Chapter 2 - Change

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Ariels heart dropped. Her mind got stuck in a loop on the word 'divorce.' She could hear her parents talking, but that was it. No words registered, no sentences forming, just sound, flowing into her head, filling it up until she wanted to blow. A shake to Ariel's shoulder, from her father, brought her back to stark, painful reality. Her mother had a worried look on her face, but Ariel didn't care. How could they do this to her? She thought. Unable to stand there any longer, she rushed out of the room, storming up to her bed, locking her door behind her. Ariel sat on her bed crying, trying to hold her emotions back, but unable to. At least five times she thought she heard someone knock on her door, calling her name, but she didn't care. What did they care? They were getting divorced, obviously that meant they didn't care about her, didn't it? Ariel eventually stop crying, but still couldn't stop the various thoughts about her parents clogging up her mind. Over and over she heard 'divorce' come into her head, all the time surrounded by just one other word; Why? Why was this happening to Her, Why now, but most of all, just what was so terrible, what was so unfixable that her parents thought that they needed to get divorced? After several hours just sitting there thinking, Ariel eventually got to sleep, but not an easy sleep. Her thoughts carried into her sleep as strange twisted dreams; worlds being ripped apart, with Ariel standing in the middle, unable to do anything. The next morning, Ariel got up, going downstairs. Her parents were waiting for her, silently sipping coffee, their eyes dark, telling of a sleepless night sitting right where they were now. They called out to her as soon as they saw here, starting to get up from the table, but Ariel just pushed past, storming out the door. As soon as Ariel was outside, she ran. She didn't know where she was going, but anywhere would be better than here. For hours she walked, shivering in the cold, wearing only her clothes from yesterday, with no coat. She reached the top of the mountain behind her families property, and sat, thinking about her life, her parents, even her friends. Ariel considered all the things that she had ever screwed up, and all the other things that had gone wrong in her life. All the things Ariel could have avoided, and all the things she just couldn't have stopped. During all her time spent on the mountain, a thought began to grow in Ariel's head. Like a parasite, it grew, feeding off of all her fears, consuming her. By the time Ariel began to make her way home, she was all but convinced of this thought, this one idea. What if this was all her fault? What if her parents were getting divorced because of her? Would their life be any better without her? Ariel had been gone all day, but when she got home, the property looked no different than when she had left. No balloon filled parties with her parents popping out, telling her it had all been an elaborate joke. No, the house was just the same as she had left it. Ariel snuck inside, now being driven by the worm in her head. After making her way upstairs, she packed a backpack with some clothes, before sneaking down to the kitchen, grabbing some food and water. Ariel was glad to see that her parents weren't there. That started Ariel thinking, she hadn't seen her parent’s car in the driveway. Ariel didn't care though, it wouldn't affect what she was going to do. After grabbing a coat and a small sleeping bag, Ariel left the house, hiking up the hill behind her house. When she got to the top she looked back at her house. Her heart felt leaden at having to leave, but she was consumed with the idea that it was the right thing to do, that her parent's lives would be better without her. After all, the hadn't even stayed to see if she was coming home. They had probably already gone into town to celebrate her disappearance. They wouldn't miss her, they wouldn't want to find her. Heck, they were probably just glad their daughter was gone. Driven by these thoughts, Ariel turned and started making her way down the other side of the hill. If she had just waited a little bit longer, maybe things would have turned out differently, maybe none of what follows would have happened. But she didn't, she pushed on her way, turning her back to her house, unable to see her worried parents pull into their driveway, followed by a convoy of blue and white cars, lights ablaze, but no siren. This wasn't an emergency, just a show, a group of people Ariel had never met, coming out to try and find her. No need to wake up the whole neighborhood with the piercing sound of their sirens. There were just here to look, to search for another girl out of hundreds that had gone missing.

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