Paravelle

Chapter 1

I looked through the window watching the sunrise like I always did- what me and my father did. We would always watch the sunrise early in the morning and admire everything we saw.

"Isn't it beautiful?" he would say and I'd agree with him.

They say you don't know what you have until it's gone. The truth is, you knew what you had, you just thought you'd never lose it- that was the same with my father. Last year, on the 6th of March my father went into the woods and never came back out, and not in a horror story kind of way. He wasn't back by evening so my mother called the police. That night, there was search for my father and they never found his body, only his watch. The police came up with the conclusion that wild animals had attacked him and that he was gone.

My mother and sister couldn't bear the news, nor could I. You could say this incident changed my mother, she became more irritable and whenever the subject came up she would freeze, the same with my sister.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

"Rae, are you awake?" a voice calls out from behind the door. I stand up from my chair to open the door,

"Yeah? What is it?" I ask. Just as I open it, my sister, Maude, hands me a dress.

"Here, mum said to wear this for you birthday party." She states. I look at the dress in confusion,

"Wait, isn't this your old dre-"

"Your welcome." Maude interrupts as she goes out.

I forgot. My birthday, it was today. I guess I've been too caught up with my father's death that I forgot. I examined Maude's old dress, she and my mother already knew that dresses weren't my thing and I hated having to wear one. So, I wore some overalls my dad gave me for my birthday last year and his watch, instead. I start brushing my hair, although I didn't really care about my appearance that much. I had long, brown hair and hyacinth blue eyes. Everybody used to say I had my father's eyes.

"Rae! Come down, the guests are here!" my mother shouts. By guests, my mother means our relatives. Since I'm home-schooled, I don't really have friends, so my relatives are my 'friends'.

"Sorry mother I didn't realise how quickly the time passed." I quickly say before she can scorn me.

"What are you wearing?" she asks, ignoring what I had just said, "Why are you wearing that ?" she points to the watch.

"It's my first birthday without him and I thought that if I wore this, his spirit would be with us." I reply, nearly tearing up.

"Please, Rae. Can you stop bringing him up? He's dead , forget about him!" she shouts angrily.

I look at my mother, hurt,

"How could you say that?" I question as my tears start streaming down from my eyes, "How could I forget my father, and how could you forget your own husband?"

I storm upstairs into my bedroom and lock the door. I thought about the fun and memorable times I had with my father.

"I could never forget you dad." I say between my sobs.

"Rae! Open this door!" my mother commands.

I open the door and my mum glares at me.

"How could you do that young lady? Our guests could've heard you, you're lucky it's your birthday or you would've been punished." She tells me sternly.

"I'm sorry." I mutter.

I make my way to the living room where everyone greets me. Then, Maude comes out holding a red velvet cake (my favourite) with fourteen candles on it.

"Happy birthday Rae." She tells me as she puts the cake in front of me.

"Make a wish." My Aunt Sermina says, so I say my wish,

"I....I wish I was with people who truly cared for me, who didn't tell me to forget about people who were once important to me." I hesitate, "I wish my father was here."

Suddenly a downhearted feeling took over me and the waterworks began.

"Honey are you ok?" a guests asks me,

"No." I mumble as I quickly run towards the door.

I was running to the only place I could think of- the woods, where my father was last seen. I ran past the emerald green trees and rainbow-coloured flowers, when suddenly I hear ringing.

"What could that be?" I ask myself. I follow the unusual sound as it becomes more distinct. I was known for having a wild imagination so I expected to see nothing, but I was wrong. A few meters in front of me was an arch formed by branches and vines. It looked beautiful and somewhat magical, it was as if the whole arch itself was shimmering. Inside the arch, I saw a large field and a building with a silver bell on top. That must've been where the ringing came from.

"Rae!" My mother shouts from afar "Rae, where are you?"

"Oh no!" I thought, "I'm going to get punished for walking out of my own birthday party!"

I could hear her footsteps getting closer and closer.

"Rae?" She calls out again.

I look at the other world inside the arch and walk towards it. Taking one last glance at the woods behind me, I turn around.

I went in.