Andata

Ghita, a thirteen year old girl, woke up hearing a high pitch ringing and slowly sat up, her brown eyes were heavy. She looked around wearily. The buildings around her swayed and rippled. She felt around her neck, then panicked.

She looked around hyperventilating and tears fell, seeing her hometown in ruins. The sky was blackish red with dark slate clouds. She looked at her hands and the rest of her body, she was surprised that she wasn’t caked in injuries.

She looked around and eventually got up. As she looked for the gift her mother gave her, she realized the thick and black smoke wasn’t suffocating her at all. She began to freak out a little when she saw demolished cars and dead bodies. She also saw spirits roaming and hyperventilated.

She continued to look around in a terrified panic, she cried out for her mother, but received no immediate reply and yet she heard the cries of the roaming spirits. She hyperventilated even more and ran in a panic.

As she ran, she couldn’t hear her heart beating out of her chest. She didn’t even feel any tingling in her fingers or beads of sweat form on her face. She was wondering what was wrong with her. It didn’t help that when she ran, it felt like she was sinking in quicksand and felt unnerved.

Despite this, she didn’t quit her search to find her gift from her mother. She began to doubt that she could even find this gift. She couldn’t recall if her mother ever told her what the gift was. She rubbed her temples as she tried to remember.

She struggled and fell to her knees, starting to sink through the damaged road. She then felt herself sink deeper and she quickly got up before she was neck deep in the road. She clutched onto her tattered shirt.

She could hear the howling wind, but she couldn’t feel it. She kept walking despite the slow sinking she felt under her soles. She looked around at the damaged buildings and structures. She heard a moan and whipped around seeing a critically damaged stoplight lean toward her slowly. She ran out of the way in a nick of time and watched as the colored lights’ shattered to pieces and scattered.

She held onto her knees to catch her breath and started to sink in the road again. She looked over her shoulder still seeing the roaming spirits; letting out sorrowful wails since they couldn’t shed any tears. She somehow could understand them.

They were calling out to their loved ones and they sounded scared. She started to feel bad for them and regret being afraid of them earlier. She looked reluctant and nervous, but she decided to keep looking for that gift from her mother.

She felt her long, platinum blonde hair go through her shoulders and she felt unnerved, perplexed, and uncomfortable. She looked down seeing the red hair bow that held her hair in a ponytail on the ground behind her.

She attempted to pick it up but felt her torn skirt start to slip down with her shirt; even her bra and underpants. She became mortified and retreated to a dark alley and hyperventilated in fear. “What’s going on with me?” She asked herself in empty tears.

She attempted to slouch against the rough remains of the brick wall behind her, but ended up going through it and into the ruins of a building. She then shakily breathed and looked around remembering what this building once was; it was the jewelry store where her parents first met.

The ceiling of the jewelry store was nonexistent and the glass door only had its metal frame with a bell that was bent out of shape. She looked at the damage as if they were fragments of memories. She could see her father behind the counter twirling his blond mustache.

His eyes, greener than the tumbled emeralds on some earrings he sold. She then attempted to place her hand on the broken counter, only for it to go right through the broken glass and wood. She heard distant wailing and flinched upon realizing she wasn’t wearing any of her clothes.

Mortified, she attempted to run away, but she didn’t see her feet touch the ground! Panicked, she started to float up and was blinded by a bright light. She felt it abducting her and she attempted to descend out of it.

She suddenly felt another memory surface and remembered her mother’s clue to find the gift. “It stands all day and balances your things until you need them.” My nightstand! She exclaimed in her thoughts and floated her way toward her house as quickly as possible.

She floated over the crowd of spirits and embraced what she was even though she was terrified and mortified of lacking any clothes. When she made it to her house, the terror she had amplified from a nine to an eleven; if not more.

Her beautiful house was demolished and nearly unrecognizable if it wasn’t for that crooked mailbox she was sure that was missing a screw from how lopsided it looked. She made her way inside without even turning the door knob since it was destroyed along with its frame and door.

The ceiling was falling apart at the seams and its sturdy beams became unstable, splintering wood. She looked at the all damage and even though she wasn’t able to touch or feel anything, she smelled a potent stench.

She placed a hand over her bare chest and with empty tears she knew immediately how her house was destroyed. Unlike the odor, she didn’t linger and left to her old bedroom only to find it destroyed. Her furniture was unrecognizable, but she figured out which pile of ash and splintering wood was once her bed and which one was her nightstand.

She heard the howling of the wind and the creaking from the splintering wood around her. She trembled in fear, even though there was nothing to fear given her new form. She hoped the gift wasn’t damaged like everything else. Miraculously, she found the gift on top of the pile of ash.

She floated her way over to get a closer look, it was silver and heart shaped. Inside was a photo of her late parents holding her as a baby. She tried to pick it up, but couldn’t grasp it. She let out a shaky exhale and cried empty tears after losing the last drop of hope she had. The End.