In Chocolate...Why Not?
Ch. 1 Devoid Of All Feeling
In a small town, one that was devoid of all signs of existence, far far away, a young girl of 18 stood (well she would sit but the bench had not been submerged and slanted halfway through the ground and was an ecosystem for many creatures that she really didn't want to become acquainted with), at a desert bus top, waiting for a rarely occurring bus to get away from this lifeless and barren town.
She stood next to the once rust free, easily legible, bus sign. Its pole molded into somewhat of a slanted leaning Tower of Pisa, and its presence loomed over her like a dark spirit, with its crude indents from once reckless drivers, and made her shy away a little from its threatening force. She felt like she was being crammed into a small space, despite the much airy atmosphere around her. Maybe it was more like she felt the stupid thing was gonna give way at any moment and crush her.
Now thinking on that notion, that didn't sound like such a bad gig. Now that she thought hard about it...maybe a short reprieve even.
Don't judge her so soon folks. She didn't always have such a pessimistic condescending view on things. Oh no. In fact she was once very enthusiastic about life, optimistic even. But that was before she knew that horrible things existed in the world. Before she knew that horrible things happened to people. Before she knew they could happen...to her.
She grew up like all kids do...loving doting parents, plenty of friends, joyful summer and autum days spent comtemplating only what kids should...whats for dinner? When is sarah coming, I wonder? Did daddy bring home that doll I wanted, and like her promised?
Simple things to think about, never really complicated.
Same applied as she began her descent toward adulthood. Except she was given a lot more freedom that she was give originally. But she wasn't a snobbish child, like most of those who would act if they had been catered and waited on their entire lives. No, she was very sweet and humble. Very grateful and kind. She would always share her wealth, or what was termed that way, with those that deserved it more than she did. She was the perfect child, or so the ladies that once attended Church told her.
Where did this child come from? one would say
Some believed she was a little piece of a star. Cut out, and landed on the beloved grace of her cherished parents, who nurtured the little piece of sunshine into what she had became in the eyes of everyone around her.
A star...
Now as she stood lonely and deserted on that once often traveled, but now unappreciated wasteland, she couldn't help but feel like that shimmering glow...that twinkle in her appearance and presence, just seemed to have slowly faded, and like a star at the end of its life...seemed to not have even existed at all.
There was an accident. The town wasn't always like that.
Vivid color as if picked from the most beauteous flowers splashed is conspicuous nature, everywhere in sight. The shops were always filled with joy and friendly faces. The homes light with candles and a sort of light that was held only for when all persons in the house were present...a pleasant warmth basking over those nestled safely there.
But then...one day.
The colors faded.
The shops were barren and left with an eerie sort of compliance. As if, the people have left on their own free will.
The homes empty and devoid of all warmth. The innards striped to the bone of the memories and lifetimes that had taken part in the family 's growth.
Everything had stopped...
Time stopped...
That's what happens when a natural disaster hits...
You can't ward off a disease you can't detect or see.
And how she survived was a mystery to her.
But now all she seemed to herself was an enigma.
Even to herself.
She remembered vividly that morning she woke up...the bodies lying motionless...peaceful even.
As if they were just in a deep slumber, and were to wake up if only prodded and bothered enough.
Well she had prodded and bothered, but as fate would have it, they were meant to sleep.
She alone survived.
A scary thing to hold in the void of one's mind.
To be alone.
Up til that moment she had never even known what alone felt like. But know that she did, she was more alarmed by it then anything else in the world.
To know you're alone is to accept that no one can help you. That there would be no one to hold you when you cried, talk to you when you needed to be consoled, to catch you when you fell...
To hear you when you screamed.
She owed it to them to give them a proper burial.
999 friends, parents, lovers, fighters, dreamers, all went into the ground one day.
1 was all alone.
The headlight shining from a steel rodded, chipped exterior, red lined bus, came pulling in like a beacon of hope for Erin McKinley, and with a final glance back, at her once vibrant life, torn at the seems by an immortal adversary, she climbed on the bus, threw in her change, and sat in the back, of the vacated bus.
A new future for her...full of opportunities and new portals to explore...
And all she could think to herself was...
I hate buses.