As Elle sat on the green and brown striped comforter that sheathed her bed, she reflected on what had happened that fateful day when all of her dreams had been shattered like the window through which they had flown away... She had FINALLY found the journal! It had been in her grasp! The one thing her mother had entrusted to her...
And now it was gone--swept away as fast as a light is blown out by a gust of wind. All of her hopes, her dreams--extinguished. In a moment of pure frustration she violently grabbed the key at her throat, unclasped the chain that held it there, and threw it with all her might across the room, hearing it bounce off of her door and land on the hardwood floor below.
Tears gathered at the corners of her eyes as she squeezed them tightly shut, head hung, hands reaching for her face. How could this possibly happen to me? How could a BIRD steal my mother's legacy from me? This CANNOT be real! she thought to herself in distress. All she could think about was how she had failed her mother--the ONE task she had been given, the ONE means of discovering the answer to nothing and yet everything! For how can one know the importance of the answer they'll find if they don't know the question which creates it?
Painfully, the girl allowed herself to fall to her side, pulling her legs up and curling into a ball in order to create some semblance of comfort for herself. What was she supposed to do now? For months all she had been thinking of was finding the key's partner and invariably uncovering the answer which her mother wanted her to find. It had been a curse, a plague! All traces of friendship had been lost as she grew apart from everyone she once knew--it seemed as if the life she had lived before her mother's accident was not her own...Or, perhaps it was more as if she had died with her mother and now she could not go back to her old life, for it was not hers to begin with. She was a changed person. A person whose sole goal was to fulfill a quest--without that there would surely be nothing to live for.
Her depression was overwhelming--sobs wracked her slender frame as her arms rushed vainly to hug her sides in an attempt to hold herself together--as if she were physically falling apart. It felt like she was--like checkmate had just been called on her life.
She had given up--all hopes lost, when, all of a sudden, knock knock
Her father was at her bedroom door, and she knew that if she didn't pull herself together in two seconds she would have to tell him of her disobedience--for how else could she explain this pain?
"Honey?" she heard him say, sounding worried. "Honey, are you alright?"
Frantically, Elle released the grasp on herself and pulled back her comforter, scrambling underneath and trying to lay in what looked like a passable sleep pose. She turned to the wall that resided on one side of her bed, and pulled her blanket so that it concealed the back of her head and most of her face.
The doorknob twisted and clicked open as Orion stepped into the room quietly, seeing what appeared to be Elle's sleeping form bundled in a green and brown mound on her bed. Elle's nerves were on edge as she heard him walk closer--fearing that if he saw her face he'd know she had been crying again--and demand an explanation.
As soon as he reached her bed she snapped her wide eyes shut and attempted to make her anxious expression peaceful--as if she really were dreaming.
Orion sat down on the edge of her bed, put his hands on his knees and looked around at Elle's room. Directly in front of him--to the left of the door, was a large, dark brown, wooden bookshelf, filled with countless collections of Elle's treasured stories. Then on the right hand side of the door--against the right wall, was a bright red desk, upon which resided a cup of writing supplies--i.e. pencils, pens, highlighters, etc-- and a small desk lamp, as well as an old cup of coffee.
Then, to the right hand side of her bed was a medium sized aquamarine dresser with small white curved handles on each of its four sections.
Beneath his feet a bright orange rug obscured the smooth, cool, wooden flooring.
All of these things he had seen countless times, and with a sigh of what seemed like disappointment he got up--never having inspected Elle's disheveled face--and began to walk towards the door.
He was about two steps away from the hall when his foot encountered a bump that should not be, and he looked down to see what he had tread upon. Beneath his foot was a gold and turquoise key on a silver chain. He stared at it in disbelief for a moment, all the breath leaving him in one swift exhale, and then a malevolent grin spread across his face as he reached down to pick it up.
"The key!" he exclaimed in a whisper, with a tone of utter amazement.
Then, glancing back over his shoulder at the still unmoving form of Elle, he crept mischievously out the door, shutting it gently behind him as he stuffed the precious object in his back pants' pocket.
The moment she heard the door close Elle ripped off the blankets and rushed to where the key had been on the floor--it was gone! Her father had taken it, but why? "The key!" he'd said...but how did he know about the key? Had her mother confided in him too? Did he possess the answers which she so desperately sought--no, NEEDED--to survive?
To all of these questions Elle had no answer, yet a new hope was kindling in her heart--what if her father knew the solution?! What if she hadn't lost ALL hope of fulfilling her mother's sole request after all?
With a nervous smile, she opened the door and stepped into the hall--after her father... after the truth...
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