My body trembles, heartbeat screaming up to my ears, and my head throbs with agony.
With a desperate grip, my fingers clutch at my sweater, trying to steady my racing heart that only beats faster the more I think about it. The more I think about… how I shouldn’t have touched the stones. I squint against the blinding sun above me and lift my hand to let the light trickle through my fingers.
It’s not snowing.
The sky is no longer a shade of dust with stormy clouds rippling through it.
Breathe.
Just breathe.
I suck in a deep breath as my bottom lip trembles.Okay.I am alive.
I can breathe.
Looking around, I struggle to fully take in my surroundings. Nothing looks the same. Everything feels foreign to me. The warmth of the sun beats down on my skin, making it difficult to see anything clearly from the blinding light rays. Carefully I turn my head, taking deep breaths in and out. My eyes catch on a sea of rosy flowers swaying gently in the breeze. Their sweet fragrance fills the air, mingling with the cool gusts that brush against my skin.
It's warm. Warmer than the cave back in Alaska.
The tips of the petals glisten in an ethereal way, as if the fire star above kissed them a thousand times. But underneath the beauty of the flowers hides an unknown grayish ash that covers the ground.
A soft whistling sound escapes from the smoke-filled dirt. Char rubs between my fingertips, like something very recently burnt the ground I sit on.
Where the hell am I?
My hands reach in front of me to grab a few petals. I rub them between my fingers until they disintegrate. The ash, dancing in the wind, twirls around in the sky until I can no longer see it. The last thing I remember is running my hand over a smooth, fiery red stone in the dark cave. It seemed as if the inside was bursting into flames, and now, I am here, in a meadow of flowers.
I cradle my legs, dragging my shaky palms over my face before letting out a deep sigh. My mind ticks, my jaw clenching with the pain to remember. What happened before, and why does my body burn?
Shadows.
I saw a hundred dancing shadows, souls trapped in the caves for eternity.
The haunting melody.
A soft and lilting hum that seemed to echo off the walls of the cave. I can still hear it prancing through my ears.
What happened to me?
But most importantly, is Alice stuck there, alone, in the darkness forever?
I’m struggling to remember what happened between touching that stone and waking up here; my mind feels hazy and disjointed. As if I am missing pieces to this puzzle.
Am I truly here?
Or have I died from the blizzard, and I am now just a soul searching for a place to call home?
I rest my achy hands in my lap. They are red and raw, as if they had been scalded by fire. This stinging pain reminds me that this is not a dream—this is a terrifying reality that I cannot escape from.
My trembling fingers glide along my palm, feeling the heat beat from my skin. It seems like the warmth from the stone still radiates from my flesh. Goosebumps spike along my arms from the breeze, yet my body radiates fire, a feeling I cannot explain.
Exhaustion grips me as I rest my hands on the ground. My body is covered in a thin layer of dirt, ash, and sweat. But with all the might I have left, I push myself off the ground. My legs wobble and stumble as I struggle to regain control with each step. My eyes snap shut as I let out a long exhale, then take in a deep inhale as I try to steady myself. Inside my head, chaos reigns as my mind screams at me to give in to the weakness and fall.
The voiceledme here. Did the voice bring my sister here?
I flutter my eyes open to adjust to the roasting light beaming down on my pale body.
One reason I love living in Seattle is my amber, golden eyes have always been sensitive to the fiery star in the sky. Tilly hasbeen waiting for the right moment to leave this place. People in our childhood often teased my sister and me, pointing out our distinct eyes and claiming we were not from Earth. I have ghost-like skin, so I always burn in the sun, with long,deep,midnight hair and the warmest shade of an ember flake to my eyes. They are almost as warm as the sun with golden specks. While my sister never burned and would always have the nicest sun-kissed skin with light blonde hair and icy-blue eyes.
