Growing up is Hard

Prologue

Amber shoved her favourite dress into her mother's big suit case. Her mother had told her to pack all of her clothes into it and not to worry, but Amber was worried, she was more worried then she had ever been. Tonight was different, tonight her mother was angry. Amber knew that if mum was angry then something bad was going to happen, and this time it was going to be worse than their normal beatings. Her mother walked into the room grabbing the suit case and Amber's hand. Together they walked out into the kitchen. Her father was stepping away from an old worn out fridge with a beer in hand.

"I've had enough!" Her mother screamed, making Amber jump a little. "You can't keep us here any longer, we are leaving! And don't think for a second that we are going to keep to our selves about what you have done to us!" They both looked at her; Amber was trying to figure out why she had told him, he just starred at her, and then in a deadly tone whispered, "If you leave you will have nothing! Nothing! You will be homeless. You really think that I would just let you walk out the door and tell the world, huh! Not a chance."

"Just watch me go!" she screamed.

At that she grabbed Amber's hand, picked up the suit case and went for the door, but as her hand rested on the door knob the silver blade of a kitchen knife burst through her chest. Amber screamed in terror and stumbled backwards. Her father ripped the blade out of her mother's back letting her body fall to the floor with a thump. A huge puddle of blood was now beginning to surround her mother's lifeless body, the blood shining in the dull light. She looked up at her farther his eyes were blazing. "If you ever try anything like that you will end up like your mother, got it?" She just nodded and ran to her room.

For the next week Amber cried herself to sleep.

The Weeping Willow

I took a deep breath and let the woodland air fill my lungs. I seemed to spend much of my time in the forest. I greatly enjoyed the adventure of walking among the ancient tree trunks that towered up to the heavens, the scampering little animals that gave the woods its music, and the giant majestic larger creatures of the woods that would silently patrol their territories. I let my feet go on their own accord and just drift around the woods that surrounded my little, broken home. Many of times I had considered never coming out, or just keep on walking until I could walk no more. But no, that would probably be a very bad idea as I was well aware of what my father was capable of and how much he disapproved of running away.

I stopped when I finally reached the base of a gigantic weeping willow that grew close to the edge of a cliff. This was the one place in my small world that I truly felt free; free from my father, free from cooking, free from house work, free from beatings and abuse. Slowly I began to climb its ancient trunk and into its drooping branches. I sat myself down on my favourite spot and looked out through the curtain of leafs. The sunset was amazing, the mixture of pinks, purples, oranges and blues made the sky dance with colours, giving the clouds a soft loving look that could only say goodnight and sweet dreams. I sighed, wishing that it could be my mother saying goodnight, not clouds. Life was not fair; since she died there was nobody to protect me from dad's drunken rages. He hurt me so much when he was like that, slapping me, hitting me, touching me. It made me want to jump off the cliff and join her. Though deep down inside something held me back, I just was not quite sure what it was...

Tears started spilling down my face, my stomach clenched and my heart ached.

"Why! Why did you have to go?" I screamed to the heavens. "Why did you have to leave me? Why were you so fucking stupid? Didn't you stop for a second to think about me?"

Quieting down to a whisper I spoke, "Why?"

I cried; I cried for mum, I cried for me, and I cried for the horrible life she had and the one I was having.

Saviour

I stared down at my dinner; it was nothing special, just some left over rissoles and mash potato. I scooped my fork into the mash then brought up a small portion of it and put it in my mouth, savouring its bland taste then swallowed. Dad was outside, his music was blaring and he was not going easy on the beer. It would not be long before he would become abusive and want to seek someone to let it out on. Shoving the rest of my dinner in my mouth, I got up and went straight for the door. I would have to move quickly if I was to avoid being hit by my dad. Carefully I opened the old door, wincing when it creaked. Just as carefully I tiptoed out and across the patio, but before I could move much further a large strong hand grabbed my arm. I looked up to see my father's stern gaze staring down at me, the smell of alcohol on his breath.

"Where the hell do you think you're going at this time of night?" he blurted out.

"For a walk." I replied, almost guessing what was going to happen next.

Just as I expected a large hand whipped out from his side and slapped me across the face, causing my head to turn to the side. My face stung buy my arm was free. Taking the opportunity I ran as fast as I could, desperately trying to expand the distance between us. I felt the long grass brush by my legs as I made my way across the long forgotten cow paddocks. I only dared to look back when I got to the edge of the woods, half expecting him to be standing over me with an evil look in his eyes, but much to my pleasure he had sat down again and was taking a long drink from is beer. Turning I stepped into the deep dark forest.

I stepped out into the clearing, and stood there for a moment just admiring the sight before me. The soft grass was an almost aqua green, and it rippled and danced in a Mexican wave style as the wind gently blew; the first bites of the upcoming autumn, sent shivers down my spine. The curtains on the willow had much of the same effect, swaying back and forth in time to an unheard melody. I sighed, caught in the beauty that could only be seen on a late summer's night. I took a step forward taking my time to feel the soft grass beneath my feet, and to let my long brown hair get caught in the breeze. I felt so in tune with my surrounding, so at peace, I had forgotten all about the life that awaited me back at the house. Carefully I scaled the tree and sat down leaning against it for support. Is this the way I should be living? Do other 10 year olds go through the same thing? Am I alone? Yes I am. There is nobody out there that probably even knows that I exist. My mind went back to the time when mum had told me about the world away from here. She said there were places with lots of houses and lots of people everywhere, some houses that were so tall it was like they were trying to reach up into the clouds. She told me that the world was very large and it had many different lands with many different people. People. Different people and lots of them, now that would be fantastic! I longed for human company that was not my father. Someone who would understand my feelings; someone who would play games with me until it got dark; someone who would be my friend. I looked up into the sky, and in the blink of an eye a shooting star flashed across the sky. My mum had told me on many occasions that when you saw this happen you should make a wish, so I did. I wished hard and with all my might.

"I wish, I wish with all my might, I wish upon this shooting star tonight."
I wish I could have a friend.

"Click, click, click, click."

I opened my eyes and looked sideways, not moving my head an inch. What in the world was that? I strained my ears to try and hear the sound again. Was I imagining it?

"Click, click, click"

There it is again! Quickly I span around to catch the culprit off guard. Nothing was there. I cocked my head to the side. I swear I heard something. I squinted trying to see if I had missed something in the dull moonlight. Suddenly the air rippled just a couple of branches away from me; I rubbed my eyes to make sure that I was not imagining things. What was it? Was it dangerous?

"Hello, is... is someone there?" my voice thick with nervousness.

"Click, click, click, click, click."

This time I could tell that it came from where the air had rippled.

"You better stop hiding and show yourself, because if you don't... I will... ah... do something, and it won't be good." I told the nothingness, false courage littering my voice.

Nothing moved, nothing made a sound, everything was quiet. Only the wind dared to make a sound. I sighed. Hehehe getting yourself worked up over nothing Amber, it was only your imagination. Nothing more, nothing less. Mentally kicking myself for being so stupid, I sat back down again.

"Click, click, click, click."

I stood stock still, fear welling up into my belly. It's just your imagination Amber, only your stupid, fucking imagination. I began to swing myself backwards and forwards, trying to comfort myself. The clicking was filling up my head, the sound of the wind had gone and every other noise, all that was left was that unnerving clicking sound. Sitting here is not going to make it go away Amber, get up off your ass and go find out what it is. So I did. Though as soon as I stood up the mad clicking died right down to the occasional clicks. Not wanting the clicking to start up to that same intensity, I quickly began to search the tree for the one who was making the noise. I started at the lower branches hoping to corner them at the top of the tree. Do I really want to corner it? Wouldn't that just give it an excuse to attack me? I shrugged off the thought and continued.

I was carefully scaling the most outer branches that could take my weight when I noticed something. The air had rippled again on a thicker outer branch not too far away from me. Desperately wanting to find out what it was I leaped onto a branch that just suck out over the unforgiving drop from the cliff. I felt the blood drain from my face as a large 'crack' came from the branch below me. I stood as still as I could, breathing in heavily as I waited for the branch to snap from the tree. The only thoughts that were going through my head was that I was going to die if I did not get off of this branch and fast. I took a deep breath, bent my legs slightly, trying hard not to cause the branch to brake off just yet. Using every bit of will power and strength I had I sprang from the branch my arms outstretched in front of me in vain hope that I just might catch the branch I was leaping for.

My heart sank when my fingertips only just scraped against the branch. I closed my eyes. This was it, I was finally going to join my mother. But before I had even fallen a meter my decent was reputedly stoped. I looked up to see a hand not much larger than mine tightly gripping my wrist. It was quite a strange hand, quite different to any I had seen before. Not that you have seen that many hands. I thought darkly to myself. It was the nicest shade of deep green with a lighter green that was also very nice, underneath. Though what really was quite different were the sharp claws that extended from the ends of the each finger. I looked past the hand and up into the face of my saviour. It was wearing a cold metal mask that shone a brilliant silver in the moonlight. The eyes on the mask glowed a deep blood red and pointed off at the ends to create an almost demon kind of look. Thick black appendages with silver bands wrapped around them fell down to about shoulder length. They kind of reminded me of the hair the men had that lived in a place called the Caribbean. Mum had told me about them when I was really little.

Slowly my saviour lifted me up onto the branch, our eyes never leaving the others. I blinked twice, opened my mouth, closed it, opened it again, and then held it firmly shut. We both just stood there for a moment, carefully inspecting the other. I figure that he was obviously male, stood about 30cm taller than me, had more muscles than I have ever seen in my life, and was that same deep green colour with the lighter paler green on his belly, palms and along the underside of his arms. He was also wearing some kind of netting from his neck down to his heals, a linen cloth, and some kind of device around his wrists. It took me I a few moments to click back to reality. Right there in front of me was an Alien! A god damn Alien! Mum had told me about the possibilities of other creatures from other worlds many times when we watched the stars from my bedroom window. I never thought that I would ever see one. I shook my head, this was too much. Say thank you for goodness sakes girl, maybe if you're polite it won't attack you. I shook my head again.

"Thank you for saving my life." I said more quickly they I would have liked. He just cocked his head, like he did not understand what I said. He probably can't even understand English you idiot. Then how am I supposed to tell him that I'm thankful? Then it came to me, I bowed me head, hoping that he would understand the gesture and would not take it the wrong way. I looked back up at him, this time though it looked like he understood. Smiling to myself I nodded, and he nodded back. I sighed in relief. It understood, I turned to leave, looking over my shoulder one more time, but he was gone.