hey :) this is my first story so please be honest if you review (hint hint!) I wrote this prologue for my English test but I love the character I have created and decided to taken it further! not much is explained in this chapter...its kinda a bit of background :)
its the darkess thing ive ever written, so sorry if it sounds really emo- there will be cheerful moments later!
PROLOGUE
As a fresh gust of wind rolled though the station, plummeting its early morning inhabitants into a colder sense of misery, another scarf clad being came shuffling into view. Hands frozen like icicles clutch polystyrene beakers of scolding beverages as though they were life preservers. The computerized board above flashed with a new piece of information, a small beacon of hope in the valleys of impatience.
Then the far off rumbling of speeding metal, as a clamour of anxious individuals surge forward, united under a common dream, hoping, wishing this would be their train out of the arctic nightmare. As they gather like sheep behind the faded yellow line, the distant rumble turns into an immediate growl…an almighty roar…a deafening screech…then nothing, but a peeling advertisement plastered to the back end of the disappearing procession. Fading smaller…smaller…into the distance.
And I stood waiting, for what, I did not know…but for something. Something that surely would come with time, if I kept on waiting, waiting.
"06579 to London waterloo is approaching platform 10, please wait behind the yellow line. There is a buffet service available on this train. The 06579 to London waterloo is calling at Epsom, Derby, London Victoria and London waterloo. The approaching train has 9 carriages."
One word, just one word fought through into my brain…Derby. Memories of him came flooding back; the dusty box in the corner of my mind had struggled to withhold these memoirs for so long, but not anymore. Like a streaming river can so easily envelop her banks, these thoughts and emotions came crashing down on me. I was on my knees, though I had no memory of falling; I was calling out, though I knew I hadn't opened my mouth; and strangers enclosed me…people I had never spoken to, and never would.
"Is she ok?"
"She's so cold, poor thing!"
"Doesn't look as though she eaten in days…"
"Someone should phone the ambulance?"
"No."
This is what I had wanted to yell, to scream, to shout out to the whole station, so the whole world could hear. But I had not, I hadn't uttered a single word; but some one had.
I strained against the invisible weights bearing down on me in order to lift my head…
But where was I. yes, I was at the station, but a different station.
No one was crowding around me; no one was peering down at me; and no voice- the distance, yet somehow familiar voice that had uttered that beautiful syllable 'no'.
I was a curious child, always the daring little girl…so I followed my instincts. Here I was on a deserted platform, no train, no passengers, no one intruding in on my life.
So I strode forward, towards the ticket office, through the barrier and onto another, horribly familiar platform.
Five girls stood to one side, all giggling and clutching lurid pink pull-along suitcases. As I walked, no heads turned, it was as though I was a shadow in a brightly lit room…I kept on walking.
Next came the lanky group of boys, each clutching a different anorak and hefty rucksack. I trailed past, as silent as a ghost. Slightly apprehensively, I continued forward, I knew what I would find; the final clique of that fateful trip last December…exactly a year ago-now I thought about it.
There he was, and there I was. He -tall, dark and effortlessly handsome; me…dark hair blowing in the wind; laughing, smiling…happy.
I was so caught up that day; exams, Christmas, holidays, all so trivial in comparison. I suppose that's why I missed it…why I didn't see her.
As another train rolled into the now packed station, yet another tightly knit huddle of people edged onto derby station…platform 9, to be precise.
"The 08754 to Birmingham is now approaching platform 9, the 08754 to Birmingham is calling in at Derby, Oxfordshire and Birmingham"
A thick-coat clad woman detached herself from the nearest group…I could not watch, not a second time.
So I ran, back past him and I; back past the boys, now comparing computer games; beyond the girls, still intently examining their smothered faces. But not quick enough.
I heard the gunshot. I felt the screams vibrate inside my own mind, but above all…I saw her, running. No one would stop her; she would hop on the 08754 to Birmingham…and would never be seen again.
"Is she ok?"
"She's so cold, poor thing!"
"Doesn't look as though she eaten in days…"
"Someone should phone the ambulance?"
"No."
This time, it was me who had spoken.
With surprising strength, I forced myself to stand.
But as the fatal memories gushed back, as the pain and suffering that last year had held, threatened to overwhelm me; new questions arose.
Why?
Not why him? Or why me? But why was I still suffering? I have the power to end it. To end everything, to end my pain, to end my guilt that I had not stepped in the way…I had the power to be with him again; ...and with a question, must always come an answer, and I had mine…
After all, that's the day I realised…what's life, when the person you love doesn't have theirs? happy new year.