CHAPTER 2: "KAREN"

Sitting at the counter of the General store, Karen Kenner stared out at her small, uncomfortable world through a drooping brow that looked out of place on her striking face. The day was almost done, there were no more customers and would not likely be anymore. Everyone did the majority of their shopping before or around lunch. No one had been in here for hours.

It was only ten minutes to closing time, so Karen hopped the counter and turned the sign on the door to 'CLOSED'. Her hand was turning the knob to leave when from behind came a shrill voice: "Where do you think you're going, young lady?"

Karen shut her eyes tightly. Dammit. Caught.

She turned and found the scrutinizing, cold eyes of her mother, Sasha, glaring back at her. How did that woman always manage to pop in when she least wanted it?

"Mom, nobody's been here for hours. It's en minutes till closing and I highly doubt-"

Sasha took two strides forward and stood towering over her, "Your laziness is not an excuse to shirk your responsibilities. We close at five, not a minute before."

"But mom-"

"No!" Sasha thrust her finger at Karen's face, which only caused Karen's face to redden in anger. "You have not earned the right to do as you please. Karen, you do nothing all day but glower at customers, go out of your way to avoid anything resembling work, and-worst of all- you're a smartass towards your father and I for years now and I, for one, am sick of it."

"You do this all the time." Karen thought, "Almost every day, so you can't hate it that much."

Karen's deadpan expression only angered her mother further. "You can be angry with me if you like, I don't care, but I won't allow you to treat me like I'm beneath you."

Karen felt like her hair was going to burst into flames, "So I'm a second-class citizen, is that it? I have no say? I have nothing to contribute to this family?"

"Not with that attitude you don't." Sasha scowled. "You, young lady, are nothing but a lazy, irresponsible slacker and-"

Karen's lip shook with barely restrained rage and her emerald eyes glistened with wetness as she tuned out her mother's words. Every teenager fought with their parents, she had once been told, but she was sure it was an exception, not the rule.

Before Sasha could finish berating her, Karen snapped out of her trance and hissed, "I hate you!"

She spun around and rushed out, slamming the door in her mother's face as she ran away from the General Store.

XxXxXxXxX

Sundown in Flowerbud was a sight for most, but for Karen, it was the most dour part of the day. It meant she had wasted another day of her life in this wretched little corner of nowhere. The only thing worse than sundown was sunrise, because when she saw the sunrise, it meant she had to look forward to another wretched day in this wretched little corner of nowhere.

To say that Karen despised Flowerbud was grossly inadequate, but also misleading. Any geographical location that was close in proximity to her mother and father was going to be wretched and miserable to her by sheer association. Even without them, she found little to love about the island. The allure of peace and quiet repelled her. The beautiful forest and landscape never changed and, therefore, bored her.

But she, like the other girls of the town, was only barely seventeen and until she was able to hop the ferry away from home, she had to content herself to her dreams, all of which were full of places other than Flowerbud.

Only here, at the top of Mount Moondrop, did she truly feel free. And everyday her feet came closer to its precarious drop.

Here, as the wind swept through her blonde bangs, she could close her eyes and imagine anywhere else in the world. In her dreams, she soared. Here, at the place where earth and sky met, she came as close to the heavens as she could and closed her eyes. Her shoes inched to the edge, the wind buffeting her. Eyes closed, she spread her arms out and all her worries and cares were as dust in the wind.

Her heart ached and pulled to feel the thrill of soaring into the abyss. For a brief moment of time, she would truly live! She would live more in those seconds than she had in all her life so far, but she as nothing, if not bull headed. In those dark moments when she truly hated her life, she wanted nothing more than for it to end. But she knew there was a world beyond her town. She could see its dull gray stain at the horizon from the top of the Mount and see its tempting glow. She would be there one day.

But one day would not come quick enough for her.

Up here, the temptation was the greatest, but only up here did she feel truly free.

She spent as much time on the tip of Mount Moondrop as possible, staring into the sky so she didn't have to look down at the town beneath her. But all birds come back down to earth eventually, and her gaze dropped to the now glittering lights of Flowerbud as the sun's last lights vanished below the horizon. Her eyes scanned the land below, the abandoned farm, the hot springs, the trail leading into the forest at the base of the mountain...

Where the diminutive figure of Mary was making its way into a thicket of forestry right below her. Karen's head tilted to the side and her insatiable curiosity overcame her and she turned to bound back down the trail after Mary. As she turned, her foot slid on a loose stone and her legs suddenly went out from under her.

Time seemed to slow down as Karen felt herself flying over the edge of Mount Moondrop to the base of the mountain below. Hundreds of feet that rushed by her in seconds. The wind tore through her hair, her heart seized in her chest, her breath caught in her throat. The ground rushed to meet her and she had only a brief thought: that her last words to her mother were "I hate you"

Karen closed her eyes, peace washing over her in the final seconds of her freefall. It would all be over.

KAREN, YOU HAVE BEEN CHOSEN!

Her eyes snapped open in time to see the ground inches from her face.

XxXxXxXxX

Author's note: These introduction chapters will be a bit shorter than usual. I thought about one or two chapters to introduce the girls, but each one speaks so clearly in my mind that I feel they need their own space to really stand out.