Disclaimer I don't own stuff. Duh.
So, these chapters are kind of disgustingly short. I was gonna go for the short chapters quick updates thing, but that never really works out for me... so, short chapters, slow updates? :/ Sorry guys.
Chapter 2: Waiting
Blackness and silence. Not so much darkness, as the absence of light.
Arden was certain that she'd died. She felt no pain; if she lived, she'd definitely be in agony. She tried to open her eyes, to make a sound, wiggle her fingers, to do anything, but she couldn't. It wasn't so much paralysis, as that she lacked a body to manipulate. She was just a lost mind submerged in a pool of absolute nothingness. No dark or light; no cold or warmth; no wetness or dryness; no up or down; no sound or silence: only pure nothingness.
The only sentiment she felt was that she'd returned to the state after being gone for a long time; like forgetting how your grandma's house smells until you visit for the holidays.
She simply waited. Waited for something to happen.
Arden came to realize that nothing was going to happen. She thought.
She thought about school, about the calculus homework Mr. Neren would never receive. She could almost hear him cracking a sarcastic joke about her absence.
She wondered how he would feel upon hearing about her death. Probably nothing. Maybe he could crack a sarcastic joke about the dangers of texting and driving.
She thought about doing her laundry, and that huge pile of clothes in the bottom of her closet.
She thought about everything there was to think about.
She thought about her past, conjuring up every memory that she could, engraving them in to her mind.
She thought about her seventh birthday.
She'd wanted to go to a waterpark, but her papa said no. She knew now that it was because they couldn't afford such an extravagance, but her seven year old self was distraught. Her papa took them on a picnic in the park. She remembered him setting out the blanket, her mother taking little finger sandwiches out of one of those woven picnic baskets.
She remember that, after they ate, her papa gave her a piggyback ride, and raced around in the meadow, both of them laughing. She remembered, at one point, he took her wrists, and spun her around, the skirt of her new dress flowing around her as she twirled. It was the best birthday she'd ever had.
By the end, when she was sitting in her papa's lap, her mom stroking her hair, she was so glad they didn't go to the waterpark.
Arden suspected her eyes would be wet with tears if she had eyes to cry with.
She thought about just after her father's death. That little light inside her mother, the one that you run on, that little light burnt out. She remembered looking into her mother's glazed-over eyes. Cold, lifeless, like a dead fish. She remembered crying, begging for her papa to come back. Then she had realized the cold hard truth. She hadn't just lost her father that cold winter night; she lost her mother too.
Years later, her mother still hadn't been over it. Her eyes still had the cold, dead look to them.
Arden thought about the many times she had waited outside her school in the rain. She'd waited for her mother to wake from her drunken stupor, perhaps remember that she had a daughter.
The thing was, that's all her mother wanted. To forget. Her mother didn't understand how she was meant to look at her daughter when all she was was a reminder. A reminder of what she lost. Arden looked too much like him, too much like her father. They had the same eyes. Those gentle, kind, forgiving grey eyes.
Okay, well, that's chapter two. Like I said, disgustingly short. I've got a plan coming along, I promise.
UGHHHHH EVERYTHING GOT CORRUPTED AGAIN- WHY FF . NET ? WHY?