Elody's eyes slowly blinked open to see a warm orange color. She rubbed her eyes, and then widened them to see fire greedily licking at the bricks of the chimney, wanting to escape. She gulped and shuddered. Where was she?
A creaking sound was coming from above her. Elody snapped her head to where some wooden steps were. "O - oh . . ." Her voice cracked. She held her throat with surprise. Elody hadn't talked in so long, her voice was all croaky.
The creaking continued, and she gasped. It was so unnerving! She wished it would stop. Ebony hadn't been near civilization for so long, and everything was making her jump with fear of them getting her. She really didn't know exactly who 'they' were. She just remembered something scary. They were after her and she had to run away. And then Elody got caught in that dumb blizzard, going days without food.
Her skin prickled with annoyance. She couldn't stop watching those stairs; they were creeping her out! 'What if that -- that thing hops out at me?! What if it tricks me?!' Elody nearly screamed with great fear, but she didn't dare. She held her begging tongue and crawled deeper into the snug couch she had been laid in. She continued to watch the mesmerizing fire, even though it kindled her fear and kept it going well. Despite its holding her silent fear, she could almost say that it felt comforting.
The creaking of the stairs began again, though Elody wasn't freaked out anymore. She simply ignored it and watched the fire, which was roaring with annoyance, now that it discovered that it couldn't get out. Elody smiled.
A rumbling hunger interrupted Elody's delight. She frowned with irritation and ignored it like she ignored the creaking sounds. But soon enough, it got overbearing. It was beginning to gnaw at itself! It at least felt like it. Elody groaned and held it, desperation nagging her. She tried to shoo it away, but it couldn't work. She hadn't had food in way too long, and the smells were getting stronger now. Scents from the kitchen lured her, making Elody shoot up and stumble on the smooth, cold boards of wood. Again, she nearly screamed, but not of fear. Of desperation. But this time, she let it escape. But she still had tried, gritting her teeth until she wouldn't be surprised that they were completely shaven off.
The scream attracted the creaking noise again, but this time it was louder and closer. Feet were descending. 'No!' Her body tugged at her brain to run for her life. "I can't!" she wailed out loud, but at once clamped her hand over her mouth.
"So you are awake, dear child." An elderly voice came from the stairs, where the ascending steps were squished between two auburn-colored walls. It almost calmed Elody, but she fought it off. What if it was a demon pretending to be an old lady? Elody knew that they could do that from first-hand experience. Her best friend got killed that way.
"Yes, I am awake!" Elody growled. She kept herself from launching out the door, in below zero weather. Elody was mightily tempted to, and she thought that she would have if the lady hadn't been revealed to her at that moment. She had crinkles in her face from smiling so much in the past fifty or so years, as Elody perceived her to be. The lady had curly chin-length hair that had once been blonde, but was now graying quite a bit. Elody calmed down, watching the newcomer with careful, narrowed eyes. "Who are you?"
The lady frowned, but continued to keep her brown eyes on Elody. This made her uncomfortable, and she shifted on her feet. "I am Naomi."
That name seemed quite familiar, though Elody shook it off and stared at her with electric blue eyes. To this, the lady nearly stumbled with surprise. "What?" Elody asked.
"It's just . . . those eyes. I've never seen such as them before," Naomi said.
Elody snorted and crossed her eyes. "Really!"
The lady nodded, her brown eyes shimmering. Finally, Elody gave in to her and rolled her eyes. "Fine, I b'lieve you. Haven't you ever seen color-changing eyes before, though?"
Elody flashed her eyes to brown, then to dark blue. It was easy; she, her friends, and family all had that ability, and Elody thought that everyone did. But the lady's jaws were open and gaping.
She was annoyed by this, and shuddered. "Please stop!" Elody, at last, cried. Naomi closed her jaw and looked a bit concerned, but she stopped gaping. 'At least the gaping's over with,' Elody thought.
Naomi sighed and walked to one of the couches in the living room. Elody was a bit puzzled, but she walked after. "Where am I?" she murmured.
The lady looked up with surprise, though she nodded and patted on the seat next to her for Elody to come sit down. Elody had dropped her arms, so she crossed them again and sat on the cushion across from Naomi. Naomi looked a little surprised, for she had patted the cushion next to her, but she didn't complain.
"Where am I?" Elody repeated. Naomi sighed once again, as if a bit reluctant. But she told. "You are in my house. I found you out in that terrible blizzard with those rags of yours, Elody, and --"
Elody leaped out of her seat, fists bawled. "How do you know my name?!" she screamed. Elody was fully aware that her face was burning red, but she didn't care. Everything was all too strange! She felt static crackling in the air, both from Naomi's shock and Elody's anger. Naomi looked a bit saddened, and Elody's heart softened. How could she be so rude?
Naomi looked down, her eyes a bit distant. "You told me," she whispered. "I asked you what your name was, and you said it in your sleep."
Elody was about to respond with a reluctant 'Sorry', but a gigantic explosion interrupted her thoughts. Yes, an explosion. You know, the boom kind? And a big boom was exactly what happened.
Fire was blazing on every wall, things were crashing down and the roof was caving in. "No!" Elody wailed. She looked around for shelter, panicked. 'What's going on here?!'
Elody gasped as her foot slipped into a deep hole that was forming. "Help!" she cried, tears streaming down her cheeks. This was it. She was gonna die.
Suddenly, all of her life passed through her mind right now. Even the things that Elody had thought for hours to try to remember were there, right in front of her eyes. So this was how it was like to die? She had always wondered that. Always. And so soon, too. Elody could have done so many things in her life, and never have the chance to. At twelve years old, who knew what she could accomplish later on in life? Become a doctor, find the cure for cancer. Become the first woman to ever be president. Who knew?
The mouth of the hole was opening and cracking. The kinds you would watch on TV when an earthquake was happening. Yep. Elody would have shrugged, but she was hanging on for dear life here, so of course she could not. Elody felt her grip loosen; her fingers were sweaty, bruised, and bloody. Why not just let go of life right now? Why not give up?
Just as she was thinking that last thought of giving up, a hand grasped her arm and pulled her out of the darkness. Elody blinked with surprise, but she couldn't see who had rescued her, for thick dust and blinding smoke was everywhere. Elody coughed and squeezed her eyes tight, still holding on to the hand with her weak, bloody fingers.
Everything was making Elody dizzy, and she yawned with confusion. A headache was forming in her head. Despite the crashing going on around her, Elody desired to fall asleep.
And so she did.
