Fiery Hearts

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.