First. Let me say I hate this new layout Blogger has going. The dashboard is so bare and white. Seems like a waste of space...kinda miss the blue and orange chunky dashboard... Hmm. Anyway. On to today's writing, inspired as always by the things I see in my mind and the dreams that haunt me at night.
"Kadie Simmons has been found dead today. These images may not be suitable for immature audiences."
It was a new name, but the same sentences have issued out of the news anchor's mouth several times this week. Always a new name, but the brutality of the killings have been the same. My eyes jerked from the slice of chocolate cake in front of me to watch the flat panel that had appeared from behind the cabinets.
"That makes six now, doesn't it?" I whispered to the chef.
"Seven." His eyes focused on the vegetables in front of him, preparing them for the stew we would have tomorrow night.
"It's weird to think a murderer could be in Camden Hills, much less a serial killer....." My voice sounded distant, even to my own ears, as I watched the images on the screen. Kadie had been found hanging from her bedroom rafters, still clutching her teddy bear. Her face was swollen, her frail body tinted with blue hues.
"Do we have to watch this, Lizzie?" Upon hearing my sister's voice I quickly turned the television off.
"Sorry, Abby...shouldn't you be in bed?" I looked at my little sister crawl into the chair. She was especially strong for an eight year old, in my opinion. Anyone else, I would think, would need help into the tall barstool.
"I'm going in a minute... I wanted a cookie, if I could please, Travis?"
"Sure thing Miss Abigail." I noticed the sharp professionalism to Travis' voice. Usually he acted with such casualness around us, never had I heard my friend call Abby "miss" anything...
"Thank you." Abby watched as Travis reheated a slightly cooled chocolate chip cookie he had made earlier in the afternoon. He handed the warm cookie to her as my mind wondered back to the day I had taken Abby and Kadie down to the stream at the edge of the property. Their laughter filled my ears as I watched them splashing each other, holding hands and picking daisies together.... Now Kadie's life had been taken from her, robbing a family of their child and my sister of her friend. I watched Abby nibble at her cookie sadly for a moment, noting the little teardrops that hung in her eyes. Turning, my eyes hovered on the chef, watching as he perfectly diced an onion, never once stopping the fluid motion of the knife to move the skins out of the way. They seemed to be pushed aside on their own. He moved with especial smoothness today, never once tripping up or getting lost in his movements. Something with him wasn't natural... there would be no way for a human being to be this...this perfect in nearly everything he does.
"It's rude to stare, Miss Elizabeth." he chided me.
"It's equally as rude to act this strange among friends," I retorted, pushing the nearly full plate across the bar. I leaned over to place a small kiss on Abby's forehead before jumping down from my perch. Travis cocked his head to the side, watching me with a trivial look.
"Rude? Well I'm sorry if I offended you." He stood toe to toe with me, his eyes flicked to where Abby sat.
"I'm going to bed, Lizzie. Will you tuck me in?" Her small voice came up from behind me, her small hand curling itself around mine.
"Sure thing, sweetie," I let the sweetness drip out of my voice as I turned to the man in front of me. "You're acting strange again, Travis. I will figure out what game you're playing." I pushed past him, deliberately jarring the bowl of tomatoes he had set on the counter. I walked Abby up to her room, tucking her in and placing a small kiss on her forehead.
"Love you angel." I smiled at my baby sister. I've watched her grow up through the years and began to realized, just now with her little blue eyes staring up at me, that she won't always be this little. My heart sank like that of a proud mother. I backed out of her room, and closed her door as my mind returned to the confusion and complex tangle that was Travis Resson. My mind always seemed to race back to him--to trying to figure out what it was behind that stony face and the large walls he had erected around himself. I had thought that surely, I had made progress. He had shared some of, what I would think to be, his darkest secrets with me over the past few weeks and now this sudden professionalism? My mind began to race fast as I stomped up to my room, leaving Abby's wing of the house for my own. I don't know what it was about him, I just get this uneasy feeling any time I'm near him. My heart races, muscles tense up, my legs beg to either run or be placed into a fighting stance. The way he smiles when he's deep in thought, he always seems to be around when I need him...or when I don't, now that I think of it. It was strange the way he acted around me... and what I heard last night? I had just been walking the house, trying to beat this damned insomnia that I had been cursed with, and I heard his voice. So naturally, I stopped, hoping my friend would be available for a late night chat. And instead I hear talk of an Emperor? And a gladiator battle...surely I had misheard... I passed into my room, allowing the door to slam shut behind me as I sat on my bed. There was something unnatural and off with this place and just what I'm not sure I could fully answer just yet, but I was determined to. I moved to the mini library that circled the support beam in the center of my room and scanned the bookshelves. Young adult fiction, fantasy, fiction....literature. I pulled Dante's Inferno off the shelf--save it for some late night reading later.. No nonfiction, no reference. I straightened up, my hands on my hips.
There had to be some answer, something out there. I sat down on the carpet, feeling mostly defeated as I stared out of the giant window. I watched as the ocean sighed and moved in the dark night, the moonlight shining down on it from its high perch in the sky. There had to be some answer to the riddles of this place, this mystical world that I had stepped into from my boring life of being an orphan.... Sounds like Narnia or Harry Potter. I chuckled at myself, amused at first by the ridiculousness of it. Unless...
Could it be real? Could these books have any probability of happening? Who says there can't be magic or talking animals, or a world so unlike our own we choose to ignore it? Surely this can exist, I mean, what if this Emperor guy is real, he exists in a world Travis has access to--
My thoughts were cut off by the scream that echoed through the house. Without my conscious say so, my body had already begun to race off to Abby's room. I raced through the corridors, anxious to get to Abby in the other wing of the house. The screams continued as my mind raced through the images that had been on the news over the past month as I dashed through this ridiculously large house. Little Kadie Simmons, seven years old, her body hanging from the rafters. Tyler Russell, his skin and face burnt and wrinkled, his frail body burnt to a literal crisp. Arianna Smith, found in her playset lying in a large pool of blood. The screams fell silent, suddenly as if they had been silenced by someone else.
"Abby! Abigail!" My voice rang out shrill and scared. I had to find my sister. A firm hand landed on my shoulder and I grabbed a hold of it. I turned, twisting his arm around his back.
"Where is she?" I could hear the panick in my voice as the harsh words rushed from my ears.
"You tell me." Travis spun around, shoving me away from him as he did.
"You know where she is, Travis Resson! There is a killer in this place, a murderer! And you know something about it. I know you do. You're going to let her be killed, you were going to let them harm my Abby weren't you?!" A small voice in the back of my head told me I sounded crazy and delirious, that Travis wouldn't do something that stupid. Yet he was the only match for the description, why else would he appear right as the screams ceased? Yes he was the distraction while my sister was killed. My heart pounded and I felt as if I could spit fire, if I was determined enough.
"Lizzie, I need you to listen to me, I need you to trust me." Travis stepped towards me; I felt my hands ball into fists.
"Trust you?! Trust you, you the man that can't even tell the truth half--" He stepped closer. My fist fell across his face, knocking him back a few steps. He stepped forward again, grabbed my waist and pulled me closer, forcing his lips upon mine. My mind cleared as I remembered the soft haired boy, the blue eyed jokester and best friend that I had fallen in love with months ago. I remembered who Travis was. His voice was low in my ear.
"We need to find Abby. She found the Emperor on her own, and I swear to everything, Elizabeth, I will not let her be harmed. I need you to trust me."
***
leave comments of what you think, any feedback is welcome and always appreciated. Also, please note that (as always) this is a piece from a larger work. I tend to work on the larger works bit by bit and usually post them here for convience's sake. Also, I apologize for any spelling/grammar mistakes. I don't have time to read back through it. Thanks.
