Heart of Dust

A fictional story of a girl's journey through a ruined world, torn apart and left to fade to dust into history. A continuous struggle holding onto what remains and an expedition to find peace for herself.

Prologue

The sun was rising and the light had just started to flicker into Edie's room, she stretched and rolled to the side trying to snooze her alarm clock as it violently shook her bedside table. As she went down the stairs she could hear the kettle boiling in the kitchen, with her dad calling up the stairs, ‘Honey are you awake? Do you want some breakfast?’ She grunted as she pulled her whole body weight from one stair to the next, slowly making her way to the kitchen.

Edie made a brief smile towards her father ‘Dad I am just going for a quick walk to get some air before breakfast, I will be back in the next 30 minutes.’

He smiled back and nodded to her, while pouring his cup of coffee, somewhat of a morning ritual for him, ‘okay just make sure you're back before I head off to work.’

As she opened up the back door the sun was stretching out across the open green fields as far as the eye could see, this was the one time of the day Edie felt warmth again, which could almost be mistaken for a brief moment of happiness.

Edie made her way down the long open path from her house, the sound of the birds, cows grazing, and gentle breeze passing through her hair, as she slowly exhaled.

The farm had been left abandoned for decades before her parents made the jump to leave city life behind and take the plunge into a new life, not that she could remember all the details, it had felt like a lifetime ago.

As Edie reached the old barn on the outskirts of the family farm, she started to rub her heart-shaped locket between her fingers. She did this a lot when her mind started to stray back to the past, to memories she did her best to hold on to.

It had been 10 whole years and still, each day passed slower than the last, she had thought with time as she was told, it would get easier, but it never did, it had never felt the same, like a part of her was missing.

Chapter 1

A bright light, followed by a large thumping sound, jolted Edie from her deep sleep, her wide eyes came back to life, as the memories from her past faded away and reality took hold.

She could not remember how long she had been in this particular area, maybe 2 weeks, judging from all the junk and scraps she had accumulated around her tent, she had come to realise she had been here for too long, she had started to get lazy, moving around from one area to the next, was the only reason she was still alive, and the more time she spent in her thoughts of the past, the more vulnerable she became.

Edie sprung back into life as if she had an almost animal instinct now within her to stay alive, she packed up her tent, took what belongings and food could fit into her rucksack, and started heading south.

As she made her way through the dense woodland area, she put on her headphones and pressed play on her walkman, which brought a small smile, she thought to herself that through everything it was good to have something from the past, to remind her what she pushing through for, she tapped her hand against her hips as she made her way further through the woods. The cold and unnatural silence had always made her uncomfortable, which is why she was glad when she came across a working walkman a few months ago. She had never enjoyed country music growing up and she blamed a lot of that on her dad, she could still picture the John Conlee vinyl against the fireplace, and the constant lectures from her dad around why country music was part of the fabric of the country. She never really understood his love for the music, until now, it was one of the few things that kept her going.

To be continued...