Grave of the Shadows (Starting!)

Justia Connors

Oof! Ow! Bounce, jiggle. I am bouncing around while being carried by Celi. We get to the store, and I quickly go to where the candies are. Yum! Peppermints! Oh, and of course, we must have gum drops! I grab some of my favorite candies, and meet Celeste at the checkout counter.
"Let's go, Justia. We'll be late!" she says.
"Okay. Let's go. Another piggy ride?" I question. She nods and we go off together. When we arrive, I see Rosette sitting. We are going to fast to stop, so I don't say anything, but I do see something shiny on the ground. "Celi! Put me down now." I say, giggling. She does, and I run outside. I see the shiny thing again. Wow! It's a coin, but a big coin! I pick it up, and shove it into my pocket.
"What candies did you get?" says Tessa.
"Uh, let me see. Peppermints, gum drops, and gum!" I say excitedly. We both laugh.
"Race ya to the table!" she says. We both run.
Now we are eating. AH! The food is yummy. I down it all in a single gulp. My curiosity wins. I stand up and go to where Celeste is sitting.
"Celi," I whisper, "I found something."
"What is it, Justia?"
"A coin! It's really shiny, and it's heavy, really heavy. Also, it's really big! It's HUGE!" I say. I take it out of my pocket, and show it to her. Her eyes go wide open, and she gasps.
"It's beautiful, Justia!" She exclaims. How much could it be worth? I turn the coin over, and over. It's heavy, and sparkly. "I think it's, no, can it be? I think it's silver!" She says excitedly. I go over to where Rodr and Liam are sitting. I show it to them. Their response is the same as Celi's.
"Do you think it's worth a lot? Can we buy food with it?" I ask excitedly. Rodr looks at Liam, and Liam looks at Rodr.Hurry! I'm dying to know!

Rosette Lennar
I go and sit where there are less shadows. I'm cold. I shiver. Then, Celeste comes out and sits beside me.
"There's enough food for all of us," She says. I push away the food.
"I'm not hungry." I lie.
"Eat! If you want to make us feel good, then don't worry us. Please?" she says.
"I can't. Give that to your sis, Justia... Give it to someone in need. Please. Really, I'm fine." Then I slip away through the shadow, down another ally and sit in the darkest corner I can find. I turn and put my face in my hands. I am now practically invisible.

Tess

Right after I had finished my portion of soup, my bowl was replaced by another one. Slightly surprised, I look in direction it came from. As soon as I looked over, Kyle and his now empty bowl of soup were looking at me. I was about to protest, but then he suddenly nods his head at me.

I immediately gave into the hunger and dig into the next bowl. After the last drop falls in my mouth, a wave of guilt flows through me. Silently, I get up from my spot and collect all the bowls.

Placing the bowls in the sink, I walk over to the pot of soup. There is still some on the bottom, enough for one more bowl. Thinking back, I remember Rose not being at the table. Scooping the last of the soup in a bowl, I then place it to the side. Maybe she'll eat it later, I think as I turn around and fill the sink with water. I rolled up my sleeves, as to not get them wet, and start dishes. I get bored after a minute and start to hum a lively tune. My actions a couple a minutes ago already in the back of mind.

Spoiler

I hope this is okay! I just wanted to jump in before things got too far.

Jazz Rockwell

"Jazz, food." Jackie called.

I stepped through the doorway, bouncing up and down. My stomach rumbled at the thought of food.

"Hi, Jackie!" I exclaimed. "Come on, let's go eat!"

"You go ahead," she said. "I'll be right down."

I stopped bouncing, looking at her, before heading down the stairs a little less excited than before. Climbing on the chair, I waited expectantly for the food and for Jackie, who came down soon after and took her place at my side. Liam handed out the food as the bigger kids talked as I slurped my soup.

Kyle Knightly

I groan as I stand up from the table. Now even my own sister is disowning me. It's like I don't exist. No one speaks to me, Liam and Tess ignore me, and actually, I ignore myself. I think I'm slowly dying...
I pull out my sketchbook and sit on the floor. I continue the drawing I had started before. I add eyes to my faceless girl then a dainty nose then a smiling mouth. I erase the mouth. Smiling is unrealistic. I put serious lips on my drawing. My mind wanders. What would it be like if she was still around?

Tess

After I am done with dishes, I make my way upstairs for the sole purpose of finding Kyle. Walking toward his room I see him hunched over and his pencil moving avidly across the paper. He doesn't seem to notice as I take a seat next to him. Curling my legs up under chin, I watch him.

After a couple minutes, his hand lifts from the paper and I can see the sketch of a person.

"That looks really good." I say as I study the picture and then look up at him with a grin. He looks surprised to see me there, but after a second he smile.

"Thanks." He says as he studies it himself.

Suddenly, I lean against him and let my head rest on his arm. To say the least I was worried about him. He had not eaten much recently and he was somewhat more distant than normal. "I'm worried about you."I mutter, without looking at him.

Spoiler

Family moment. Also, last post for the night.

Celeste Conners

Seeing Rosette run away like that made me die inside. I sighed and picked up the stew, walking back inside. I saw the dishes were already done and I was glad for once I didn't have to do it.

I poured the stew into the pot and set it on the counter just incase when Rose walked back in she would want it.

I sat down on the couch, feeling depressed and slightly worried. Rodr sits next to me.

"Celi, are you okay?" He asks, snapping his fingers infront of my face.

I swallow and nod slightly. "Its just...You know how emotional I am...With my friends."

He nods, "Of course."

"Rose is worrying me...She hasn't been eating."

He sighs, "You need some sleep."

I shake my head, "Nope. Staying up until Justia sleeps. She always likes me to sing her to sleep."

He shrugs, "Well...Try."

I nod and lay back, closing my eyes.

Justia Conners
I'm tired. It's almost 10:00, and I feel like I should rest. I go down the stairs, and see Celi there.
"Celi. Can I go to bed now? I'm tired." I say, knowing that she'll sing to me.
"Of course, Justia. Go get in bed, I'll be right up." She says, tiredly. I nod and then run up the stairs. My "bed" consists of a blanket laid on the floor. I wrap myself in it, and wait for Celi. She comes up, and sings a few songs.
"What time is it?" I ask.
"Almost 11. Go to sleep." She says. My eyelids close, and I drift into a light sleep.

Spoiler

I changed my name to Reyna Lennar. I'm sorry, I'm just getting mixed up with another SB that I'm in with the same name. If you want to change your posts, that's fine.

Reyna Lennar
I sit in the shadows until it's completely dark out. Then, sneak back home, and silently go into the house. Now I walk normally, and then see Celeste sitting down with Rodr. I slip back into some shadows, and see Justia go up to Celeste. After talking, she returned up stairs. Then, I walk quietly to the stairs, and when I'm about to go up, Celeste touches my arm.
"Reyna, I left your food on the counter." she says softly. I shake her hand off of my arm.
"Hey, Celeste. I'm NOT hungry." I lie again. "I said to give it to someone else. And now it's wasted." Celeste looks down at my skinny waist.
"Reyna. Please. You're going to get sick if you don't eat... We don't want you sick." she replies. I don't want the same thing to happen to Justia, Tess, or anybody. I don't want them to die like Amy, my little sister.
"I'll give it to Tess, or Justia, or Kyle tomorrow. I say, then slip away from her. She seems to want to act like my mother, but it'll never be the same. Angrily, I stomp over to a chair, and drag it to a dark corner. I don't want anyone to disturb me tonight.

Jackie

After dinner, I sat and read to Jazz out of the book of fairytales he liked so much. My mom had read them to me when I was just a little kid, before she and Dad died. Jazz always wanted to hear the one about the farm boy and the dragon. He never said so out loud, but it seemed like that story kind of reminded him of us. It seemed to give him hope, seemed to convince him that we could do great things, too.

"And finally," I read, "the princess agreed to marry him. On their wedding day, they kissed under--"

"Ew!" Jazz interrupted, wrinkling his nose. "Kissing? Don't read that part!"

"But that's the end of the story!" I chuckled. "Silly!" Jazz smiled at me, and then yawned.

"Time for bed, Jazzy," I said, closing the book. For once, he didn't protest. I stood up and set the book down on the table as Jazz trudged up the stairs.

I meandered to the kitchen, where I was surprised to find some soup left in a bowl. I looked at it, confused, and then angry. Who would just leave food sitting there like that?

Then I remembered--Reyna. She'd barely eaten anything the past few weeks. I had seen Celeste trying to talk to her several times, but Reyna would insist that she wasn't hungry. I hoped she was alright. I knew she was taking Amy's death pretty hard, but that wasn't an excuse for starving herself. Livia had died, too, but I still was careful out in the city.

Livia. It had been more than a year since her death, but I still thought about her a lot, more than I let on. That was why I didn't like sleeping--I saw her in my dreams, all the time. Little Liv Rockwell. Jazz used to call her Livvy, just to annoy her. She liked Livia, and she liked Liv, but she hated Livvy.

I went back to the other room and picked up the book of fairytales again. They were a good distraction.

Caleb Noel

You would think being kids in a giant ol' building with no adults around would make our little group the happiest bunch in the world.

Not so.

I watched through Hazel eyes as all the other kids/young adults trudged around, eyes lazy with sadness and hopelessness. I clenched my fist together, then unclenched them. There was no happiness here, not even the smallest drop of sunlight through the cracked window. It made me sad, and- in some aspects- almost angry. I won't bore you with those details.

I'd already eaten- just the smallest amount I could risk without totally giving up my strength- and was now bored. We hadn't gone on a mission in awhile- Liam wouldn't even risk the older kids in this kind of weather- and it was adding up in amounts enough to make me want to- well, not die, but whatever came close enough. It was dark enough now that many of the younger children would be heading to bed, but I was antsy with energy. I bit my lip. That kind of thing makes you reckless- adrenline unused.

"Please don't tell me your thinking about it," A female voice said behind me.

Can be anyone, as all the kids probably know each other pretty well.

Kyle

I reach my arm around Tessa’s shoulders. She always tried to cheer me up. I’m so happy I have her as a sister. I flip the page in my sketchbook.
“Here, I finished my last drawing. What do you want me to draw next?” I ask.
“Draw me!” Tess smiles and strikes a pose.
“Of course,” I say and begin a rough sketch of her face. We spend a couple hours like this. We laugh when her nose turns out crooked or when her eyelashes are too long. In the end we have a lovely drawing of her. I add the final touch to her smiling mouth then frown. It’s even hard for her to smile sometimes. She shouldn’t have to live through this. I feel one of my anger fits coming on.
“All done Tess. You should go to bed now kay?” I kiss her forehead and she heads off. I feel like screaming now but that would raise suspicion. I keep getting these anger spells more and more often. I can’t seem to control my fits. Anyhow, I should probably go to bed too. Tomorrow is another day.

Jackie

"Please don't tell me you're thinking about it." Caleb had that look in his eyes again--the look he got when he was about to do something really, really stupid. "I don't want you to go like Liv." I didn't know why I mentioned Liv--I almost never did. Maybe just because she was on my mind.

"Caleb," I began, getting up from the ratty sofa. "It's dark out there, and it's cold. People freeze to death in this weather." Freezing would be a horrible way to go. "I can take you outside if you really need some air, but we can't leave the yard, alright?"

Anna Noel
The joints in my legs popped as I stood up from my awkward position near Alex’s bed. She would never ask me to stay by her bed or read her a story, but I would be here anyways knowing that this is what really wanted.
The things that we saw at our young age changed as all. The older kid can still handle it but the younger one…
I see Reyna running out during meal time, Kyle spending all his time with his sketch book and even Jackie seem to struggle sometimes and of course I see what this has done to Alexa, she barely ever speaks now.
I frowned in confusion. What more can they take away from us? What else is left? But then again there will always be something that we’re terrified of losing.
I was drought out of my thoughts when I heard the hushed voices of Jackie and Caleb outside. I went over to the window and threw it open, as if out to reflex.
“Caleb.” I called out to him.
After a brief moment of awkwardness I heard Jackie’s voice, “Anna?”
I was about to ask him to return but I stopped myself before the words were out of my mouth. The silence dragged on for a while.
“Should we…” Jackie began but I cut in quickly.
“Just don’t let him to anything worth worrying about, okay Jackie.” I said in a quiet voice.
“Of course” she replied.
“Thanks Anna.” I heard Caleb say and I nodded, know that probably couldn’t see, before shutting the window.
I knew Caleb would stay if I asked him too, just to give me some peace of mind, but I also knew that he need to get out of here for awhile. We all do.