I woke up on my bedroom floor with no memory of how I reached there. My head hurts...I looked at my watch... 6 a.m. as always.. I got up and sat on the bed still thinking about my dream. I forgot most of it as soon as I woke up but I remember that feeling.. it was making my senses hyperactive and my mind was running on adrenaline. Maybe it was a nightmare. A sharp pain pieced through my brain.. I stopped thinking..It was the first day of our vacations. I had to meet my friends on top of the hill near our public library. I went into the bathroom and looked in the mirror...beads of sweat cling to my forehead even when it was below zero degrees outside..weird.. I splashed my face with cold water and got ready for the meeting. I wore my normal clothes with a parka to shield my body from the cold breeze...
At around 7:30 am I reached the hill where we were meeting. I had two friends- Jillian Cartwright and Eli Jackson..
Jillian was the daughter of the mayor of the town and her father owned pretty much everything here while Eli was the son of the principal of our high school. His father was pretty strict with time.
I started walking on the path to the top of the hill.. the sakura trees guarding either side of the trail. There was a thin sheet of white on the trees due to a snowstorm last night according to the warning posters everywhere ..snowstorm in March...weird. I loved cherry blossoms but it only brings back the memories so I look at my feet instead.. that night the sky looked exactly the same as today..black clouds everywhere with no trace of sun.. I almost was at the end of my trail when I saw the fountain...
The same fountain looking like pretty and sad at the same time.
And a smile crossed my mind.. similar the kind which reminds you of summer. In that moment I felt myself losing control...three months of practice all down the drain in that explicit moment. I could feel my heart ripped out of my chest creating a numb feeling around the existential void of what used to be my heart.
I never expected this to happen again. Sometimes memories sneak up on you and suddenly you don’t know how you lived without them.
I was thinking too much about it. I looked around and saw that there was no sign of my friends. I saw a girl sitting on the only bench in the area. I went and sat on the bench right beside her...silence for some minutes...then she broke the silence.
"Are you okay? You looked like you were hurt a little while ago?"
Her voice was childish..the kind that makes anyone smile. So she saw me in that moment.
"I'm fine", I replied without looking at her face. After sometime she realized that she I wont add something.
"Okay!" She said and went back to her work. I stole a glance at her notebook and saw that she was sketching the hillside. She was really skillful.
Suddenly she closed the notebook and asked, "What?"
I didn't realize that I was staring at her sketch,"Nothing".
"You were staring at my diary without permission!" she said accusingly!
"No I wasn't" was the first reply that came out of my mouth... I knew I was watching her sketch the scenery.
"Liar!". She got up and went to the other side of the fountain. Something fell from her notebook. Suddenly a spine chilling breeze blew from the north scattering all her pages from the notebook as she frantically tried to catch them all. After seeing her struggle for five minutes I got up and went to help her so that she would leave quickly and I can be in peace.
I picked up the first page and realized that it was a letter. I picked up all the letters from this side of the fountain and called out to her.
"Hey sketch girl" I started walking towards her. This time I got a proper look at her. She was pretty and looked a lot younger than me. She had short hair almost covering her hazel eyes.
"Dont call me that! My name is Esther. Thanks for helping."
"Your welcome. I am Ari. Nice to meet you. Sorry for peeking earlier without your permission."
"It's okay" she said with a smile on her face.., "so you from around here?" She asked.
"No I just moved here with my grandma."
"Oh ! Interesting ",her curious eyes wanted more answers. It was just this beginning of the crazy story..
