Oh, good, I didn’t want you to be late again” He mumbled the last bit under his breath.
Braelynn continued her harsh glare with which her father returned a pleasant smile.
How does he smile like that? After moms death? Brae thought to herself, half admiring, half hating him.
“Well,” Brae’s father said, breaking the silence
“I’ll leave you to it then. I’ll see you when you get home, and please, Braelynn, be safe.” He said before leaving the still dark room, closing the door behind him.
The seven years since her mother’s death had brought her only three things:
Pain
Heartbreak
Misery
Brae shuffled her way into the bathroom, flipping on the light switch. She let out a long sigh.
Another day. She thought miserably, just as she did every morning.
Facing the mirror she assessed herself. Ratted hair, dark circles- she cut her observation short.
Don’t care, not even a little bit. She told herself.
Without another look in the mirror she turned on the faucet to brush her teeth. Just as her small finger touched the running water she pulled back. Images of her mother flashed in a gruesome slideshow in front of her eyes. Her beloved mama strewn carelessly upon the rocky shore of the Rogue River. The once animated, life filled body now just a damaged husk. Various bruises and abrasions covered her body, her face unrecognizable in its water bloated glory.
Brae recalled how swollen her mother’s lips had been, the lips that had sung her to sleep. It was as if someone had tried unsuccessfully to tear them from her face. Her eyes had been open, the once springtime green now putrid and pale.
Braes chest ached as she remembered her mother’s smile, always so genuine. Every time that woman spoke someone smiled.
Tears flooded Brae’s green eyes, so much like her mothers that she couldn’t stand to look at them. Even the wetness of her tears made her want to shrink away. Water always reminded her of her mother.
Swallowing the lump in her throat, and puffing out her chest she thrust the toothbrush under the still running water. As she brushed her teeth she simultaneously ripped a brush through her shoulder length dark hair. As she left the bathroom she didn’t spare the mirror another look.
She threw on some clothes that she barely looked at and trudged down the stairs knowing her father would already have left for work.
Great, school. She thought rolling her eyes Just where I want to be at seven thirty in the god damned morning.
She yanked the door of her little silver car open and climbed in, lacking any semblance of grace.
She had a few extra minutes thanks to her sudden awakening. She still had no idea what that was about and it honestly annoyed her. After all, she could have spent another 15 minutes warm in her bed.
I think I’ll visit mom today. Brae decided
She pulled into a parking spot at the cemetery, unbuckled, and began the short walk to the very familiar headstone that marked where her mother lay.
Here lies Eliza Ly
Beloved mother and wife.
She stopped directly in front of where she knew her mother’s casket began and cast a watery smile at the ground under which her mother lay.
Grass had long since covered up the crude rectangle that had once stood out plainly. Braelynn remembered the exact places it began and ended. If she were being honest with herself she really missed that rectangle of overturned dirt. She too had been turned inside out, left scarred and different from her surroundings. Surroundings filled with crying people and sad faces while she remained silent. No tears, no frown. A complete transformation of her former self, such a stark contrast to the somber people around her.
She’d been furious, sick, and confused at what had happened to her mother.
Braelynn had made a mistake the day they found her mother’s body... A mistake that had left her speechless and ended all of her childhood notions. She’d snuck out of her bedroom when told to stay put; crept behind the couch and peeked over her father’s shoulder where his shaking hands held pictures taken from the crime scene.
He’d let out a strangled sob and quickly returned the pictures to the detective. Brae, however, did not make any noise. She crawled back into her bedroom and processed what she’d seen. She decided she figured out the puzzle, she knew everything.
However, she never told her dad that she had seen those pictures, and she never would. She had lost the ability to speak that day, as if someone had stolen her desire to be heard. in fact, someone had, the same monster who’d stolen her mother’s life. Taken everything that made Braelynn... her.
Brae forced herself out of the memories and turned from the grave. It was time for school; in Braes opinion a pointless, miserable institution of humiliation. School was the perfect place for all of her quirks to be noticed and ridiculed.
