Zing!

Chapter 1: 197 years later

Lis woke with a start and heard someone yelling at her. "Elisabeth! Get up or I'll bring the ice water!"

Lis snapped wide awake. "I'm up! I'll be down in a moment!" She put on her black glasses and rushed to get dressed. After pulling on a pair of black jeans, a dark, navy blue tank top, a black long sleeve button up shirt, and a pair of old black work boots, she rushed to wash her oily face. She then pulled on her wrist length, finger-less, black net gloves.

Her caught calendar her eye and she remembered. It's my birthday! Lis walked to her vanity and put on her smoky black eye shadow and dark blood red lip stick. Her mom and dad floated up behind her, each carrying a small gift. They were the only ones who knew she was a lot older then she told people. In fact she told everyone that she was turning 27 but was, in reality, 207.

Elisabeth's mother handed her a small black box. In the box was a small black crystal with a string through it to form a neckless. "As long as you where this neckless the sun shall never harm you. It was your father's. I enchanted it myself." She put the black crystal neckless around her daughter's neck. "It's beautiful."

Elisabeth's father gave her a small white box. In the box was a bottle of perfume that smelled like vanilla. "Even if you can't be one, you can smell like a vampire. I love you sweetie." He then hugged his daughter and wife.

Lis hugged her parents and thanked them for the gifts. She sprinkled a little perfume on herself and looked into the vanity one last time before rushing down the stairs into the inn. "I am so sorry! I'll try not to let it happen again!"

"Your fine, Lis. You can be a little late when you live upstairs! I'm not going to fire you! Besides it's your birthday!" The inn keeper, Mrs. Lane, smiled. Can you go to town for me? I get the feeling something is going to happen today, I just don't know what it will be."

Mr. Lane laughed at his wife. "You always have a feeling something will happen. Usually nothing does!"

Lis chuckled. "Yea, I'll go." Lis picked up the wicker basket that was used for shopping and grabbed the list off the fridge.

Lis walked out the door still able to hear them bickering about gut feelings. Lis walked along the well-worn path towards the bakers. They're so silly. They should learn to get along better. As she walked she sang absent minded, "You think I'm an ignorant stranger; And you're so many people I guess it must be so; But still I cannot see; If the ingnorant one is me; How can there be so much that you don't know; You don't know."

Lis came to the baker's place and bought the four loaves of bread on the list. She could hear the baker's wife talking about her but didn't care. She moved on to the butcher's place.

She started to sing again. "You think you own whatever land you land on; The Earth is just a dead thing you can claim; But I know every rock and tree and creature; Had a life, had a spirit, had a name; You think the only people who are people; Are the people who look and think like you; But if you walk the footsteps of a stranger; You'll learn things you never knew, you never knew!"

Mother's told their children to stay out of Elisabeth's way. Not like children didn't avoid her already. She was a goth with bone white hair to them. Not to mention a little anti-social at times.

She kept singing. "Have you ever heard the dead cry to those who could hear them; Or asked the hanged man why he hung; Can you talk with all the voices of the dead; Can you paint with all the colors of the spirits; Can you paint with all the colors of the spirits." Then she reached the butcher's place.

She bought the fresh ham, turkey, pork, sausage, and bacon. "Good day, sir." She payed the man and walked off singing. "Come run the hidden trails of the graveyard; Come taste the sun sweet berries of life; Come roll in all the riches all around you; And for once, never wonder what they're worth!"

Lis quickly came to the fruit stand. She picked up only the freshest of apples, pears, oranges, potatoes, and cucumbers. Peak of perfection. She paid for fresh food and started on the long way round.

"The spirits and the ghost are my brothers; The lightning and the thunder are my friends; And we are all connected to each other; In a circle, in a hoop that never ends; How high can the spirit flow; If you box it in, then you'll never know; And you'll never hear the dead cry to those who hear them; For whether we are pale or sun tanned skinned; We need to speak with all the voices of the dead; We need to paint with all the colors of the spirits; You can own the Earth and still; All you'll own is Earth until; You can paint with all the colors of the spirits."

Suddenly, as she passed the edge of the forest, she heard someone scream, "HELP!" Lis rushed to aid the person even though that meant going into the forest she hadn't been in since she was ten.