Fade: Chapter One

Fade1

Chapter One2

I sat on my bed as my hand became shaken with fear and anger. I shook my head, repulsed by the thoughts that were going through my mind. I allowed the small steak knife to fall to the sheets, my wrists seemed to grow weak, as if sighing from relief. 3

I can’t. I thought as I slid open my drawer and pushed the knife underneath my socks and underwear. Next time . . . I whispered to myself as I shut the drawer. 4

Strange yellow lights flashed outside the window as I walked out of my bedroom door, I shrugged it off as headlights from the nearby highway.5

“Melissa Jo!” Mom said as she wiped her hands and placed them on her hips. “I’ve been calling for ten minutes! Dinner’s getting cold!” 6

“Yes mom.” I said coldly as I walked passed her to the table. Mom walked over to the tv and flipped it onto the news. Pictures of politicians and natural disasters flashed behind my back as I pushed several beans around with my fork. 7

How am I supposed to eat? I sighed. I looked behind at my mother, who stared silently at the television. She doesn’t even care. She wasn’t there . . . and she didn’t even ask. 8

I got up and pushed my chair out with a screeching wail. Mom turned her head slightly as I walked out onto the patio and shut the glass doors behind myself. 9

The night air was warm. Not pleasantly warm. It was that type of warm air that seemed to forgo a storm, a heavy and thick warmth. Tension. I stared out at the hill above our house, cars and trucks zoomed down its highway at all hours of the night. For years I had wished to be on one of those cars, or even a truck if it would take me out of here.  This hell.10

I guess I could have hitchhiked but it seemed rather dangerous.11

I heard our neighbor’s dog barking at something nearby. Our neighbor’s didn’t come out much, but I assumed they were good people–since they always seemed to have a bowl full of food out for their dog. I began to wander across the patio and near the small fence that divided our two yards.12

The closer I came to the neighbor’s yard and the neighbor’s dog, the more I had to squint my eyes. Bright yellow lights were glaring in at the yard and shining in my eyes. 13

No wonder the dog’s barking, that car seems to be real close . . . I thought as I leaned in over the gate and stared at the lights with the dog. That’s when I noticed that there wasn’t a car. 14

The strange lights were suspended in the air, floating. What was stranger was that they weren’t casting shadows and there wasn’t any sound accompanying them. I paused for a moment, a little nervous but still sure that there was a reason for the odd lights.15

I pushed open the small gate, jumping a little as it squealed itself shut again. I stood near the doghouse as the neighbor’s dog stood howling at the road, moreover, at the ghostly lights that were shining in on us.16

I walked up closer to the dog, noticing how its eyes grew wider. The lights still remained, glaring a steady beam into my eyes. I was determined to find out the source of lights, even if it was a mac truck parked on the other side of the road. The dog barred its teeth as I walked in front of it, edging closer to the light and blocking it from shining on the dog’s face. 17

It didn’t seem to matter how close I got to the lights because they never got larger, never got brighter. They just floated with a sinister glare. A yellow hue that tinted the small area of the neighbor’s yard. They should be able to see this from inside . . . I thought to myself as I shielded my eyes and took a step onto the hard road.18

I think I heard my mom calling from the patio, calling my name, but I’m not sure because as I edged in close to the lights I collapsed onto the road. The warm night air was the last thing I felt on my cold face.19