Chapter Text
When I looked at her I felt butterflies. When I looked at her all seemed right in the world. But you don't want to hear about that, do you? No, no, no you want to hear the story of the 3rd floor. That's the floor I live on. Well lived on. Before it was destroyed, but we will get to that later. How rude of me, not introducing myself. I'm Eden. Currently, I am 17 years old! Turned 17 last week actually. Crazy right? You don't have to answer that. Anyways as I was saying, her. The girl that I was sure I was gonna marry.
I first saw her when we were moving in. She walked down the hall and into her apartment across the way from us. The first thing I noticed was her beauty and I know that may sound wrong but I had never talked to her what else could I have fallen in love with? It took us 1 and a half weeks to move in and through the whole thing, I only saw her that once. But one day we got a knock at our door and there she was.
"Hello, my name is Tara! I live across the way and saw that you just moved in. I wanted to formally welcome you to Fay Garden Apartments!"
Her voice was the second thing I fell in love with. It was high, but not annoyingly so. Almost like the bells of an ice cream truck. Sweet and soft. My mom called for me and I came out of my room, nervous as could be. I looked at her again and she smiled. She smiled at me. She did her welcome, gave us a cookie basket then said her goodbyes. Just like that. That night I formulated a plan. I was going to go over to her house, knock on the door and talk to her. I could barely sleep; my head was filled with her. A girl a barely knew but I was sure she was the one.
I didn't do it.
I did not go to her door and knock and then talk to her like a regular human being would. Instead, I sat in my room all day thinking about doing it. But after a week of thinking, I got up and knocked on her door. She did answer and actually invited me in. That day I found yet another thing to fall in love with. When she would talk about something she really loved, like parrots, she would start to talk really fast and she'd use her hands a lot. I got to know a good amount about her that day. She loves to bake, her favorite color is olive green, she loved parrots and knows a bunch about them, one of her favorite things to do is go to Blue Creek Park by our building and I could just go on and on.
I went home after about 8 hours of being at her apartment, though it felt like much less. I was star-struck. My heart was pounding and I felt as if I could simply fly. It was wonderful and I would have loved to go back and relive that day. That very night though? Not so much.
The fleshy monster chased me down the damaged roads. I would not die to this thing. This creature. I pulled the sword put from the sheath on my back. I held the blade firmly as I turned to face the monster, its terrible, bloodshot eyes looking down at me. It opened its mouth; full of teeth and blood. My heart was pounding and I was blinded by fear. The sword shook in my hands as I took one shaking breath. The monster reached down and in one swift move swept me up, soon dangling above its mouth. Death was here now. I was falling, falling, falling-
I woke up, drenched in sweat but alive. That was the same nightmare I had had for at least 2 months. Every night. Falling. You'd think I'd be numb to it by now but every time it was just as terrifying as the last. I lay in my sweat-soaked clothes for 30 minutes before deciding to get up and start my damn day. It may have been 5:23 am but what else was I doing to do? I swung my legs over the side of the bed and looked at the picture on my nightstand. My sister. God, I missed her. She had died in a car crash 4 months ago. Nothing special, I suppose. Just a drunk driver on a rainy day. I should have been in the car with her but she told me to stay home. That she was just going to the store and would be back in 10 minutes. Should I have been in the car?
"Maybe then we'd both be dead," I said gruffly
I shook the thought away and walked slowly over to the bathroom. I went about my normal routine. Washing my face, getting dressed, struggling to eat breakfast, and forgetting to make my bed altogether. My mom would still be at work I figured. She worked at the hospital and never got paid enough, in my opinion. The whole reason we moved here was because of her job. She said it was better paid, or that she would have fewer hours. So far that's been a total lie. My thoughts came back to the nightmare. Maybe it means something? A monster, a sword, dying. Maybe I could tell the future! No, that's silly. I got up from the kitchen table not sure what I was doing, but I soon grabbed my backpack and headed out the door. The hall was cooler than the apartment and the air pricked my skin. I started to walk down the hall, I hadn't noticed the design on the carpet before. The circles and squares repeating and repeating and repeating and- BAM! I groaned. What happened? I looked up and saw her. She smiled at me. The fourth thing I fell in love with. Her smile. That smile. I chuckled, looking down.
"Are you, ok?" she asked with her ice cream bell voice.
What to say? What to say?
"Yea. I'm fokay. FINE! I'm fine."
Fokay? I couldn't just say fine. Couldn't just say ok. Fokay. Shit.
Giggling, she watched me get up, "I'm glad you are 'fokay'. Wanna hang out again later?"
"Yea! I mean, sure. That'd be great. Does two work?"
She nodded, walking off. I just stood there. She wanted to hang out with me. I didn't have to nervously knock on her door this time! I bit my lip. They seemed to be forever chapped with the skin peeling. I continued my walk, though now I seemed to be walking on air. Lighter than a feather. After walking down the few flights of stairs I stepped outside. Unlike the apartments, the heat now attacked me. The sounds of the city. We didn't live in the pretty part of the city. We lived in the part with the old brick buildings that always looked as if they were ready to give up and crumble to the floor, the part with the scrubby bushes and bumpy roads. The nearest bit of beauty was the park 8 blocks away. I took up only a bit of space but oh my did I love it. Everyone did. But, of course, that wasn't where I was going.
The buildings around me towered, like soldiers. I turned and looked at ours. Only 3 stories high it seemed tiny compared to the structures around it. The tiny building with chipping blue paint. The tiny building that hasn't fixed the water heater. So we only have cold water. The tiny building that no one really likes but it's cheap and doesn't have rats. The tiny building that is just good enough. I sighed and walked down the broken road. The sounds of the sitting filling my ears. People shuffling by each other as they rushed to their jobs. I kid on a bike ringing his bell and the music playing loudly from someone's window. This is home now. I finally came to my destination. The Genpeer Library. Named after Thomas Genpeer who came to this land and claimed it for America. Even though it wasn't his. But isn't that how every story goes? I loved this place. It felt warm and was quiet. There wasn't a dripping faucet or a window rattling. Just silence and the smell of vanilla. I walked to the fantasy section, picking up the book I was reading last time. We didn't have library cards yet but no one ever looked at the very back shelf anyways. I could tell because of the dust that had settled on the shelves. It made me sneeze. I sat down at one of the rickety tables and began to read.
"'Jaren! Our hero! You have slain the evil emperor and saved us all. Thank you! Oh, thank you!' Amelia cried out. The town erupted into applause for their hero. A woman wept in joy as she held her husband close. They showered Jaren in gold and gifts. All was right and all was well. Forever and ever."
I closed the book. I hadn't realized I was so close to the end. It was a shame. The story was nice, if not cheesy. I placed it back on the shelf and browsed them for another when the building shook. Books fells off of shelves and tables collapsed. I fell something hit me on the head. Then another. Then another. I looked over just in time to see the bookshelf crashing down onto me. I couldn't move. I was stuck there staring as I collapsed. The world around me began to spin and twist as I lost consciousness. Was this it? Was this the end?