The title is only temporary until I find something better. I wrote this piece with a few lines from Charlotte's Hymn so it might sound familiar if any of your read that. (I gave up on that story) Hope you like it!
Prologue
My world was being torn and slashed away at, yet I felt alive. The word still feels fresh being spoken with my own lips; it had never been given justice it deserved. It wasn’t dead like I imagined, only hiding.
“I know what your name means,” she mutters, tugging on the scarlet strand that was stubbornly sticking up. I hold my laughter in; I never had seen such colorful hair. “Ashlyn means dream.”
“I feel unworthy of this name,” I admit, staring at the toads jumping into the pond with sudden interest; I hadn’t told this to anyone, not even in my own thoughts. “Your name is very much worthy though.”
“I guess… but I like the sound of yours better.” The laughter so tightly hidden in my chest burst. “What is it? Do I have something on my face?” she says, my giggles only growing.
“That’s-that’s,” I begin to say through laughs, “such a silly thing to say!”
The girl lies down on the wet grass and her blue eyes dance throughout the place, finally resting at the little pond; she’s put out. I’ve noticed humans easily are. One word spoken not ideal to their values and suddenly they become a different person.
“Audrey is a special name,” I whisper in her ear.
“What makes you say that?” Audrey says, carefully studying me for my expression. I glance at the woods and then back to her eyes.
“You have beautiful eyes.”
“You didn’t answer my question.”
I try not to sigh or flinch; her eyes were still warily studying me. “Your name’s Audrey.”
“So?”
Smiling, I noticed she’s rather dim too. “You’re special, see? Then the name must be too.” I lie down and feel my fingers through the soggy grass; the drizzle from yesterday had pitilessly rained out the grass and the wetness would linger for a while, along with the awful dewy scent.
“But your name means dream. That’s awesome.” I hadn’t heard that word often either and it leapt alive from the shadows.
“Audrey means brave though,” I insist, “that’s even awesomer.” I giggle from the foolish word I spoke, but it feels quite nice all the same.
“Thanks,” says Audrey a little red. I indulge myself in endless thoughts and soon forget Audrey and the silly world around me. I don’t notice her again until her hands are closing in on me. “I love your hair,” she says and pulls a lock behind my ear, “It’s so… chocolaty. I want to eat it!”
My people would cringe at these words, not with amusement though, with shame. I look up at the sky; it was already turning a dark purple. “I think I should go,” I mutter as I quickly move upwards. “It’s getting late- my parents won’t like me coming-”
“Stay! Please, just a few more minutes. We can go inside, get some cocoa,” Audrey insists. I was sure I had heard of cocoa before, but now the meaning was tangled in with everything else and I couldn’t remember what it was. Since Audrey has some though, it has to be at least decent.
She notices the sparkle in my eye and beamed. “So you’ll be coming in then?”
“Well, it’s actually not too late,” I raise my head towards the sky, now almost a vivid black, “And cocoa really does sound good…”
“Great! I think we have some leftover pizza too. I bet Luke’s come back from hockey though, I wonder if they-”
“Luke?” I ask curiously, attempting to change the subject from hockey-whatever that is.
“Oh, just my stupid brother, he’s been… different lately.” Humans seem quick to criticize that word, different. For my people, it’s been long worn out.
“Let’s go inside-it’s getting chilly,” I suggest, nervously peeking through the woods only a short distance away. Audrey, already on her feet, reaches her hand out. Insulted, I ignore it and stand up hastily. She looks at me curiously but I avoid her eyes. “Let’s go in then?”
“The walk’s pretty long. I hope you don’t mind-it is getting chilly,” Audrey adds as she buttons her sweater. The wind fumbles with my chocolate locks and I don’t mind the several minutes spent, despite that my cheeks were now getting dry and lips thin.
“How’s hockey?” I ask after a while when the glow of light still’s a long way ahead and the wind begins to slap my face like mad.
“Only the best sport in the world! Amy, that’s my older sister, played it in high school and I came to every game so I know tons about it,” Audrey says proudly.
“You play it too?”
“Nah, I just like to watch,” she admits, “Luke plays it though. He’s crazy about it-thinks he’ll be in the NHL, ha! I doubt that’ll happen but... he actually is pretty good. He’s gonna try out for high school next year.”
“So he’s thirteen now? That’s not very far from your age at all,” I marvel; my own brothers being decades away from my generation.
“Yup, just two years, look- there’s the street up there. Only a few more minutes...” and it becomes quiet again. I glimpse around at the lonely street feeling quite chilly, and the wind had long cooled down.
“Well, here it is. Home sweet home,” says Audrey. I notice her eyes are waiting for my expression again.
I gaze at the little house sitting alone at the edge of the woods, the same I had so desperately tried to part with. My face seemed to get very pale, but Audrey didn’t notice; much too dark. It wasn’t quite worthy of being a house, yet it felt friendly enough with plenty of warm light.
“It’s great.” Her face lights up, devouring my praise. Then I feel my hands grasping the knob with Audrey happily jumping beside my shoulder. Without a thought, I push the door open into my new world.
