Chapter One
Her body was shaking violently, like there was an earthquake inside of her. Her sharp sapphire eyes gazed up at me in pain and sadness, as she slowly let go of the last seconds of her short life.
I knew I could do nothing to help her. All that I could do was watch her beautiful, mascara streaked face quiver with sorrow, knowing she wouldn’t last much longer. I tried to break free of the arms holding me back; but they were just too strong. Looking at her face crushed me; the twelve years I’d known Anna would be all. Our plans of growing up together were slipping away as her fingers weakened and began to let go of the slick ladder.
Anna’s fingers gave out. She tried to get her other arm over to keep holding on, but she was too late. She started to plummet into the darkness, and I could hear a faint call,
“We’ll always be together!”
I shook my head violently to wash away the memory. Whenever I was reminded of the day, I hated it, and could never keep back the tears. I could not even think of something that was more horrible than seeing your best friend die. But what made it worse was that Anna was more than a best friend to me. She was my sister. The one person I told everything to, and the one who comforted me when I was going through hard times in my life. Anna would always be there for me, and I would always be there for her. Watching Anna fall was like watching every bit of happiness in my life plummet into darkness. Even though it happened two years ago, every other day the remembrance flashes through my head. Though I was lucky to be able to get through it, by the help of my other best friend, and Anna’s too, Patrick.
I stared up at my plain white ceiling, trying to keep the tears in. I knew if I kept thinking about Anna I would start crying, so I filled my head with happier thoughts.
Suddenly my little brother Hayden came dashing into my room,
“Lacey, will you take Dashil and me to the park?” he asked,
I sighed. “I don’t really feel like –”
“Please! Please, please, please!” He begged,
“Go by yourself.”
“You know we can’t! We can only go with you! Please Lacey. We have nothing else to do and we really, really, really want to.”
“Err. Fine.” I groaned.
“Thanks! Hurry and get ready.” He said, noticing I was still in my pajamas, “when you’re ready come downstairs.”
Hayden spun around, and I heard his feet thump down the stairs and tell Dashil the good news. I sighed, and got off my bed. Outside there was a layer of thick gray clouds in the sky, so I dressed in my rain boots and raincoat and headed downstairs.
Dashil and Hayden were already by the door, waiting for me. Seeing me, Dashil jumped to reach the doorknob and pushed the door open. We trudged through the mud on our way to the park.
Once we got there, I was not surprised to see no other kids there. It wasn’t a very nice day out. Hayden and Dashil cheered and waddled to the playground. I sat on a nearby bench and watched them play for a little bit. About a half hour later, they were ready to go and started to walk back. When I got up to follow, my cell phone fell out of my pocket and landed on the bench. As I bent down to pick it up, I noticed words carved into the wood that read bottom wasn’t death. My mouth fell open and my heart started pounding out of my chest as I recognized Anna’s handwriting.
Well, what do you think?!
