Alone

[Ridder]

A/N (Author's;Notes) Bear with me here. I listened to a new song I never heard of before, and I liked it. It gave me ideas for stories that I could make up, as is usually the case, this one I found to be a particuarly interesting idea to pursue, so I'm going to write it out. So now that you know, READ ON WEARY TRAVELER.

The day was unusually hot today. The noonday sun held itself overhead in the clear, cloudless blue sky, and the insects within a bamboo forest buzzed the air with a liveliness not unlike a mass hatching of cicada.
A small girl, of about eight, sat solemnly at the foot of a wooden porch, head in hands, elbows on knees. She looked out at the kids in the yard, their bare feet scratching up a storm on the ground, their laughters drowning out the noise of the insects, from ear to ear. Her indifferent expression and her dirtied pink dress proved that arguing with an older boy, and then subsequently losing to him in a wrestling match, does not work out well.

A string of footsteps gradually loudens behind her, until they abruptly stops. A teenage girl older than her begins to talk.

"Ah...Ah.... I see that you're mad. Did something happen again?" The girl asks.
"Not really." The smaller of the two responds in a tone of annoyance.
The teenager smiles and sits down next to her. "I guess it was another fight, huh?"
The little girl remains silent.
"It's another form of bonding, I guess. They wouldn't fight without you here, and you wouldn't fight without them here. I know that sounds a little far from coming closer as friends, but it is."
The little girl turns her head away from her elder.
The teenager thinks of what to say before continuing. "W-w-well, I know it isn't exactly a sound idea, but......uh..."
"Conflict is one of the natures of growth. Of change. I think our teacher has taught us this already."
The teenager tries to say something equally intelligent.
"ehhhhh......."
"But he started the fight. He doesn't like me, I don't like him. He may as well go die."
"W-w-wait wait wait wait. Don't you think that's a little harsh?"
"No."
The teenager looks at her little sister. and sighs. She scratches her head and thinks.
"Death is a tragedy upon everyone. Wishing it upon someone else is acceptiing the possibility that they might do the same to you. And when you do die, no one is happy."
"Hmph. He shouldn't have called me a spoiled little brat then."
The older sister sighs.
"I'm going to go get something to drink from the kitchen. I'll go get you something too." She ruffles her little sister's head and messes with her ears. "In the meantime, try to think about what I said, okay? At least a little consideration, maybe?"
"Maybe." The little girl pouts.
The older sister gets up and walks back the way she came. Her same footsteps sounding in reverse.
The girl sitting down continues to stare blankly at the kids still enjoying their fun. She looks on for a long, long time.
It seems like hours pass by, but her older sister never returns. The little girl, weary from fighting and observing the others for a long time, starts to nod off. She attempts to stay awake, but to no avail. She eventually subcumbs to her overwhelming lack of energy, and dozes off, and her consciousness slowly fades.

----------
A rythymic sensation suddenly fills the void, beginning from the left. It is soon followed by an echo to the right. distant sounds, passing by, gradually getting louder the closer they get, until the seemingly faint and inaudible sound forms clearly spoken words.
The girl's mind pieces together the first word.
"Terry......."
She grumbles. Her mind continues to make out more words.
"Terry....wake up......"
The dark void, invaded by the warmth of a hand shaking her shoulder on her left, and a voice calling out to her on her right, slowly collapes against rays of light emerging from the center. First, colors fill her vision, then shapes form with the colors she sees, and eventually, she sees it. The glowing light of a miniature television set buzzing with the sounds of a news channel.
"Good Evening, America. I'm Aya Chamberlain."
"And I'm Heather Princero."
"Today is December 20th, 2012, and it is now 7:01."

The news anchors continued to talk on, but Terry instead turned her attention elsewhere. First, checking to her left.
An empty seat on the couch, nothing but an arm slung over her. The hand that shook her gripping her tightly.
"I'm over here, Terry." The voice speaks out.
She turned her head over to the right of her, and almost immediately, her half-open, lazy eyes glaze over to see a familiar young man looking directly back at her. She could see the features of his face quite clearly; from his long, lightly toned red hair cascading over his ears all the way to the deep red eyes staring into her soul. His soft expression curved into an enchanting smile.
"I'm guessing you fell asleep a while ago, huh? I just noticed. Sorry."
Terry rubbed her eyes and yawned. She spoke slowly, "Oh, nono, it's okay Ray, I just dozed off for like, thirty minutes or something."
Ray looked relieved, and asked, "See anything interesting in your dreams?"
"Not really. It was just the usual, strange dream that I have. I see this little girl sitting alone by herself, mad at... someone else, I think."
"Sounds like you were dreaming about your childhood." Ray laughed.
"Unless my mom's appartment was actually a wooden mansion in the middle of a bamboo forest, I don't think it had anything to do with my childhood," Terry gestured to the rundown, cramped room around her. "and I don't remember seeing any of this in my dream."
"Well maybe you're actually from the moon, and the government brainwashed you and replaced your memories, making you think you lived here your whole life?" Ray jokingly laid out the scenario while waving his fingers in front of her.
"And you're some sort of super secret government agent sent to keep me under watch instead of my boyfriend? Pffft.' Terry sarcastically piped.
They both fell into fits of laughter together as the newscast transitioned into their weather report.

"And for a sudden change of pace, the weather forcast for the next few days!" Aya snapped her fingers and pointed both her hands to the left of the screen; the camera cuts to the weather reporter, sleeping upright, standing in front of a blank screen.
Aya, off-screen, ask the weather reporter, "So! Angelica! What's it going to feel like for the next few days?"
The weather reporter jolts awake and immediately responds, "hummmm, okay. So here's like, how it's going to be for the weather."
five bars appear onscreen with a series of odd forecasts.
"Let me cut right to the five day forecast?" she looks to Aya off-screen.
"The screen already changed to it, so you might as well." Aya's voice wavers for a bit.
Angelica gestures to the screen.
"So, for today we have that normal, cloudy weather we experience in December, lows in lower thirties, highs in the upper sixties."
Her hand shifts from the first box to the second.
"But for the very NEXT day, which is Friday, December 21st, we gots very high chances of erratic meteor storms, sporadic tidal waves, and earthquakes. Dont'cha just love earthquakes?"
"I don't think anyone else likes earthquakes as much as you do, Angelica." Heather quips.
"Anyways, this sudden weather change will only gradually occur as the day passes on, the temperatures ranging from the mid to upper forties in the morning all the way to the nine-hundred and nineties in the evening."
"Okay, okay, we get it, apocolyptic weather on December 21st. And the rest of the week?" Aya questions.
Angelica smirks. "And for the rest of the week," she walks over from the left side of the screen and sweeps her hand along the screen all the way to the last box, "We have nothing! Nothing to worry about!" The boxes following the December 21st box show up empty.
"And that's how the weather's gonna be over the next few days, Aya, back to you."
Heather and Aya both look at the camera and smile uneasily. Aya starts "M-my, that was quite the unique weather we got going there." to which Heather follows up, "Yeah. 4chan is going to have a field day with this."
Aya turns to Heather "Now now, there's no need to mention 4chen. We don't want our viewers to know about that."
Heather turns to Aya"As if our viewers weren't already 4chan members."
"We're talking to the whole nation here!"
"My point exactly."
"Ughh." Aya grumbles. They both turn towards the camera. Aya continues on as if nothing happened.
"Later this evening, the survivors of the Nuclear Fusion Reactor meltdown that occured almost two years ago tell us all the details about how their lives have been affected..."

"They have a really weird weather reporter." Ray chimes in.
"Or she's just really stupid," Terry chides, "Honestly. A simple reporter believing in the apocolypse that wipes all life out in a day? They should have her fired." she criticizes.
"Might as well enjoy every minute of tomorrow together, right?" Ray kisses her on the cheek.
"And the minutes of the days after that, too." Terry delivers a passionate kiss on Ray's lips and hugs him tightly.

_______________________________

I CONTINUED THE STORY ANYWAYS.

[Tune4Toons]

Whoa... I like what you got here so far. (Is it bad I find the little girl slightly frightening? XD So blunt.) But the ending was left pretty mysterious. I mean, falls asleep, then what will happen to her? :O Who's gonna end up finding her? Hope you're continuing.

[AlucardX60]

What did I just read?

It's well written, and I like the characters, but ultimately I'm confused as fudge.