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Chapter 1
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It was weird, the nothingness. Never in my life had it been so completely quiet... So peaceful. I had always had something to, whether it'd been as simple as to feed the dog, or as irritating as babysitting my younger siblings. But it was never just... nothing. And maybe that's why it all felt so strange to me.
It was then I was able to open my eyes with ease. But when I did, I wasn't expecting what I saw... There was no dark alleys, no balding men and no bright stars. Instead what I saw was a great oak tree, surrounded by a field of bright green grass.
I looked around and found myself gaping at the beauty of the field. Really, all it was was a field of grass with a random oak tree in the middle of it. But looking at it now, after everything I'd seen in the past hour, I came to see the beauty of it. The colours seemed to bloom out, like coloured lights on a Christmas tree.
All of a sudden, it was darkness once again. Nothingness. And then, almost a split second later, I was back again, only this time I was in a different place. This was a place I recognised. A place I had come farmiliar with far too well.
My bed sheets were all screwn up in a pile at the bottom end of my queensized bed and there was still the mountain of dirty clothes in the corner of my room. I was standing in the middle of my bedroom, well, what appeared to be my bedroom. Everything seemed normal again, up until a sharp pang was felt on the outside of my stomach.
I let out a bloodcurdling scream and dropped to my knees. It felt like my skin on my stomach was being scratched off, and it keeped getting scratched until you could see the pale white bone. I started screaming hysterically and rolling around the floor in pain. It felt like it would never stop.
Then I wasn't in the room anymore. Instead, I was in the living room and this time I wasn't alone. I looked around and saw the faces of my family. My dad, usually happy and laughing no matter the situation, was now looking stressed and worn out, no traces of happiness shown on his face. My mum looked no better, with her mascara running wildly across her face, evidence of her shed tears. They were both together, hugging eachother like they were about to be pulled apart.
I turned around, to face the other side of the room and what I saw shocked me. My 12 year old sister, Jessica, was in an embrace with my 4 year old sister, Jordan. Jessica had tears streaming down her face and Jordan looked as if someone had just tried to explain rocket science to her.
I felt a pang in my stomach. Only this time it was a different type of pain. It wasn't burning, ripping or tearing, but instead it was empathy for my family. I didn't even think about how my death would effect them. It was then that I realised my brother, Hayden wasn't in the room. I looked around and still couldn't see him.
I walked out of the room and up walked up the stairs that always creaked when someone stepped on them. I noted that there was no noise. I could hear crashing noises coming from Hayden's room and immediately sped up. I reached his room and stood outside his bedroom door.
I contemplated knocking but decided against it. I wanted to try something first. Using all the courage I had, I walked forward into the closed door. I expected to go right through, like in the movies.
But no, that didn't happen.
"Ouch..." I muttered and rubbed my nose.
I scowled and walked into his room. I froze as soon as my feet hit Hayden's carpet.
Hayden was curled up in his bed, the quilt he used to sleep with was thrown across the room, as was basically everything else. His mirror was smashed, the little pieces covering every part of his carpet. My eyes started to tear up as I looked at the descruction that (i'm guessing) he caused.
What broke my heart was the noises I could hear coming from where he layed. Small, chocked sobs were slowly starting to come out of him. Soon he was crying loudly. I was shocked. Hayden was 18 and I had never seen him cry before and now.... Now it was like I was looking behind a wall. I'd never seen this side of him before and it broke my heart.
I slowly creeped over to him, careful not to make any noise (not like it would be heard anyway). I reached his bed and noticed that in his hand was a photo frame. In it held a picture of the time my family and I went to Rottnest Island. We stood behind a quokka and we all had big grins on our face. The picture frame was stained with tears and I knew if it wasn't protected by the glass material, the picture would have been ruined.
Hayden was facing away from me so I slowly walked over to the other side of the bed and crawled in next to him. He seemed as if he didn't hear anything and my suspisions of no-one being able to hear me was confirmed. He didn't realise I was there. I closed my eyes.
His other hand (the one not holding the photo) was held out. I placed my hand ontop of his, even though I knew it wouldn't make a difference. I let salty tears stream down my face and opened my eyes. Hayden's eyes were closed and by the way he was breathing, I knew he was asleep. I closed my eyes and too started to drift off to sleep.
It started to rain.
