As The Blood Flows: Chapter 1

Life is a strange disease. The symptoms show quite early on, they include depression, sadness, Love, heartbreak. The list varies for each person, and the disease just continues to spread. The only cure for life is Death, the ultimate fate. What if you could avoid the ultimate fate? What if you could live forever? The question you should really be asking is: at what cost?

My name is Adelaide; my story is a strange one. I didn't believe, now I do… Life can be eternal, but will you abandon everything you've been taught to gain it?

I don't know how the fire started. I don’t know how it spread so fast, consuming everything in its way. I definitely don't know how I was the only one who survived. They say that the fire started in my bedroom, yet I still lived, my parents did not. Somehow I made it out onto the lawn while the fire blazed behind me. The neighbors found me, a six year old girl just standing on the lawn watching her house burn to the ground. When questioned I found that I was unable to remember how I had escaped or even how I survived. People looked at me with suspicion in their eyes, and I was sent into foster care for three years before being adopted by an annoyingly normal couple known as the Youngs. At first they took pity on me, and then after the years went by they realized I was just a creep, and lost interest in me. So now I wake up every morning only to be ignored by everyone, or teased, or further insulted. Then I go to sleep every night only to start the miserable cycle once more.

The day the cycle changed was a dreary one, and also the day before my sixteenth birthday. School had let out for Winter break, and the weather was only getting worse. Amanda and Tom (my annoyingly 'perfect' adoptive parents) were making lunch, and I had refrained from helping them or even joining them to eat; they had severely annoyed me the night before, this was the only way to retaliate. I wrapped myself in my coat, and pulled my gloves on before opening the front door and stepping into the winter air. Then I decided "hey, what the hell" and I slammed the door as hard as I could before jumping over the fence onto the sidewalk, laughing all the way. I walked down the sidewalk a little ways before realizing they weren't coming after me with a broom, and then I took out my phone and put my ear buds in. I blasted my rock music and walked down sidewalk being careful not to make eye contact with anyone passing me by. It's a small town that I live in, everyone knows everyone, so people know who I am. Though when meeting me they all react in different ways. Either they feel pity for me as I am the sad little orphan girl, or sometimes they're disgusted with me for being such a loner waste of space. You see, I don’t have friends. Friendship requires friendly conversation, I don't do conversation. Friendly conversation also requires you to be friendly, I don’t do that either.

I think I had a friend once, but she ended up ditching me for the popular clique and spreading my secrets through the town; 'cause you know, she was a bitch like that. But I don't get angry, I just get even, and that's the beauty of revenge. Before she knew it a few of her secrets were out too, but they were on the internet, and word gets 'round fast. I think she ended up moving or something. Friendship is not something I try to find nowadays, so I spend my days avoiding as many people as I can. I think people at school try to tease me for that, but that gets blocked out pretty easily, but when people try to trip me or start a fight, that's when things get ugly. 

I snapped out of my daydream as I reached the gate to the cemetery, pushing it open slightly, I stepped inside its perimeters. I began my trek up the small slope and made my way around the center of the cemetery; my parents were buried at the very back of the grounds. I don't just visit them to mourn them, if I'm being honest, I can't actually remember what my parents were like. All I know is that they died, and left me behind to live out my life alone. I only have one thing that belonged to them; a locket, it was my mothers. If you open it you'll find a picture of a woman with a perfectly symmetrical face, and dark auburn hair framing her face, she does look a lot like me; though I imagine that's because she's my mom.

I trudged through the thick mud and brambles until they cleared and two tombstones were in sight. I tread carefully as I made my way towards the slightly crumbled, graffiti covered hunks of rock. As I said before, the people either dislike me or they pity me, most of the time it's the first option. They also seem to think that spray painting random graphic images onto my parent's grave will hurt me but truthfully, it doesn't. I really couldn't care less if their graves were clean or painted, hell I would totally join in too, but I'm told that would be un-lady like. I scoffed and sat with the graves to my back, the only real reason I came here was because it meant people would leave me alone, if they see me they assume I am mourning then they leave me alone, and I can go nearly a whole day without pity or disgust.

I pulled my notebook out of my bag and opened it. Inside was the music I had been learning; 'Vivaldi's winter', one of my favorite pieces of all time. It also just happens to be very complex and emotive when played on the cello. I began studying the notes scrawled upon the page, and labeling the parts that were going to be much harder to learn. I relayed all of the sounds in my head, forming the composition. I got so caught up in learning the piece that I didn't notice the storm move in and blanket the area with a sense of foreboding. Soon it was too dark to read anymore and a strong wind swept through the graveyard, knocking the notebook from my hand and sending the sheet music soaring. I cursed before getting to my feet and chasing after it. I imagine I looked like an idiot chasing after a single sheet of paper. Eventually, when I reached the entrance of cemetery I gave up and watched it simply fly away.

Feeling defeated, I turned to head back and ran straight into someone. Brilliant, I stood up and brushed myself off before looking at the guy who couldn't watch where he was going. But that's the thing, there was no guy, or even anything n my way for that matter. I looked around to see what or who I had bumped into, but there was no one there. What the hell? Feeling uneasy, I began running back to my parent's graves so I could retrieve my things before the sky opened up and drenched me. I ran through the shrubs and dying environment until I reached the recently abandoned graves. The small root sticking out of the ground was not anticipated, and I found myself on the ground only a moment later.

I reached and grabbed my bag that was lying on the ground about a foot away before attempting to get to my feet, and failing… miserably. I massaged my sore ankle and felt a piece of what felt like cartilage crack back into place. I winced as I got to my feet, and instead transferred my weight onto the unharmed foot. Limping my way back to the gates cautiously was surprisingly eerie; a sense of foreboding had settled into my stomach, making every step more suspenseful than the rest. I made my way to the gates and quickly stepped outside the boundaries; the moment my foot touched the pavement my put of foreboding lifted. Unsure about what had just happened, I began to walk home; my right leg threatening to give away any second now.

A few seconds later the sky opened up and the water came down in buckets. Cursing once more as I attempted to take shelter under an old oak tree, I set down my bag and bent down to massage my ankle again.

"Are you alright?" An accented male voice asked curiously. I look at whoever is bothering and find myself momentarily mesmerized. He had a very square and set jaw, and his eyes blue were hooded as though hiding something. I looked away to recover from my moment of weakness before replying;

"I'm fine." I scoffed. I didn't want to seem weak or helpless, I couldn't have him misreading me and taking me for a helpless girl. I stood up straight and avoided locking eyes before walking away.

"Are you sure you don't need any help?" He asked as I hurried away; I didn't want to be bothered by anyone today, or any day for that matter.

"I'm fine, please just leave me alone." I called back as I turned the corner. When I thought it was safe to look back without looking like a creep, I peeked around the street light; no one was there. People seemed to have a habit of disappearing today. I scoffed once more then turned around… He was standing right there. My heart stopped for a moment as I tried to recover from my mini heart attack. "How in the hell did you do that?" I questioned angrily. I cursed under my breath and stared at the ground; not wanting to look at him. He took a step back and straightened his rain jacket.

"I'm sorry; I did not intend to scare you." The way he spoke was different from the dialect I was used to; it was as though he were from a different era. The rain poured down harder, and by now I was completely drenched. "I only wanted to see if you are alright, your ankle appears to have been sprained." I was getting nervous at this point, so I began crossing the street and making my way back home. I told him to leave me alone once more, when I reached the other side I looked over my shoulder and saw once more that he was gone. Was I going insane? Maybe he wasn't even there in the first place, and it turned out that schizophrenia ran in the family. My mind's gears turned quickly as it reeled at the different possibilities and causes of seeing the man who had stood before me, clear as the dreary day itself. I reached the porch and took shelter from the heavy rainfall under the roof. I stood there for a moment, trying to piece together the fragmented logic I had in my head. A feeling of being watched settled over me and I decided that being inside would rid me of that feeling.

I opened the door silently and tread carefully through the frame before closing the door behind me. I made my way up the stairs quickly and quietly, not wanting any attention from the people who wanted to call themselves my parents, but they never quite got that far. I got to the landing and continued onto my bedroom, but hesitated before opening the door. I spied a mark on the back of my hand that grasped my attention; a triangle. Confused, I lifted it closer to my face and saw it wasn't like a strange birth mark, it was three lines of scar tissue. It hadn't been there when I woke up… or maybe it had, I don’t know; I'm not that observant. I opened my bedroom door and sat down at my desk and stared at the mark that now lay upon the back of my hand. I traced my finger over it and a strange feeling of power spread throughout my body, the mark was the focus of it. The feeling faded but the mark still tingled with the strange feeling. Confusion flooded through me but it was soon replaced with a feeling of exhaustion and fatigue. I hadn't exerted too much energy today or really at all in the past few days. Suddenly the exhaustion was so heavy that it clouded my mind, and I felt myself slipping into oblivion. The darkness consumed me, and it all slipped from my feeble grasp.