The Tale of Red Rocks

Chapter One

The following day, Elise came to visit me around noon. Again, she was wearing a black dress I missed the vibrant colors that use to frequent her dresses. Her hair was in a braid, it was long but thin. She was pale and needed light, she needed sun. She smiled to me, but her smile never reached her eyes. Her voice was, like the day before, low and insecure, but I could still recognize her in there. It was her, it was Elise, but at the same time it wasn't. Isaac has taken a part of her away with him, a part I missed.

I asked her if she wanted to take a walk with me, and she agreed. I took her to river and hoped she would light up when she saw the water.

"Do you think Isaac is okay?" she asked me after awhile of walking along the river. I didn't know how to respond as I didn't know if he was okay, but I chose to lie to her. She missed him more than I did, she loved him.

"Of course he is okay." I held my hand around the bullet in the necklace I wore around my neck and prayed to God it was true. I didn't want my brother to die in war, even though I'd already had more fun in two days than I had in years because of him being gone. I'd decided that I wouldn't let Elise go this time. Now I had the chance to know her again. When she was my friend, I would never feel alone ever again.

We mostly walked in silence that afternoon. She asked me a few questions, but it was clear that she didn't want me to ask her any, and therefore, it was hard to make a real conversation. I tried to answer her in the best way I could, but she never answered my responses. She just asked me something else ten minutes later. It was fine; it was better than all the days alone in my room. I would trade all those days for this, I would give anything to see her again even if this was the way we would be together. I made sure not to mention Isaac and she didn't ask about him. It was almost like we both pretended he didn't exist.

"Have you read any books lately?" she asked me as we turned around to walk back to the house. We'd been down at the river for at least an hour, according to my pocketwatch.

"I haven't had the time," I told her. And it was true; I only had time for textbooks.

Then we walked on in silence.

"I think it's great that you're going to be a doctor," she said after a while. It was the first time she'd commented on something instead of just asking random questions. I smiled to her, and she smiled back in her own way, the dead way. I told her my biggest secret, just like that. I told her I hated doctors. I told her it was the last thing I wanted. I told her I hated studying to become something I didn't care about. I told her I only did it because that was what my father wanted me to do.

"Good," she said a few seconds later, "because I've always thought that doctors are snobbish, arrogant men with too big egos." She laughed this time. And it was beautiful, it wasn't dead, it was alive, a living laugh reached her lips as she teased me. I knew I could change her. I knew I could make her happy. And I believed she knew it too.

I walked her back to our house where she agreed to have dinner with my family. Mother invited Elise's parents as well but they had already made plans for the night. In fact, Elise's mother wanted Elise to come home right away, however, as it was my parents who asked her, she let Elise stay out a little later.

Elise almost didn't eat anything when we had dinner. She used to eat more than me when we were small, but now she ate like most of the ladies in town; nothing. It hurt to look at, the girl I knew had changed so much. She had seemed alive while Isaac was still home, but from the second he told her he was leaving, she acted like he was already dead. Black dresses, empty eyes. I hadn't seen her in anything but black dresses since he decided to leave home; she was already attending his funeral every day.

After we'd eaten, I walked her home. It was only one minute's walk, but we both walked as slowly as we could so we would have a moment longer to talk. I asked her about her dream that she'd told me about the day before. I just wanted her to talk like she used to, she couldn't shut up when we were kids. She could go on and on about anything back then. Isaac and I used to make fun of her when we played hide and seek; we told her we would always find her because she didn't know the word 'silence'. Now, I just really missed it. I couldn't believe I'd missed her so much. I tried to ask myself why I'd let Isaac get her for himself, why I'd suddenly given up on our friendship, but I didn't find the answer.

Anyway, I asked her about her dream because I wanted her to talk about it.

"I was not being serious. Please... forget about it. I did not know what I was saying," she said. Elise didn't sound like she meant it and I was sure she still wanted to be a singer. I knew it would be impossible for her to do it; her life had been planned for her. She was going to be Isaac's wife, live in a big house and have lots of children. Isaac would become a duke someday - as Mother was a duchess. Father was a doctor before he married Mother and became a duke. Therefore, Elise would be a duchess.

I wondered what possibly could have changed her mind away from her childhood dreams and towards a life as a titled woman when I realized she hadn't changed her mind at all. She simply told me that because she was scared I would tell Isaac or my parents what she'd said. Her parents weren't wealthy before Mother and Father paid them for her marriage with Isaac, and if my parents found out she didn't even want it, they could redraw their offer. I couldn't believe I hadn't thought about it before; my parents had bought a wife for my brother. And she had no chance of saying no. When we were kids, I always thought it was so nice of Mother and Father to pay Elise's parents so they could live as wealthy as us, but that day, I realized they'd just made sure Elise wouldn't break the deal. She couldn't possibly let her family down.

And because I knew that all of a sudden, I told her I would pretend I hadn't heard anything. Elise smiled to me when we'd said goodbye on her porch of white stone, "Tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow."

And she came by the next day and the day after that, dressed in black dresses and fake smiles, but she came. It was better than anything I'd had for years. The minute I saw her from the window, I was happy. I barely remembered Isaac even if he'd only been gone for about two weeks. Elise hadn't forgotten about him, of course, and she was mourning, but I forgot about all that. I saw Elise, my best friend had returned from the death. As a ghost, yes, but she was here and she came to see me. Me. Not my brother.

Only a week passed before I felt it. I was almost certain I liked her a little bit more than I should...

I'm way too excited about this haha XD PLEASE vote and comment!! Dedicated to Kay cause she's amazing and she did a lot of editing on this chapter. Yall should go check out her stories, she's a great writer!