She closed her eyes
tightly, hoping that would stop her world from tumbling down around her. She
knew it was no help; the world would keep turning, and as soon as she opened
her eyes she would have to face the terrifying truth that she was now alone.
She wasn’t alone in the angst-ridden-teenager way that she believed there was
no one there, and that no one would understand her. She was alone in the ‘everyone
I know is dead and I’m at least a hundred miles away from civilization’ way.
There was no way Noa Greymere was an angst ridden teenager.
With a shuddering sigh,
she opened her eyes, and she immediately felt tears prick her eyes. She blinked
the offending tears away, praying that the November wind would stop so she
could see, and maybe find a way home. If there was even a home to go back to.
Her eyes danced across the area around her; the abandoned road, the broken down
car, the leaves that gave up and fell down to Earth. There was nothing there
that could help her, and all she could do was stand in the middle of the road
while she tried not to have a mental breakdown. Biting down harshly on her
bottom lip, she pushed herself toward the tree line. There was no way she was
staying in the middle of the road, and maybe she was crazy for walking off into
the woods, but she didn’t care.
She always felt some
form of comfort in the woods, and maybe that was insane. She couldn’t find a
reason to care. She walked through
the fiery leaves, and she had to hold back her tears as her mind drifted back
to that God forsaken fire that took everything away from her. Her eyes caught
something in the fiery foliage, and she stopped dead in her tracks. She bent
down to retrieve the fallen leaf, carefully picking it up as if it would break.
Her thumb lightly ghosted over the leaf- it wasn’t like the others. The leaf
was heart shaped, and the only part of it that held any fire like the rest were
the edges. The green center of the leaf faded to a burnt orange color.
She blinked wearily at
the heart that was wrapped with fire- she didn’t understand why it had fallen
off its tree. With a light shake of her head, she dropped the leaf, and
continued on her journey.