Al's eyes failed to adjust to the darkness that swallowed her body. Dripping sounds came from the stalactites from above, splashing freezing water on her head. It sent shivers throughout her body as she clung to herself for warmth. Her hands stretched out and found stone walls slick with moisture. With one hand on the wall, she began to wander towards nothingness, uncertain what laid ahead.
The jagged stone felt rough across her hand as the chilled water continued to deliver shivers up her spine. Her mind questioned if it was in a cave of some sort. She read about them in school, but never been near one or in one before.
As she moved along, her thoughts persisted about when she came to be here. Every time she tries to remember, her mind goes blank.
Suddenly footsteps echoed from behind her at a rapid pace, snapping her out of her thoughts. Without thinking her feet pushed off the ground, the damp air became colder as she sprinted as quickly as she could. She placed her arms out, barely gasping the wall, letting her fingers guide her way while she tried to maintain her speed.
As she fought her air, the fear that stirred inside kept pushing her body forward. Before her was a tiny speck of light that her eyes narrowed on. As the light spilled in from the outside spread through the darkness, so did her hope.
The sunlight sparked amber and lime rays surrounding her freezing body as she stumbled to her knees outside of the cavern's mouth. As her fingers wrapped themselves in the grass, she scanned the area, trees stood nearby with jagged peaks cutting into the sky. Her head wiped around to see darkness creeping out of the cavern while footsteps marching intensified.
Panic set into her chest as she searched both sides of her, she found clear dirt paths stretching as far as the horizon could touch. She closed her eyes and took one deep breath trying to clear her fear away.
Her body tightened up as she offered herself one last prayer and darted forward, opening her eyes to guide the way. She passed a few trees, finding a cluster of bushes, the weight slowly picked itself off her chest.
She waited, barely daring to breathe. Her body shifted gears behind the bush, positioning herself behind it so she could see and not be seen as the sounds of steps approached. Her eyes peer through the leaves and branches as the footsteps begin to ring out of the cavern.
Three men rushed out, frantically losing down both paths. Little did she know, another man hid a few feet away from her, already expecting this was going to be her move all along. As she kept her eyes pinned on the men in front of her, the man hiding snuck up behind her as swiftly as he could.
As his feet began to mark its last step, a twig snapped causing a small sound to become enormous. Al's heartbeat took over her body as she inched her head behind her to find the man shoving a potato sack over her head.
Al's body jolted out of bed causing her to slam her face into the carpet and her hand slamming the corner of the standstill next to her bed. The lamp and alarm clock rocked in unison, finally resting in their spots. She barely could make out her mother calling for her.
"Al! It's time to wake up."
She shot up off the ground, brushing her clothes straight, frustrated she was having another nightmare. She let out a small groan as she tried to wipe the sweat from her trembling body. The dreams were different every time.
There were times she walked around a castle, greeting and demanding people. The longer the dreams carried on, she didn't seem herself, the people appearing around her called out Queen Emily. This time was different, she was never filled with such hopelessness as much as she was inside this nightmare.
"I'M UP, I'M GETTING UP." Her voice echoed downstairs.
Al had one week left of summer before attending a new school for her senior year. Private schools were the only schools her parents made her attend. They yearned for her to maintain a decent career with the best schools to back her up.
This year though, Al finally convinced her parents to compromise with her, allowing her to go to a public school her last year. She dreamed of going for a long time, in hopes she would find more than just pretty faces and trophies. She didn't care for sports and just wanted to drown herself in books where she could escape the nightmares of her life. Making friends didn't come easy to Al since she wasn't into makeup and tanning advice with girls. When she did try to talk to the girls at the school, they would give her disgusted stares and talk about the way she dressed and about the way she read all the time. They didn't like that she wouldn't even give a single sport a shot. She didn't understand the boys either who spoke only about sports and the hottest girls in school.
The thought of being normal always rang in her head, questioning the very existence of what normal really was since she has only experienced these types of people at school.
It didn't help that she always felt someone watching her. She only knew his name from the repeated letters he sent. They always whisper the same things to her. It was the only time paper ever spoke to her, though she wished her books would.
The letter read in a soft male tone. Leaving her filled with dread.
Dear Emily,
I've waited so long for your return. Even though you were forced to leave me by the hands of death's reaper. We swore on that fateful day, you would come back to me once the ritual was complete and we could rule our city with an iron fist like we used to. I miss your faint blue eyes and your skin still remains the fairest in our city; yet your heart never changed from its icy core. I still love you the same, no matter.
You told me not to approach you, but we could have been together sooner. I could have completed the ritual before you had a chance to turn against me. You instructed me to strictly keep my distance from your reincarnation so we could have our desires in the end. I was the one that listened to you when no one was there. I was the one that lifted you up when you were in the dark. I am the one that made you the icy queen that you are.
I know you wanted to be with me as much as I did. When we first met, you gazed my way in the streets as you made your daily round through the market. You made my heart stop instantly causing me to stare back nonstop. I couldn't control myself as you could feel me gazing right back at your beauty. The face you made at me was so sweet. Though most people would have thought you were disgusted by me, I knew you were reading my heart. I could sense that you knew what I was looking for. I followed you down the first alley you turned down until you were alone to get a closer look. You could sense me lurking. You walked up to the dead end, walls dark and damped from the sunlight not being able to reach between the tall buildings with laundry hanging from one building to the next one. You stood there in silence for a few moments before placing a finger on the wall. As you rubbed your finger along the cold stone wall, you whispered into my heart, "it's okay to be different." From there, I vowed I would always be with you.
In the end, the life we built over 15 years and the city we created together became only a memory when you started to fade away, drifting to death. The disease, Dot To Dot, ate you from the inside out, I could do nothing as I watched you whither away mentally and physically until the day you closed your eyes for good. Since that fateful day, the city is in shambles as it awaits your soul's epic return.
You were always the love of my life, though at times you made it clear you didn't want it, but you warmed up to me and when things were starting to be perfect, it shattered..
Nevertheless, your king did the most incredible thing. I have prepared everything and finally got the last key to the ritual other than yourself. I've waited and watched from a distance like you instructed. Once you are home with me, we will rule again and this time, we will rule the whole world together.
Even though your death was hard to stop, you are here with me, I have protected your cold lifeless body, waiting for you.
We would spend our evenings eating dinner together and dancing, only this time your body won't drag across the wooden floors of our castle. My jokes would ring on in your ears and your quietness swallowed them whole. I can't wait to hear your voice again. The sweet light tone of your words filling the halls once again.
I waited for a long time for a sign to start preparing the ritual. One night, I felt a shift in the air, I followed the scent of you that once flooded this city. There you were, your reincarnation, it was only a matter of time before you were old enough to start the ritual.
When you were only a toddler, I kept a close eye on you. I kept you safe from the evil that surrounded you. I knew if I took you too soon that the ritual wouldn't work. So I waited.
Those days you came home crying, I sent you flowers and chocolates to make you feel better, yes those were from me and not that snort nose brat!
Now that you are reborn, 200 years later, we can be together in peace once and for all. I can run my fingers through the same long hair that shines like the pitch black night and beautiful pale blue eyes; your fair skin and I'm sure the same frozen heart as your last body. Thank you for coming back to me, thank you for coming to love me again, my dear. For allowing me to rule this world once more.
I didn't reveal myself sooner because you wouldn't have understood. I want you to understand my love for you, so I've sent you letters upon letters in hopes that you would write back, only to have you ripe them up and ignore me.
Now that you are older, I hope that you aren't as cold hearted as you once were. You have a more positive glow about you. That's why this time it will be different, I hope that it will… Without you, my whole world will crumble. That is why I ask you to be my queen, be my savior once more.
Love yours truly,
Incubus
He would send flowers, different shadows of blue ranging from lights to darks in between letters. Somehow he knew her favorite color. No one knew about the letters along with the dreams and random flowers except for Marco. He was her best friend from childhood and her longtime crush, but she couldn't tell him.
She wandered to the old computer on her desk while rubbing all the eye crust and dirt from her eyes. A stack of books that she finished before bed the night before rested in front of the computer, she placed them next to her on the ground. She started to check for anything new from Marco, hoping there was something to fill the void he left in her heart two weeks ago.
"Nothing again!" She whispered under her breath.
As she stood up, she tripped over the books causing her to jam her pinky toe against the desk. She grabbed her foot as she hobbled to the bed. Once the pain subsided, she tossed her body backwards allowing her to lay facing the ceiling. She stared at the Glow in the dark stars Marco and her put up when they were 8.
He told her they would keep her protected inside that room. The day Marco left, She was so hurt that she couldn't stop crying. He came over and explained he had to go on his yearly trip, but this time that he wasn't coming back. As the words left his lips, each one stabbed her in the heart, plunging deeper and deeper.
Marco had lived three houses down from her, since the day they met, he showed up at her house since the day they me every day and night
When they first met, Al was sitting on the curb in front of her house.
"Why do you always cry?" A little boy's voice asked her bluntly.
"Why do you always stare?" Al raised her head and snarled back at the boy. Over the past couple of weeks, Al noticed the boy watching her for his window whenever she passed.
"Because a girl should always be strong, they should never cry." He lifted a finger to the sky. "There is more to life than the pain you lived today." Marco said back as quickly as she did. That was the day Marco sat down next to Al and introduced himself, telling her stories of his abusive uncle. He would say to her, "no matter the amount of pain you feel today, it doesn't determine tomorrow."
That was the day they became friends and their bond was unbreakable until the day Marco moved away. Al smiled at the flashback of them running through her head.