Desperate Measures
Prologue: Cold Confrontations
"Avalos," came a frighteningly restrained voice, "What, may I ask, did you do now?"
"You're not allowed to ask; I forbid you to ask. DON'T ASK, DAMNIT!"
"Fine," the voice stated dryly as it came closer. "You're just going to end up telling me anyways, so why waste my energy trying?"
"Jerk."
"Thank you."
The young woman referred to as Avalos rolled her powder blue eyes as she crossed her legs and made herself comfortable over the round, white as snowcushion that stood out against the maroon colored carpet. Carefully tucking a strand of hair neatly behind her right ear, she began to play with the chestnut brown curls at the end of each strand, slowly picking out the split ends. She averted her gaze, glancing down at her sandaled feet in mild interest. No way was she going to lose this time. No way…
And yet, all he had to do was just stare at her with those unnerving celery green eyes of his. So unearthly large, so unnecessarily beautiful – oh for goodness sakes, get a hold of yourself woman! She shifted uneasily whilst growing increasingly frustrated with her hair before simply deciding to braid it. Then unbraid it. Braid it. Unbraid it. ARGHH! STOP STARING AT ME!
She let out an overly dramatic sigh. "Okay, fine! You win!"
Avalos' companion stood beside her, leaning against the white plaster wall with his arms crossed and a satisfied smirk adorning his features. "Don't I always?"
"You better shut up before I change my mind, James," Avalos warned.
"Doesn't matter what you do, Milo. In the end, you'd still lose." James then grinned in a manner that could infuriate the most composed of people. Now, imagine how that would affect a girl like Avalos:a girl who couldn't even dream of being calm and collected, was infamous for her full-blown fits, loveddramatics and always tried to find a way to slip them into every situation. Yeah, you get the picture.
"How many times have I told you not to call me that?" she growled, "My name is Melody. Mel. Oh. Dee. It's not that hard! I know it takes a while for your brain to comprehend things but…"
"Mel. Oh. Dee? Hmmm…" James responded, his pointer finger tapping his chin lightly as he pretended to give the name a bit of thought. "Nah, I like 'Milo' better. 'Melody' doesn't have that ring to it," he said, shaking his head before proceeding to slide down next to her, swiftly spreading his legs out in front of him.
"I'm never going to get anything through to you, am I?" Melody cried in an exasperated voice.
"Nope, never," was the simple reply as James idly began to draw patterns on the plush carpet with his finger. Without bothering to look up, he asked "What now?" for he could feel Melody's penetrating gaze on his shoulder.
"What are you doing?"
"Nothing."
"No, seriously what are - "
"I just realized that you let the twins give you a nickname. 'Mel', isn't it? Funny, it doesn't seem like you get defensive with them," he noted vaguely, almost as if he were talking to himself.
"Well, you're not exactly one of the twins, now are you? Besides 'Mel' makes sense, where the hell did you get 'Milo' from?"
A chuckle escaped James' lips before he uttered, "It's quite an interesting story actually, you see -"
Managing to interrupt the two's rather uneventful conversation, a high-pitched, feminine yelp pierced the slightly chilly autumn air. "MEL! You idiotic, selfish, so dead meat, failure of a -"
"Thanks, Addie, I love you too," Melody interjected.
" - guardian. Don't interrupt me! You're so in trouble little girl!"
"Hmm, that's interesting," James murmured as he pulled himself back up to a standing position and slipped his hands into the pockets of his worn jeans. He strode over to the open window opposite the wall he was last leaning against and looked out into the scenery that surrounded the old building. "Last time I checked, Milo was older than you."
"Well that's news to me! If she actually acted her age, I wouldn't have to deal with problems like this but no-o, she just had to go and - "
"Jeez Addie, slow it down, will you?" James quipped with a raised eyebrow. He could barely understand the words flowing out of her mouth like the Niagara Falls. She had always been like this: talking too fast when she became overly emotional…which just happened to be all the time. Women.
Placing a hand to her temple, Addie took a deep breath while closing her eyes and mentally counting from one to ten. She then turned to James, explaining to him as if he were a mere toddler that couldn't even begin to understand the simplest of concepts. "Look, I need to talk to Mel alone, okay? So would you mind playing the disappearing act and getting out of here, Jamie?"
"Hey, it –whatever it is - couldn't have possibly been that bad, could it?" James retorted, paying no heed to the ridiculous nickname or the highly insulting tone in which he was addressed.
The dark expression that filtered onto Addie's face silenced James' intention to push the subject further. With a short nod, he started to head towards the open window. Performing his so called 'vanishing act', he continued walking backwards. His outline turned into a cloud of musty gray smoke; his figure slowly fading away. A sly little smirk surfaced on his face as he wiggled his fingers in a form of a wave before completely disappearing from view.
With her gaze still lingering on the now vacant space surrounding the window, Addie remained painfully quiet while her expressions remained unreadable. Addie's tone dropped to one that foreshadowed severity as she moved to face her good friend. Her thick auburn waves were now like a curtain over her eyes that still didn't properly shield Melody from the coldness permeating from within the dark chocolate orbs. Melody could no longer hope for another explanation: Addie knew. There was nowhere to turn now.
Melody waited in silent agony, her eyes drooping as she tried her hardest not to show any sign of emotion. In a place hidden deep within her, there was something that secretly wanted to yell "GET ON WITH IT ALREADY!" She already knew that she was a horrible person. She never claimed to be anything else when she first reached Emencoltà, and she didn't now. Finally the clearing of one's throat broke the silence and Adela Montanez addressed Melody Avalos with a deadly calm voice, something that seemed to scare Mel more than if Addie had simply begun to yell at her.
"How could you do it?" Adela breathed. "How could you be so heartless, cold, and obnoxious all at the same time? I don't understand. We thought we could change you for the better, and you'd be onto Level Five in no time, just a few tweaks here and there. We assumed you didn't have as much baggage to drag around like the rest of us."
"Well, you couldn't have been more wrong. Didn't anyone teach you not to judge a book by its cover?" Melody responded in a testing tone. An unusual sneer surfaced on her face and a feeling of insurmountable apathy surrounded her.
"This isn't you, Mel. I'm very - "
"What? Disappointed? Angry? Afraid of what I've become? Typical. It just shows that you never knew me. You never tried to know me but eventually found out the inevitable: I'm anything but the little picture perfect idea of me you have engraved in your head. What am I, some charity case? You needed to fix me? Honestly, Addie!" Melody seethed, pulling herself up to her friend's level to look her squarely in the eyes. "So I'm not the quintessence of innocence. So I'm not the perfect guardian. Deal with it."
The harsh words seemed to bounce off Adela as if there were some kind of force field protecting her. Now her eyes flashed with a newly found anger that could rival Melody's temper. "You said you were in love with him and that Elsie was a little blessing to you. How could you hurt the both of them, David and Elsie? That not only breaks the code of guardians but also any moral rules that were left within you. You are now an empty frame of nothingness, something to be pitied!"
Melody's eyes narrowed. "I did what I had to do."
"I seriously doubt you had to do that."
Turning away from Adela, her arms crossed and her hand on her chin, she softly confessed, "All he wanted to do was protect her, so I figured if I did this he'd be able to protect her and be with me."
"Well he's not here with you, is he?"
"No," Melody strangled out, turning to Addie with tear brimmed eyes. "What…what a waste." Crumbling to the ground, she buried her head in her hands. "What do I – what can I do now?"
Addie looked straight ahead, her body stiff. "I don't know, Melody. I can't help you now."
A/N: So, I'm sorry that the prologue's a bit short but I promise my actual chapters are longer. Don't worry if you're a bit confused now. All I'm hoping is that the confusion didn't make you less intrigued by the story. Everything will come together and come back to this point in a full circle and then some. So, sit tight and wait for the next update. Remember: reviews make the world go round…and make me type faster.