Avaenfell

By Gabriel Casanova

1

Bad weather

There's no place like home.Well for most people anyway,but it was different for Dorothy,home was the last place she want to be.Being seventeen and lost in a world that was to big for you was becoming an epidemic in this day and age.At lest thats the way she saw it.

Orphaned at the age of five Dorothy barley remembered her prints.Its was funny,because she remembered the day they died very well.She was laying on the floor in the den of her fathers house.She remembered how soft the rug had felt under her and how it smelled of pine.They where suppose be gone only a few hours,they had been in a ruff spot over the previous months and her mouther had Thought a night away from the stress of the life they had made wood do them more then a little good.She remembered Ema seemed to be around a lot toward's the end.Ema Gail was her fathers sister but the way Dorothy's mother and her where together you wood think it was the other way around.

The drunk had smashed their small Toyota in to scrap and crushed the life out of them,he however walked away without a scratch.Isn't it funny how that always seems to be the way,Dorothy always remembered that old proverb.God protect's children,fools and drunk drivers.

She pulled the yellow crown from its cardboard case and scribbled the dull waxy color accost the page of her "Fun at the Zoo" coloring book.For some reason she had always been parcel to yellow,it just suited her.When the door bell rang she sprung up and ran into the hall with all the zeal and enthusiasm that a five year old could fill for her parents.There was a man there but he was not the one she expected to see.The dark blue of the police officer's uniform contrasted the white walls.Ante Em spoke but the words seemed to vanish before leaving her lips,all the sounds around her seemed to droop away and in that one horrible moment seemed to slow to a crawl.Her parents were dead and Although she was to Young to truly understand the meaning behind this inevitable aspect of life she was old enough to realized it meant her parents weren't coming home.

They never spoke of it And wile that was most likely the catalyst for a grate many "Republish Actions" on her part,It was just to hard for Ema to spake of.Dorothy was raised in a loving home,well most of the time.Ant Em lived the life of a failed batchleret,getting in to one failed relationship after the next inadvertently exposing Dorothy to the some of the worst of the male populace.When she was eleven Ema got involved with Ed Jensen,a layabout drunk that wood put her down at every opportunity.Then there was Dean Tailer when she was thirteen,he was a recovering heroin addict that emptied Ems bank account when he skipped out on her for a nineteen year old waitress.But as bad as they where Gilbert was far worst.

Gilbert Gulch had come in to their lives three months ago and at fist he was Really sweet,at first anyway.The first time he hit her Dorothy told Ant Em who rushed to his defiance dismissing anything she had to say out of hand despite the bruises.From there things just got worse.About two weeks ago Dorothy had went to the mall with a group of her Friends after school.She browsed the stores,smiling flirtatiously at the sales clerks she found particularly cute and after a few hours went home.She slid her key into the lock,twisted until she herd the faint click that indicated it was unlocked and opened the door,Gilbert's fist come straight out clodding with the sinter of her chest.Dorothy flue to the ground choking and gasping for air.

"Where the hell where you you little shit!"

His voice was loud,terrifying.Tears began to flow freely from her eyes has she rubbed in between her breasts.

"Study hall...With my...Ackg!"

His powerful fingers raped around her throat cutting off all her air.Slowly he pulled her to her feet and bent down to meet her eyes.To say Gilbert was a big man wood be an understatement,standing six for he was damn right towering.

"Don't you lie to me you little bitch."His voice was low and in some way vibrant as if he was holding on to something with all his strength,something fearse or even insane.

"The...mall..."She croaked barley able to spake under the pressure of his clinched fist.

Effortlessly he tossed her through the door,Dorothy stumbled and hit the ground hard,she through her hands up to cache herself but only managed to pill a thick layer of skin off her palms.

"Get on your home work.Dinners in an hour."

She dismissed the thought of telling Ant Em out right.She wouldn't believe her anyhow.How could she?Believing wood mean Ema had chosen yet another bad apple.Hell Dorothy was begging to wander if there was anything else in the hole dame orchard.

She sat watching the sun set on L.A.the city she had lived in her hole life.The city her parents had died in.It had been the set for every moment in her life.She hated it.She sat on top of the solid metal structure in the sinter of the play ground.It,like L.A. Had been a part of her life sense the moment of her birth.She had played on it as a child,swinging from its bright lime green panted bars.The bars where faded now,the paint dull and chipping with the where of countless hands pulling,rubbing and scraping.Dorothy felt the same way.Faded,Worn out...Used.

She took a long drag from the camel cigarette she was smoking.She held her breath letting the smoke seep deep into her lungs.The blue of the sky graduley faded into Orange,pink,red and finally black.Dorothy siged throwing the butt of her cigarette to the ground.

"Fuck."She said softly to herself.Not out of frustration or anger but out of pure solace.She didn't want to go back there,but where else wood she go?Besides if she wasn't there to meet that prick when he got home Ant Em...She didn't want to think about what wood happen if she wasn't there to take the focus off her pore anti.Because as bad as she had it Ant Em had been through worst.Dorothy had been so hard on her over the past years.Not just her,all thous men that had come before Gilbert had really taken there tool on her,even if she didn't realize it.Many nights Dorothy had herd her in her room crying herself to sleep.No see woodent leave Ant Em alone with that bastard.She wood let him take his frustrations out on her,she owed it to her.

The loud crack sound stooped her in her tracks.It was like several small explosions then a series or swift crackling.Power lines.She watched as two blocks up the thick black line fell to the ground spraying a shower of hot blue sparks accost the road.Then she felt the air grow still around her,Dorothy backed up as the sky infront of her faded and formed into what looked like...a tornado.It flashed in front of her appearing and vanishing just as quick.A Strong current of wind circled her travailing up her levies,her blue top and jean jacket blowing franticly in that moment the twister was there then went still.Dorothy's hart raced and she wanted to run but couldn't.Her legs were frozen and useless,Then all was still.Somewhere close a car alarm was letting off a continuous wine,a dog barked,silence.Dorothy reached up and brushed her long red hear out of her eyes.

"What the hell?"She said to herself not realizing she had spoken at all.

Leaves and stray papers lay strune accost the road and grass.Dorothy was vagley aware that her legs where working once again,she turned to run but stoped.In the sky where the twister had been was a long bright rainbow.

"Wow."

Brilliant purple,green,blue,pink, and yellow streaked the sky in a way she had never seen before,it was worm some how,it was as if God had taken all the love in the world and streaked the sky.

The rainbow vanished in a torrent of wind and debrie.The twister screamed in a deafening roar,it rolled foreword with amazing speed.Dorothy turned to run but it was to close,the brownish gray giant envolped her.Dorothy's screams where drowned out by wind moving hundreds of miles an hour.She spun uncontrollably up words,faster and faster her arms flailed like a rag dolls and for a moment Dorothy thought she wood be split in two.She gasped for air as the torrent of wind chocked her worse the Gilbert Gulch ever could.Her eyes began to roll up as she started to fall unconscious.Just before the blackness of this forced sleep took her Dorothy smiled,and if she was able she wood had laughed out loud.A tall lanky figure lifted and fell with the currents of the wind,Deep green skinned hands griped the rains of a powerful steed that seemed to run on the air,her dark black robes moved wildly in the wind.It was ...a witch.