Chosen Paths

Prologue

By NationChild

A/N: Yeah, I know that I said I probably won’t post until a few months time, but I found this story and I just had to post it! The second chapter will most likely be after a few months, since we’re moving in a week.

This is a story that I had written about six months ago and then discontinued it. After a few months, I found it again, read through it and realized that it might not be as dead as I thought. I haven’t gotten very far in this story, only a couple of chapters and when I first started writing this, I had a few clear images into my head. Now, I scarcely remember them. This version is edited, with a few parts added and a few parts taken out, with some of the names changed. Anyway, I’ve done enough talking (or writing)! I’ll let you get back to reading this.

The cemetery was eerily silent, except for the quiet chatter of an old couple in a corner. The cemetery was situated in the middle of a semi forest, with trees surrounding it. It was a small cemetery, with only fifteen or so graves, but there was one in particular that drew attention.

The grave was new. Mounds of dirt were piled up, fresh carnations and lilies laid down. A figure stared at the grave, as silent as stone.

The figure was of a young girl. Black hair that went down to mid-back, thoughtful eyes brimmed with tears as she gazed at her aunt’s grave.

RIP

Nova Martz

1960-2000

The girl did not let the tears roll down her face, but instead brushed them aside furiously. Crying won’t fix what has already happened, her father’s voice rang in her head. Besides, it’s not as if her aunt had died the day before. She should have cried all that she had to if it had happened so long ago. But it wasn’t so long ago. In fact, her aunt had died exactly a year before.

Aunt Nova had never had a smoke in her life, nor a drink. She’d found it easier to follow by instinct rather than rationalization, and once she had made up her mind, there was no changing it.

The girl could not understand why such a terrible thing could happen to such a good person.

A drunk driver had crashed into the front of Aunt Nova’s car. Although the airbag went off, but the time the ambulance had arrived, Aunt Nova had lost too much blood. She never did pick up the girl from school. Because she was dead.

The second time tears threatened to flow down the girl’s face, she let them. What was the point? Aunt Nova had been like a second mother to her, especially since her parents had abandoned her when she was six years old.

The girl awakened in a bed, in an unrecognizable place. Stumbling downstairs, frightened black eyes searched the room for something. Anything that might tell her that this was all a nightmare and that she would wake up on her cot next to her parents’ bed. But there was nothing. Plates from Italy hung on the wall, china dolls were set in a glass cupboard and a table was occupied with food of all sorts. The room that she had walked into was the kitchen.

A woman came into the room. The woman’s eyes landed on the little girl. The warmth in her eyes comforted the girl and some of the fear disappeared from the girl’s eyes. The girl had never met this woman before but she immediately felt a strong connection with this woman Maybe she can help her find her parents! Oh, your parents are on a trip. Don’t worry, they’ll come back soon. Though the woman’s voice was soothing, the little girl couldn’t help but wonder why her mother and father had left without telling her. True, they had not had an unlimited amount of money, they had all slept in one room and they had not had much to eat, but the little girl had been happy and content with her life.

From then on, the little girl stayed with the woman, who was coincidentally, her mother’s sister. From the time she would finish her homework, every day the little girl would sit on the driveway of her aunt’s house, waiting for her parents to come walking up the street holding out their arms to her. But they never came. Slowly, the girl began losing hope. Instead of waiting every day, she would wait once a week, then once a month, until gradually she stopped waiting for her parents altogether.

A year later, the little girl had built a new life. She had many friends at her school and had good grades. Once again she was happy, rarely thinking about her parents.

The young girl had loved her aunt very much. She wished that Aunt Nova was with her at that moment. She missed her aunt’s raven dark hair streaming down her back. She missed the gentle, peaceful songs her aunt used to sing just for her. But what she missed most of all was Aunt Nova’s eyes. The young girl had thought that they were very mysterious. Like Aunt Nova could see into her heart. Those eyes were friendly and content with excitement for the future to come but they could also be grave, depressing and empty. If you looked into her eyes hard enough, you could see every emotion imaginable.

The young girl’s face was wet with tears and her eyes red and puffed up.

She continued crying.

A blue eyed girl stood, staring into space, contemplating something. She loved adventure. So what was stopping her from doing this? She knew the answer to that question. She felt something. A feeling. She didn’t know what it was but her instincts told her not to go down this foothill.

She hesitated. Ignoring the feeling, the girl started sliding down the foothill. Rocks of all sizes slid down below her foot and she almost slipped. The path down to the little river was indeed very steep. Small tree roots stuck out of the foothill, providing a place for feet to grip. The girl took care to not put all of her weight on one tree root, for she knew that the roots would not be strong enough to support her body weight. Once the girl got down the hill, she inhaled the sweet scent of the forest.

Naturally, the girl loved nature. The rough texture of the bark on trees, the soft whistle of the wind, the little delicate flowers surrounding her, she loved it all. The sounds of the running river calmed the girl. Looking at the wilderness around her, the girl was filled with the feeling of peace.

She observed the small river before her. It was not very wide, but you could not see the bottom, the current was moving fast; anything that fell in would be swept away immediately by the current. The surface of the water was around ten feet down, which would have made most people nauseated.

Pacing along the bank, the girl started to think. Even with the tranquility around her, she could not let go of a certain worry. This certain worry was about a friend. Her close friend, Leila. Being stuck, unable to think of anything else, on something or someone, especially those close to her, was uncommon for the blue-eyed girl. She was usually carefree and optimistic and analyzed things carefully, although down to earth. Needless to say, she was the opposite of her friend Leila, who made her decisions by following her instincts. You could say that Leila was a bit headstrong and straightforward with the truth. What the girl admired most about her friend is that she always made sure that people knew that she did not care about what others thought of her. Her best friend, Leila, was a rebel. The girl laughed silently at the memory of Leila, interrupting the lessons at school to tell the math teacher that he had spelt the word “millennium” wrong. Although she did not laugh long at her friend’s rudeness towards the teacher, she somehow felt as thought she had not laughed in years. In fact, Leila had grown up to be just like her Aunt Nova. The girl looked toward the gate of the cemetery. Standing in front of one of the newest graves was Leila. Although Leila’s back was to the girl, she could tell that by the way Leila’s shoulders were shaking, she was crying. The girl, Nydia, frowned. She knew that Leila needed this time alone but she still wanted so badly to comfort her.

Nydia looked up at the sky, the wind caressing her thick brown hair.

Her frown turned into a sad look. Ever since the accident, Leila had been different. It was as if part of Leila’s heart, part of her soul, had vanished. Leila tried to hide it, though. She was still the same, blunt, serious person at school but when Nydia would invite Leila over for a sleepover with some other girls from school, Leila would hide herself away under her sleeping bag, claiming that she was very tired and needed to sleep. The other girls left Leila alone, simply believing that Leila was overtired from her tennis practices held four times a week. But this didn’t fool Nydia. Nydia knew Leila well enough to know that this was just an excuse. An excuse to get the other girls off her back about her staring off into space the other day. Nydia could remember that night well…

It was cold and damp outside. The wind howled as it whipped at the house, seemingly shaking it. The lightning lit up the sky, splitting into several branches. The thunder boomed and crashed. A dark haired girl at the age of 9 sat on her bed, her knees hugged up to her chest, arms wrapped tightly round her legs, chin resting on her knees, her face a blank stare.

The door opened quietly, but Leila heard it and, her emotionless eyes darting toward the door, only to find a brown-haired blue-eyed girl entering her room, went back to staring impassively at the opposing wall.

Nydia silently walked over to Leila’s bed and sat down, scarcely making a sound. Leila did not react to Nydia’s action; she looked like a statue. A long uncomfortable silence passed between the two girls.

A few minutes passed, although it seemed like hours until Nydia finally spoke.

“Okay, Leila. Tell me what’s wrong,” Nydia did not exactly question Leila, but rather demanded.

Slightly shaken by her friend’s sudden outburst, Leila pried her eyes from the process of observing one of her posters hanging on the wall and darted them at her best friend’s frustrated face.

“What are you talking about?” Leila’s voice was barely above a whisper.

“You know what I’m talking about.”

Leila looked down at the floor, avoiding eye contact with Nydia. She stayed like that for a long time. Suddenly, Nydia opened her arms out wide and Leila fell into Nydia’s arms, crying uncontrollably.

“Nydia, we’re going!” The old couple and Leila had started up the path out of the forest. Nydia scrambled from her squat on the grass wet with dew and made her way along the riverside.

Seeing Leila with her head bent down to the world, walking as if she didn’t have a care in the world, Nydia hurried to comfort her. Rushing up the steep foothill, Nydia did not pay attention to where her feet were. Her footing slipped from its grasp and she slid down towards the river. Her brown hair spinning loosely from its ponytail, Nydia let out a small and quiet scream as she tried to grip the tree roots. She gripped the roots after a few seconds, but the roots gave way to her weight and sent her flying. The momentum of the slide was enough to send Nydia flying of the edge of the bank. It seemed like time had stopped as Nydia plummeted into the river. Nydia let out another scream, this one louder than the first as she hit the surface of the fast flowing water.

“NYDIA!!!!!”

Leila had heard Nydia’s scream and turned just in time to see Nydia falling into the river. The only response Leila got was the sound of the still flowing river. There was no way that a ten-year-old girl could stay up on the surface of the water, let alone swim against the strong current. A child could easily be pulled under the water and drown. This fact Leila was sure of, though she dared to hope, hope as she looked over the edge of the drop off into the river, careful not to fall in herslelf. The river still flowed, nothing betraying the fact that a girl had fallen into it just thirty seconds earlier.

Leila collapsed onto the wet grass, sobbing into the palms of her hands, her already wet face now flooding with fresh tears.

Well, what do you think? Already hate it? Think I should continue this? It is possible to leave this as a oneshot but that would leave a lot of unanswered questions, so naturally, if I were to keep this piece up, I would attempt to continue it. Thanks for taking the time to read this and please give me feedback about this! Should I continue it or simply delete it? Also, if you want me to continue this and you have some ideas about what’s going to happen in the future of this story, I’d love to hear it!

NC