Like a storm, the images in Ama’s head flickered:
uncontrollable and wild. Then, lightning struck and the vivid brightness it
created in her brain forced her tensed muscles twist and turn; an electric mind
holding her body captive in the cruel clutches of the unconscious human
body. Arms lashing out, Ama thrashed
around her small bed that had been dampened from the sweat which had poured
around the distraught teenager’s neck. Ama’s
deep blue eyes twitched around, but only visible when her eyelids rapidly
twitched up and down, as snapshots of unidentifiable silhouettes flashed before
them. Unintelligible panicked shouts were exchanged, accompanied by torturous screams
that tore a hole in the hearts of all who heard these ear-piercing cries of
pure terror. Involuntarily, Ama saw the intense colours of the torn limbs that
had been casually strewn around the street, her body shaking with horror and
forever helpless to intervene.
Suddenly, the canvas changed and Ama’s heart dropped and as
she fell through the ground into a bottomless pit, her uncontrollable heart
plummeted to the end of the world. Her mouth wide in horror, she released a
mute scream that was lost in the infinite darkness that constantly swirled
around her. Darkened figures began to move towards her and Ama let out a shiver
as she sensed the evil coursing through their blackened veins beginning to
pulse to hers. Voices whispered around her head: teasing her, mocking her;
their twisted mouth’s smirking and then sets of impossible, distorted and
twisted jaws opening, wide, wide, wider
-
Instinct kicked in and Ama pushed away from those terrible
creatures of darkness, but then stumbled and abruptly the gravity returned in
the phantom landscape that held Ama prisoner. She began to start fall again and
cried out, as she plummeted forever down. Tumbling and twisting, her limbs
flailed and she turned over and over and over…
Amalie Taylor awoke, breathing heavily; the last remnants of
the ferocious nightmare painlessly floating away in the dust that danced
prettily in the morning sunlight of which had slipped through the small cracks
in the curtains. Disorientated, she blinked twice, confused, then sat up hurriedly,
cursing under her breath as she knocked her woozy head on the wooden headboard
behind her. Groaning, the fourteen-year-old pushed a messy tangle of dark brown
hair out of her face and reluctantly dragged a pair of long, pale, skinny legs
out from beneath the warm covers. As she stretched, a loud yawn escaped from
her lips, but then slipped and tripped over an odd shoe that had apparently
been aimlessly discarded there a few nights before. Ama fell and went sprawling
onto the carpet below, landing with a bump.
“Damn you, shoe. I know you’re not as innocent as what
everyone else may think of you. ” She said, shooting a malicious glare at the
unsuspecting flip-flop.
Still eyeing the shoe suspiciously, she grabbed onto the
side of her bed and pulled herself up.
She threw on her maroon school jumper and black trousers, which had been
carelessly thrown there the night before. Grumbling slightly about the colour
of her jumper – as she always did – Ama made her way downstairs, following the
insistent grumbling of her stomach.
“Oh, shut up.” She muttered to her belly, as she wandered
into the kitchen.
Sam, her seven year old brother was sitting at the kitchen
table, munching a bowl of Cheerios. She sat herself down at the table, poured a
bowl of cereal and stared at him.
“What?” he mumbled with his mouth full of deformed Cheerios,
She glared back at him, “Ugh, don’t speak with your mouth
full: it’s really disgusting.”
“You can’t tell me what to do,” he interjected and opened
his jaw to reveal a half-digested spoon of cereal and milk that churned around
his mouth.
“Hey, I said don’t do that!” She growled angrily and pulled
the bowl away from him and in the process a splodge of Cheerios landed all over
the surface of the table.
Sam gasped and then blinked up and her, making his big brown
eyes expand as wide as physically possible and then blinked up at her,
innocence seeping out of his small face.
Not convinced, Ama raised her eyebrows, but then as her
little brother continued with his ‘innocent’ act, all her frustration melted
away and she found a grin appearing on her face.
“Come on, let’s get all this cleaned up, before dad comes
downstairs and sees this mess that you
made.” She said smiling as her brother
giggled.
She opened the cupboard doors from under the sink and pulled
dish cloth from in, but as she straightened up she accidently knocked her head
on the edge of the sink; bringing out another chortle from Sam.
Today, Ama and Sam didn’t have to worry about their mum
coming down to find the destructed kitchen table, as she had already left
thirty minutes previously for her job at the hospital in the city. Ama supposed
that it must be very tiring work to be a midwife, because when her mum returned
from a shift she generally collapsed on the sofa with a hot cup of coffee
brought to her by Ama or Ama’s dad and then switched on the news channel.
Unlike Ama’s mother, her dad seemed to be bursting full of a
vibrant energy that did not fit his age. Although this mostly helped to bring a
positive atmosphere to the Taylor household in contrast to Ama’s mum, it could
sometime be a little embarrassing to the rest of the family.
One of the times he had displayed this as such was Sam’s fifth
birthday party, an event that still stood painfully at the forefront of Ama’s
mind.
The theme had been Star Wars, one of Sam’s past obsessions,
even though Ama personally though it should be slightly frightening for his
age. For the occasion, her dad had dressed up as Darth Vader, with a suit he
had hired from a fancy dress shop in town. It was unknown how this spooked the
little five-year-old from Sam’s class named Ellie Hyde, but that it did cause
her some trauma.
At this point, Mr.Taylor’s wife attempted to step in and
tried to reason with her husband that she should take responsibility of the
situation, but he ignored her protests and then pursued his quest to calm poor
Ellie down. Unsurprisingly, his bizarre plan of pretend to slice of his arm
with the plastic lightsaber he had and then hide his arm inside the sleeve of
the costume, did not liven Ellie’s spirits and at the end of the party, Ellie’s
mother was not impressed as she collected her distraught daughter. Mrs Hyde
gave both Ama’s parents a stern talking to for twenty minutes after the rest of
the guests had dispersed, whilst Ama and Sam hid behind the door, giggling to
themselves quietly, but despite the lecture, Ama’s dad did not apparently, to
this day, understand what he had done wrong and insisted that the family must
have no humour.
Chuckling silently to herself at the obscure memory, Ama
finished wiping the surface.
“What are you laughing at?” her younger brother demanded,
“Oh, remember the time when dad dressed up as Darth Vader at
your sixth birthday party?”
Sam grinned as he recollected the amusing story, and then
bounced down the corridor and up the stairs.
Ama smiled to herself as she heard his door close, but then
it quickly faded at a glance at the kitchen clock that hung above the oven. The
glass covering it was blackened in some places from the time when the oven had
been left on and black smoke had risen, before settling and turning the bits of
glass from transparent to slightly opaque.
“Damn,” she muttered to herself, “Why does school have to
start so early? Don’t they always rant about how valuable sleep is to us?”
Ama hastily grabbed her school bag and jacket and then
headed to the door.
“Bye!” she called upstairs.
“Stay safe!” replied the gruff voice of Ama’s dad,
The teenager rolled her eyes, then opened the dark blue door
and stepped out onto the noisy street. The cold hit her instantly, so she
pulled her jacket up to her neck, gritted her teeth and began to walk, narrowly
avoiding a recycling bin that stood proudly, but inconveniently, bisecting the
gum coated pavement. She swerved to the side and continued, as cars sped
impatiently past, although any car horns were lost to the angry wind. It was
quite a normal morning; in fact it would have evidently seemed to be an average
movie-style example of a typical working day, except for the girl - who was not
at a too dissimilar age to Ama.
The girl's cold narrow eyes, which were of a piercing blue,
unwaveringly followed Ama's body down the road. Although there was a strong
breeze, her hair did not ever move - unlike Ama's, whose was presently causing
havoc by, much to her annoyance, constantly flying in front of her face - but
instead the brown tangle simply lay still upon her bony shoulders.
A smile reached across the girl's lips when Ama disappeared
around the corner and as a gust of wind pushed through the street, causing the
beautiful autumn leaves to scatter.
When they had finally settled, the girl had vanished.
Yes, this is quite bad and I'd appreciate any ways it could be better: I generally cannot be bothered to re-read my work, because it's crappiness if painful.
I don't take my writing seriously any more, btw.
