Something Special
Author: Lil-Hellraiser
Disclaimer: I own nothing that you recognize from the books, or the songs from Evanescence.
Author's Note: Hi everyone! I'm back with chapter two, and it might be a while before Legolas gets into the picture…maybe chapter three or four or five. He'll be there don't worry! Please do me a favor and review after you finish reading! LUV YA!
***
My parents' funeral was held a week after their unexpected deaths. I remember it being possibly the saddest event I ever had to attend, and if I had gotten my way, I probably wouldn't have gone at all. The grief was far too near.
It was a cold, slightly windy Saturday afternoon when I walked with Chase down to where the service would be held. Dana was being taken there by her mother and father. Chase had offered to walk me there, for which I was grateful.
"Why didn't you tell me?" Chase asked suddenly as we crossed an empty intersection. I frowned, pretending not to know what he was talking about.
"Tell you what?"
"You goddamn know what." He said fiercely, stopping to look me in the eye. "I loved your parents too, Jo. What stopped you from telling me, of all people?" I looked at the ground, praying he wouldn't take any of this the wrong way.
"Jolie." He said sternly. "What stopped you?"
"I thought that telling you would make things worse."
"And yet you told Dana."
I walked up to Chase and hugged him. "I'm sorry." I said when he didn't hug me back. "I don't know why I told Dana…we're really close."
"So are we." Chase said, hands and arms still at his side. I drew in a breath.
"Yes. We are very close. I think that after I told Dana, I wanted to tell you but didn't want anyone else to know because I thought it would be better if no one found out that my parents were sick. And besides, I thought that they would get better and I would end up worrying everyone I had told over nothing." Chase hesitated before gently hugging her back.
"I'm sorry too." He said. "I've just been friends with you for so long…longer than Dana has…I guess I thought it would have made sense if you had told me first."
"We can't do anything about that now." I said bitterly, ending our embrace. Why was I getting so worked up? I stroked my ring with my thumb. Chase noticed my movements.
"What's that?" He asked, peering in closer. "A ring?"
"No, stupid, my lunch. Would you like to split it with me? Yes, of course it's a ring."
Chase gave her an abashed look. "I know, I'm just surprised. It was for your birthday, right?" When I nodded, he whistled. "They outdid themselves. It's gorgeous."
I smiled and thanked him, then hurried him along the sidewalk. We were NOT going to be late, however much I didn't want to go. I had to change when I got there, because I didn't want to be walking around town in a silky black dress and hat. We rushed ahead.
***
After the prayers were said, the coffins were being loaded up to go to the cemetery. The group of people who arrived for the funeral followed all the way there, myself included. At the gravesite, the coffins were laid in front of two large holes side by side. A tear rolled down my cheek. It felt like my parents were being locked away from me forever.
The priest went around the circle, asking anyone who cared to say a few words to do so. Chase and Dana spoke together words of comfort and peace for both me and my parents, and several older people who my parents knew spoke up about their gratitude and generosity. When the priest got to me, I straightened up, my black shawl blowing behind my arms in the wind, and stepped into the circle of people.
I turned to them all, my hands sweaty, rubbing the ring ever so gently. It had become kind of a comfort item to me, and I never took it off, not even to use the shower.
"Hello." I began, tentatively. Oh, great beginning, really, breathtaking, I thought as I cleared my throat nervously.
"My name is Jolie Timbers, and these are my parents." I gestured to the coffins around me, feeling like an extreme idiot for even trying to speak. "I am only fourteen years old as of last week, and they had been having these horrible physical problems for many months prior to then." I saw our family doctor nod his head from where he was standing. "My mother coughed quite a lot, and became increasingly weak, as did my father, who died of a freak heart attack. It was my birthday when they died, and for a long time, I just sat on the floor thinking and wishing that I could be with them again.
"My mother talked to me about Heaven and angels when my grandmother passed away. She said that angels were beautiful creatures who dressed in white and played harps to make people happy and wore golden halos made of light on their heads. She told me that they could make miracles happen, and I remember being an angel for three Halloweens straight after that. I also took up playing the harp. Mother told me about Heaven and how you could run around on the clouds, and no one would be mad at you for disturbing the peace. She said that you could fly around if you earned your wings, and that you'd never feel hungry or tired or angry with anyone. Everything would be bathed in the light of the sun, and you wouldn't get sunburned (some people in the background chuckled lightly). There would be no more wars, no more pain or sadness or heartache or hate.
'Mama,' I remember asking her. 'Wouldn't you get bored up in Heaven with everything always being the same?'
'What do you mean?' She had asked back. I told her that I would probably feel bored in Heaven if everything was always so happy and peaceful…in a way, I would kind of miss the fighting and the diversity among the people here today (some people in the background nodded their heads at this, while more religious people gave me questioning stares). I'm not trying to make a decision for any of you, but I remember my mother telling me one other thing. She assured me that no one went to Heaven before they were supposed to, and that her and Dad and me were not going to go there for a long time.
"I believed her until last week, when they died. It was a feeling of being betrayed and mistrusted. At first I thought that they had lied to me. Mama said she wouldn't die before her time, so why was she gone now? I didn't want to admit it, but yesterday as I was rising out of bed, I realized that it was in fact, their time. I took forever to get out of bed this morning; I really didn't want to have to speak today, or even show my face. The grief for me is far, far too near for me to be freely talking of it…yet here I am.
"Many of you has probably lost one parent, perhaps both. But I am willing to bet that none of you lost both of them when you were as young as I was (several of the older people began wiping their eyes). I am fourteen, and that is NOT an age for someone to be on their own. I'm still a child in many, many ways. I need my parents. For so long, they were my heart, and my wisdom, my reason for going to school and making them happy with great grades. I wanted them to be the happiest parents ever. Now, they are gone, and I do not know what my efforts will be used on now. Efforts on good grades and best friends will be partly wasted, because I don't have my parents to share them with. I'm too young."
My eyes began to well up with tears. I continued.
"Fourteen years is not enough time to spend with your mom and dad, trust me. Count your blessings if yours is still with you. I'm someone who will never have anything like that again. They will never be there to greet me in the morning, they will never be there to oversee my piano lessons, and they will never be there to see me turn fifteen.
"They will never see my first prom, or my graduation. They will never see my husband, or my children. They will never see my grandchildren, or what career I'll turn out to have. My life has just begun, and they left it. They left me.
"I thank you all for coming and paying your respects today. I appreciate it. What I want you all to do when you go home is to thank your parents for all they have done for you. Tell them that you love them. That you know that one day they'll have to leave this beautiful world, and that you spent all the time that you could spend with them. Call them if you need to, or pay them a visit. Your mom or dad might be here in this very cemetery as we speak. Just let them know how much you care about them. You will deeply regret it when you don't."
I left my words lingering in the air as I stepped back into my place at the foot of the coffins, tears threatening to fall from my dull brown eyes. Many people were wiping their faces or sniffling as the priest said the final prayers. I held out two roses and placed them on the coffins gently, a petal getting caught on my lace gloves. Instinctively, I reached down to remove it, when a large gust of wind blew it away, and I clutched my shawl to me tighter, just watching it fly away. It landed on a patch of grass between my parent's coffins. The rose petal symbolized death, in my opinion. It willingly landed on the waiting fingertips of Mama and Dad, but it flew mockingly out my reach and left me wondering why it just lied there, daring me to come pick it up and fly with it.
I might have been bored up in Heaven, but there would be no other place I would have rather gone at that point in time.
After the ceremony, many people I didn't know came up and hugged me, some tighter than others. Dana stayed for a few minutes, but had to get going, so I watched her leave sadly. Chase kept me company, watching the coffins being lowered into the earth and topped with cement so that no perverts could get to them or anything. He sighed as the dirt was dumped over the concrete and the gravediggers left their posts. For a long time we said nothing.
"My parents gave me a cool present too." He said suddenly, as if just remembering something extremely important. He reached into his pocket and took out a ring. "Not for my birthday, but remember when I was in that car accident?" I nodded. Chase had been in a horrible car accident several months before, and no one was sure he would survive…yet somehow he did.
"They gave me this, and I prayed with it every night and every morning that I would get better. I think it worked." I gasped as I looked at the beautiful ring. It was pure gold with a HUGE deep blue stone in the center. He sighed as he looked at it. "I don't know, I just feel like I was made for it, not the other way around, you know?"
I nodded, shocked at how much I really understood. My ring was somehow joined with me, it called to me the moment I saw it, and from then on it was always with me. Even though Chase was over two years older than I was, I had a bond with him that surpassed friendship. It was like we were born to have met each other. I loved him, not an attracted kind of love, but like the love of a brother and sister. I looked up at him.
"I have to go live with my aunt and uncle." I said sadly. "They live in Oakland." We lived in Nebraska, in a city Far West. I saw sadness in his eyes.
"You have to leave?" He asked. "So soon?"
"I'm leaving next weekend. I need time to pack and stuff. I want you and Dana to come over tomorrow and pack with me, okay? I'll need help." Chase nodded wordlessly. He suddenly slipped his ring onto his ring finger and pulled me into an unexpected hug. It was full of need and hurt. I hugged him back.
I stroked his hair. Chase was usually a calm and collected person. I didn't think I meant that much to him. I learned a lot from him. I learned how to be a more tranquil person, and listen to other people's views from all angles. He leaned back and cupped my cheek.
"I'm a better person having met you." He said, voicing my thoughts, and leaned down, giving me a short kiss on the lips. It wasn't full of passion or desire, and I don't think he intended it to be. It was an exchanged emotion between two best friends, and we cried together on the grass until dark. Don't get the wrong idea about Chase, though. He's not gay or anything, at the moment he had a pretty girlfriend. He's quite a sensitive person when it comes to life threatening things or deaths. He walked me home quickly, and then made his own way home, promising me to stop by Dana's to ask her about helping me pack the next day.
I went straight to the gameroom, playing Fur Elise over and over on my piano, counting each time. As I played it for the twenty-sixth time, I began to get slightly tired of it, as it after all is a darker piece of music. I retired to my room, staring at my ring the whole way upstairs. It was glowing softly. I had no idea why.
***
When I thought that I could get no more miserable, I was basically jinxing myself. The disappointment withering inside me after a phone call two days later was too much to bear.
Chase was gone. No one knew where he was. He never made it to Dana's house on that Saturday night. I had called her, confused as to why neither of them had showed up at my house to help out, but she had reported that Chase never came to her house. Angry, I called Chase's house, thinking he had maybe forgot. No one had picked up. By then I was sure that he had ditched me to hang out with some of his older friends. I waited until six at night, when I thought his parents would be home, and still no one picked up. It was the next day that Chase's parents called me, saying that Chase never came home and that all day they had been out searching. I joined their search, and school had been called off so people could go search.
I looked everywhere, our favorite childhood hiding places, old trees where we used to make little clubs, and quiet places where we could just talk and hang out with sodas or snacks. I found him nowhere.
I didn't want to go with my aunt and uncle. They lived so far away, and I wanted to stay and search. Dividing my time between searching and packing didn't really leave much time for good-byes either. I was taking what I could to their house, and selling the rest. I gave important things to my grandparents, like furniture and the like, but some large things I couldn't part with, like my piano and harp. I REFUSED to leave without them. Also my parent's large sword. It was a sword that we hung over the fireplace, and I wasn't sure what it was made of. You see, there are many things that me and my parents did not agree on or like. If I didn't like something, they would. If my mother and me liked something, my father would not…get it? This sword was one of the few things that we all liked, anyway. I took that, along with my bedspread, dresser, books, and everything dear to me, like pictures. On the day before I left, I had a huge yardsale. Everyone bought something, and the stuff that wasn't sold I gave to friends as parting gifts. I didn't need all the money, but I kept it. I just needed to get rid of the stuff.
We never found Chase. I heard (though I was gone) that about three months after he disappeared they stopped searching, expecting him to be dead. I cried for weeks on end, corresponding with Dana frequently. Then I learned that Dana was moving to Europe. Her dad was in the army and was getting re-posted. It seemed that my life was forever fucked up, to be blunt.
***Three years later
"Are you finished?"
"Yes, auntie." I answered, grumbling as I wiped the frothy white substance off the floor. Stupid dog. He was sick again. I wanted to kick it, but Aunt Claire was around. And in her opinion, Chester was the sweetest, most perfect doggy the world ever saw.
The goddamn dog screwed pillows.
No lie. It's gross.
Anyway, ever since I had moved in, I became like the little maid of the house. I would do the laundry and cook dinner and clean. It was so unfair, what they made me do, but they just casually told me it was just me repaying them after they gave me a roof over my head.
Bitch. Yeah, my uncle too.
After school I would do my homework, then work on anything that had to be done. I hated it there. At times I wished I could just take my sword and hack both of their heads off. Then I would stick the dog in my piano and play that twisted scary song from the Phantom of the Opera until he was squished.
I sighed. I was so much more…aggressive without my old life. My parents, my old friends…everyone who was dear to me and held me in check was pretty much gone. I was becoming quite rebellious at school now. Homework was always late, I talked back a lot, and my new friends smoked and drank. I didn't smoke or anything with them, but I hung out with them because they were the first people to meet me when I moved the Oakland. They didn't mind that I didn't do what they did, but sometimes I think they treated me differently for it.
Uncle Chris walking into the room holding that blasted dog. The stupid pit-bull slobbered all over the carpet and he pointed at me to clean it next with the rag. If that dog slobbered one more time it would not live to see morning.
After I was all finished cleaning, I went to my room. My harp had been moved in there and my piano was in the attic now. Many of my friends said I looked like an angel when I played the harp. I only smiled and listened to their requests, as they loved the songs I played and often asked me to play their favorites. Sometimes I would make up one and go with it, then get mad at myself because I had not written down any of it. Same with my piano. I still loved music deeply. Maybe it's just a redhead thing.
I looked around my unsatisfactory room. It was pretty plain. Plain white walls, plain old white furniture, plain old red bedspread. I kept all of my pretty things locked away in a closet so that my aunt wouldn't take them for herself. It had happened before. One of my grandmothers' necklaces was around my neck when I first arrived at her house, and she promptly removed it from me, telling me that children shouldn't be wearing such delicate pieces of jewelry. I might break it. She has worn it around her neck ever since.
My friends were lord of the rings obsessed and kept posters of Frodo or Legolas or Aragorn or Haldir in their lockers all the time. It drove me crazy, but I'll admit that the movies were cool. I wrote down quotes in my leather notebook. It cost me sixty dollars to get it, but it had over four hundred blank pages in it, and it was Italian leather. The quotes I had were simple things, like when the fellowship was first formed, with that whole 'you have my sword' deal. I did not know much about the books, but I was starting to read The Hobbit, and it was proving to be a most satisfying piece of literature.
I dropped to my bed, wondering what the fuck I had done to deserve such a crummy life. Aunt Claire and Uncle Chris both hated me. I know they did, even if they hadn't said it. They never said they loved me, or even liked me. Actually, the first thing that they said when I first moved in was to 'leave the dog alone'.
Damn dog.
***
It was my seventeenth birthday. I hadn't had a birthday celebration in years, except for when my friends took me out to the mall and bought me a small present each. That's where I was going tonight. We were all heading out with their boyfriends to the mall and buying clothes and stuff for me. I was the youngest.
On my way down the hall, I stepped on Chester's tail. He howled in over-dramatic agony, and I wanted to kick him so badly. My relatives ran around the corner.
"What happened?" They asked in a demanding tone.
"He was in my way."
"So you kicked him?" Claire shrieked, holding her dog close.
"No! I didn't see him, okay? I have to go." I tried to continue walking down the hall, but my uncle stopped me.
"Where do you think you're going?"
"Out." I replied, pushing past him. He grabbed my arm and pulled me back.
"I have goddamn had it with you and your sass! Where are you going?!" He yelled, and my aunt began whispering to Chester. I believed that that was the moment that my aunt went Zoolander on me. Great film, by the way.
"I am going OUT." I repeated. "Do you want to know where?"
"Yes." Chris said, as if he was containing himself, and it was very hard to do.
"Okay, you needed to be more specific. God, I was only going to the –" I was cut off by a sharp hit to the side of my head. I put up my hands to block any other unfriendly blows, but none came. Shit.
"You never EVER use the name of the Lord in vain!" Aunt Claire shrieked, and pointed a chubby finger at me.
"Yeah, look where it landed you." I said, taking in her graying hair, protruding belly, and gruff voice. She could have passed for a man if she had grown a beard. Another wave of pain was sent through my head.
"Go to your room NOW!" My uncle roared. I stood there, confused. I had not done anything wrong, in my opinion. The fiery temper within me stirred.
"No." I said, rooting myself to the floor. A vein in my uncle's bald head began to throb. Gross.
"Wh-what?" He asked in disbelief. I usually never talked back to them. Today was my birthday. I felt like a Queen. "You go to your room now or there will be hell to pay!"
"Why should I? I have done nothing wrong." I almost regretted saying it, but decided not to. I was going to have a great birthday. I was.
"You have crossed the line, missy." I almost spoke, but a punch to my gut nearly made me throw up. I breathed in and out heavily, looking up at my uncle. I saw madness in his eyes. It was unnerving. I had to leave.
Quietly, I kept my eyes on them as I made my way to my room. An inch from my door, my aunt let the dog loose and he ran growling up to me. I tried to get inside my room, but the dog was quick and began to bite and chew at my leg. It didn't hurt so much, it was just scary to be attacked by this dog, you know? Nevertheless, I yelled in surprise when blood began to show through my jeans, and I used all my strength to kick at the dog with my other leg and pry him off.
Get off me. I thought as he snarled and bit harder. Suddenly, the dog backed off and whimpered, as if in pain. I wondered why. I was extremely angry here. I ran after it to kick it, trying to get the satisfaction of seeing my aunts horrified face when I heard it.
It was an ear piercing sound, and I put my hands to my ears to block it out, only to find that it was coming from my ring. I had almost forgotten if was on my finger. I softened up while looking at it, and soon the sound disappeared. Seeing that the dog was beginning to try and pick up where he left off, I ran and opened my bedroom door. Just as I closed it I heard a loud thump and then a 'MY BABY!' from my aunt. I grinned, locked my door, and got my backpack from the closet. I was going to leave tonight.
***
I packed everything necessary. A few changes of clothes, pj's, an extra pair of shoes, and some underwear. Next I packed my leather notebook, my wallet (full of money, might I add) and then my parent's sword. I wrapped it in a heavy cloth so that it wouldn't rip anything. I also put in my CD player, about twenty extra batteries, makeup, my collection of CDs, a flashlight, my gang gloves (you know, the gloves that have the finger part ripped off? I call them gang gloves) gum, and some facial cleaners. I was only planning to go to run away to a friend's house or something, so shampoo wasn't really much of a priority. My last thing was a photo album, mainly pictures of my parents, and my old friends. My new friends were just starting to leak in there, having about five pictures of them.
I checked my bloody leg. It looked bad. There were teeth marks everywhere on it and blood was pouring out of them. I winced as I finally realized how serious it was, but couldn't go out to the bathroom to nurse it, so I decided that the white curtain would have to do. I ripped off a piece of the curtain from the pole and gladly mutilated the rest of it as well, just to aggravate my relatives. After tying the cloth around my wound, I looked at myself in the mirror.
My dark red hair was now down to the small of my back, slightly wavy, and my cinnamon eyes were brighter these days. My features had matured to those of a lady as I grew, my bosom fuller and my backside…larger. I hated my butt. My friends just said that they would love to have my kind of ass but it's a pain. Everyone pinches it. It hurts.
Anyway, my complexion was paler, and my fingers were nice and slim, as was my stomach. On my right ring finger was my ring, glinting in the light of the room. I smiled. I had not taken it off since my fourteenth birthday, and I did not intend to. This ring made me calmer and happier just looking at it, yet it made me think of Chase, my long lost best friend…I pushed those thoughts from my mind and pushed open my window.
I lived on the ground floor, so I could easily just hop out of the window and sneak out at night if I wanted to. It was a fun way to meet guys.
Climbing into the chilly night air, I pondered on whose house I'd go to. Jill's? Nah, her parents are always fighting. Erin's? Nope, out of town, forgot. I didn't want to go to someone's house that was too far away because I didn't want to walk too far. The only other person I could think of was Justin. So what if he was a guy? His parents worked until seven a.m. and he could give me a ride to a girl's house if I needed to. I began to walk in the shadows to Justin's house.
There are woods by his house that I've been in many times. In order to get there you have to cut through them, and it could take up to an hour, but I was willing to take the chance if I could get away from the hellhole that was my house.
The wind died down as I entered the woods. It was strange, because it was never usually that quiet. I frowned and continued on my way, the moonlight lighting up my path. I heard a noise to my right and stopped, the contents of my backpack jingling. I was sure I heard a growl as well, but it could have been my over excited imagination.
I rubbed my ring out of pure nervousness, as I always had done and crept on into the darkness of the woods. The trees were starting to hide the light of the moon from my view and I was actually getting scared. That didn't usually happen, believe me.
Suddenly a huge black figure emerged from the trees and ran towards me. I cried out in surprise and ran as fast as I could go, the thing following me the whole way.
"Justin?" I yelled over my shoulder. "Mike? Steve? Jacob? This had better not be any of you because it isn't funny!" I kept running, and then tripped over a hidden root. I sprawled out over the ground and the covered my face with my hands.
Help me, don't hurt me, please don't hurt me…
The thing got close to my face. It growled. It's breath smelled horrible but I didn't want to look at it just yet.
Somebody help me, please…
It forced my hands down and I looked right into its eyes. They were yellow, quite unnatural. The skin all around it was pitch black, and it had a mop of black hair atop its head. I saw fangs.
Mother…anyone…please…
Just as the thing brought my face closer, a bright light came out of nowhere. The thing shrieked, a horrible sound, and fell over, twitching. I thought it was knocked out, but I had watched enough horror movies to know NOT to check. I ran like hell.
As soon as I was on the edge of the forest I sat next to a tree stump, hugging my legs close. I wanted to go home. Not back there to my mean aunt and uncle, but my REAL home, with Mama and Dad and Chase and Dana…I missed all of them. They were all gone.
I want to be gone. I thought fingering my ring. I want to be somewhere where none of this existed. I just want to go home.
I kissed my ring, and with my backpack in hand, I fell asleep.
***
AYAYAYAYAYAYAY sorry I'm hyper. I spent all day writing this, so PLEASE review! Be sure to check out my other stories too! BYEEEEE