Wake Before Drowning
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Daine was always in the wrong spot at the right time, her brother was always in the right spot at the right time, and her sister was in the wrong spot at the wrong time. That's how it always seemed to be in her family. The perfect son-Dan, the typical daughter-Ira, and then there was Daine-the awkward one. While her siblings always were definitave with their actions, personalities and looks, Daine was only ever a mix of anything and everything. The only thing she seemed to be good at was fitting in without belonging for one reason or another. A total hapa-child. Half-and-half with just about everything.
She had dark hair down to her waist that looked black from a distance, but once examined, her hair was a mix of reds, golds, auburn and mocha-both her parents' colors mixed up. Her eyes were a burnt caramel color that darkened when she was under high stress and turned almost golden in the sunlight. And even though neither of her parents were light skinned, Daine had always had fair skin. She was fairly tall for her age, almost 5'4". But she had dainty hands and strangely small feet.
Despite the fact that she looked like she belonged in a library, she never stopped fighting. Not necessarily meaning fist fights, or arguing with people, but none-the-less, she was always fighting.
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Daine was walking along what seemed to be a campground. It was clearly autumn and even some of the pine trees had lost some of their green luster. The air was cool and crisp, but had no scent drifting along with it. A light mist swirled around, but it was neither cold nor warm near her.
She heard someone run into the somewhat sparse forest of pines near her. She turned her head out of curiosity to see who it was. All she saw were a couple of tiny bodies running through the trees and up and down steep, but short, hills.
"Wait!" She didn't exactly know who she calling out to, but she began chasing after them anyways.
She ran in an obscured direction, never once following the actual trail. The running bodies seemed to be mere blurs and fleeting shadows, but Daine still followed them. The light mist steadily turned to a dense fog. She didn't know where she was going and for some reason, it didn't matter. She kept running until she came to a slight clearing. The bodies had vanished and had led her to the beginning of a cobblestone path.
It went in four directions. One to the right, left, forward and one fading into the forest she had just emerged from. Daine looked both ways then walked forward. The path led to a massive lake with dozens of simple bridges with twisted iron bars and little platforms scattered throughout the area. The platforms were seperated from the bridges and looked like no one had even passed this way in a couple of decades.
However, a few heavily clad people walked ever so slowly across the series of bridges. One of the haunched and solemn figures stopped to talk to Daine. It was an elderly lady clad in dull and slightly tattered clothing. She probably should have been paying close attention to what was being said-committing every word to her lingering memory. But she couldn't focus, she felt herself slipping mentally away. She watched the old lady shake a finger forebodingly at her, but everything was already fading and blending into the fog that still lingered.
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Daine's eyes flickered open and shifted around her dark room. She didn't bother getting up, it was probably only 3AM. She picked up her cellphone on her nightstand and looked at the time. "Again?"
Again. A cool and comforting voice chimed against the white walls of Daine's room.
Daine sighed. "Again…" She turned over, glad that the voice didn't start talking again. I'm so tired…She thought to herself. Daine hadn't slept for the entire night for a little over a week now. This had happened many times before, and it was never a good thing. Why can't I sleep an entire night? At least until testing's done and my grades are back up…Stupid shadows. Daine pulled her covers over her head, not wanting to have to watch the shadows flicker across her room for another night, she didn't even botther glaring at them or trying to push them away from her like she sometimes did. But tonight, she was too tired.
Sleep. The voice whispered softly into Daine's ear.
She just ignored it. Sleep would take over her again in about an hour…hopefully.
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Har. Well, this is only half of the prolouge/intro. The other half will probably come Friday at the very latest. Please comment or message me thoughts, suggestions, or whatever. Ugh….I need some sleep now.