World's Away

Lauren is an average teenager who hates her family untill one day, everything is changed. Ripped from her world and sent across the stars, will she ever find her way back home?

World’s Away

By: Kathryn Adel Saunders

A/N: This is a story i wish to eventually get published, but I'm not so sure about writing it in First Person. I might change my mind and do Third Person Omniscient. I'm only gonna post the prologue here though, I'm trying to get reviews to see if I'm heading in the fact track.

 

~ O ~ O ~

 

Prologue: Little Lithle Child

 

            My name is Lauren Hayes. I am 16 years old and have blonde hair and blue eyes. My parents are divorced and I hate my stupid step-dad Brian. Scratch that, I hate my whole family. Brian is a dumb-a*s who is always telling me what to do; my mother forces me to spend time with my Gothic sister and my loser dad. She is always telling me that family is everything but she doesn’t really care. It’s only been six months since my twin brother died in a plane crash. Laurence used to live with my father; he was coming to visit for our birthday. No one could say the cause of the plane crash �" just that no one survived. My mother acts as if he was never born. She never says his name, or talks about him. They never found his body and I pretend he is still alive sometimes.

            My father is the worst one of them all. Laurence wanted our father to drive him to see us, but he was too busy spending time with his new wife, so my brother took the plane instead. I guess my father feels guilty about it; because this is the first time we’ve been to his house since I was 10.

            “I don’t see why I had to come. I don’t even like Jeffery.” That’s my father’s name. “I could have just stayed home. With my friends.” I scowl and pull a book out of my white hiker’s backpack. It arrived in the mail a week after my brother died. His last present to me

            Brian wrinkles his nose. “You shouldn’t call him that. He is your father. He deserves your respect.” I hate his stupid condescending voice. He has no right to tell me who I should or shouldn’t respect.

            I pretend to read for a moment before sighing and looking out the window. Trees, trees, trees; a sea of nothing but bright green trees. Who the hell lives in the middle of the woods anyway? No internet, no cable. My father is an idiot and my mother? Not far behind.

            We pull up to a rather large house and I immediately grab my bag and get out of the car. I walk right past my father as he greets Brian. I roll my eyes. Their voices are grating and annoying and I can’t bare them any longer. My sister heads over to where Jeffery’s new wife is setting up a picnic �" are we five now? �" and I head into the house. While everyone is greeting each other I’ve decided that now is a great time to invade the liquor cabinet.

            My dad is an alcoholic. He has everything you could possibly imagine in a fridge in the basement. He has a wine cabinet too; climate controlled and all, but that isn’t my style. I set my bag down and empty it of my books and clothes. The first bottle I take out is a bottle of Zombie �" my all time favorite. Next, it’s a bottle of Hurricane, and a couple others. I don’t have time to look as I hear my mother calling my name at the top of the stairs. I cover all the alcohol by grabbing my clothes and some other stuff on the table in a rush, not really caring what it all is. “Down here! I got lost!” I lie easily. It has been six years sense I’ve been here after all.

            I follow my mom and tune out her babbling voice, looking around for anything interesting to do. “I wanna go explore the woods.” I tell her. If I remember correctly, there is a cave not far from here that I can drink in. “Can I be excused?” I use a bored tone.

            She gives me a disapproving look and is about to tell me ‘no’ before my sisters speaks up and says, “I’ll go with her.”

            Great. Just what I wanted. But it makes my mom agree and soon we are heading off into the woods. Maybe my sister won’t narc me out if I start to drink. I hold off as I follow her into the thick foliage. She is heading towards my cave �" I think, but she hasn’t said a word. Every once and awhile she’ll look at me with her dark eyes, almost as if she is looking through me. But then she just turns back around and keeps walking. It kind of freaks me out �" a lot.

I forgot about the ravine. There used to be a bridge crossing it, but I can see the deteriorated remains on the other side, handing over the raging water hundreds of feet below. I can see the rapids crashing against sharp rocks at the bottom and suddenly I have a feeling of vertigo. I look and see my sister crossing on a fallen log barely wide enough to hold her. “Are you crazy?” I yell over to sounds of the raging water below.

            She looks at me and for a second I believe that she really is insane. But then she smiles. The same smile she used to give me when we were kids. Back when she dressed normal, acted normal. Back when she used to tell me that she would always be there for me �" when mom and dad first got divorced. Emma holds out her hand and says in a calm, quiet voice, “Do you trust me?”

            I look at her hand, then at the smile on her face and for once I find no sarcasm. Instead I nod my head and take her hand, climbing atop the make-shift bridge. She crosses a lot faster than I do. I care barely move and my heart is hammering so loud in my chest I can’t hear the thundering water anymore. I concentrate on my sister, on her back as she casually walks across, on the way she turns to look at me with that smile still on her face. She's all the way across and I’m only half way there when my foot catches a patch of moss and suddenly, I slip. I close my eyes, not even able to scream, but I feel a tug at my hand. My sister is there, reaching over the edge, holding onto me, starring me in the eyes. For a second �" just a second �" I think that she is going to drop me. But she doesn’t, she pulls me back up with ease.

            When did she get so fast? Or so strong? I’m not fat, but I am at least 100 pounds. I mutter my thanks to her and she lets me cling to her hand the rest of the way across the log. She looks angry at something after our feet are on solid land, and rubs her temple for a second. She shakes her head and smiles at me again, but it’s not that childhood smile anymore. She lets me lead her, and I try to remember where the cave is. It’s not long before I spot the familiar rock formations covered in green grass and moss. The sun shine’s through the trees and makes the place glow. I smile and sit at the mouth of the cave and my sister swiftly joins me.

            As I reach for my bag, I hear a faint sound behind me. I turn around and I can barely make out the form of a girl. She is sitting in the cave, her knees drawn up and her head lying across them. Her arms are wrapped around herself and I can hear her sniffle. “Hello?” I ask as I stand to go over to her.

            Her head whips up to stare at me with wide eyes. Before I know what’s going on, she has her arms wrapped tight around my stomach. She is only 13 or 14 I think. She’s also got some amazing crimson hair. Awkwardly, I place my hands on her head and shoulder and push her away slightly to kneel down before her. “Where are your parents?”

            She shakes her head. “Mother is dead; I lost Father.” She speaks softly as she smiles at me with tears in her eyes. “You’ll keep me safe though, right?”

            “Uh,” I look to my sister, but then back at the girl. Emma has a glare in her narrowed eyes that could kill. “Come on.” I say, making sure she follows me.

            Her eyes are green, and like I said, her hair is crimson. She can’t be any older then 14, but she is quite short for her age. She only says her name the entire walk back to my father’s house. Lithle is her name; it’s a name I’ve never heard before, but it somehow fits her. She has a determined look on her face, and she clings to my arm the entire way back, even as we cross the log. We are almost home �" I can see the clearing a bit farther ahead �" when my sister grabs my wrist rather hard. I give her a confused look, but her head is tilted and I can’t see her eyes.

            Without warning my head explodes in pain and I drop to my knees, clutching it with one hand and holding tight on Lithle with the other. She is grabbing me franticly, crying out in pain but I can’t pay attention to her now. Black is invading my vision, my head burns with raging pain, and then suddenly nothing. I’m lying on the floor in my father’s house. It’s dark �" perhaps night time. I get up and look out the window, but there is nothing there. No woods, no clearing, not even stars or a sky. I gasp and turn around, my eyes scanning the room. My bag is still with me and I grab it before heading out of the room.

            I see my sister and relief fills me. But then I realize she is holding onto Lithle’s arm with one hand. Emma’s face is pointed to the ground still and the little girl is struggling to get away from her. I then notice the knife she is griping tightly in her other hand. She is muttering something and I walk over to her slowly, as if she might attack. “Emma?”

            Her eyes snap to me in a hard glare. “He was right! He was right about everything!” She screams, gripping harder on her victim and her weapon. “You have to choose!” She throws the little girl at me and I catch her before she hits the ground. “You have to choose! Her or me!? I’m your sister Lauren! Your god damn flesh and blood!” I realize by the crazy look in her eyes that she’s snapped. I grab the little girls arm and I run as fast as I can. I see a staircase and I take them two at a time. In the back of my head I’ve realized that this isn’t my father’s house, that I have no idea where I am. The stairs are steel and spiral downwards, seemingly forever. I can hear Emma roaring behind me, “He was right! He was always right!”

            I don’t have time to wonder who ‘he’ is or how he was right. I just keep running down those stairs as fast as I can. They go on and on and on, never stopping, but I don’t slow down. My lungs burn and my hand grips Lithle’s even tighter. I have this insane urge to keep her safe, to protect her no matter what happens. I’ve never felt like this before. It must be the adrenaline.

            I see a figure falling. My sister jumped down, but her hand lands on the rail next to me and she pulls herself up to stand before us, knife shining in the no existent light. She lunges at me and time moves in slow motion. Something takes over my body. I move without my knowing it, dodging the knife and flipping my sister with her own weight. I stare down at my hands �" I don’t know any type of martial arts. Before I can think about it, she comes at me again and in the struggle, I can feel flesh give way to metal and a metallic scent fills my nose while her warm blood covers my hands. I can almost feel her heart beat in the blood.

            She steps back, grabbing her wound. Her eyes are wide and she looks at me with betrayal. I reach out slowly, my heart is hammering again, but I’m too late. She hits the rail and falls over the edge, into the abyss. Unable to stand anymore, I fall to my knees. I just stare at the spot she went over, replaying it in my head. I killed her. I killed my sister. Lithle places a hand on my shoulder and I look at her with wide eyes. I had forgotten she was there. She smiles a sad smile and slowly the surroundings start to change. I feel as if I’m moving, but my body stays still. I stand as the world around me melts to nothing and suddenly, I’m met with the site of three burning hot suns and an endless wasteland of desert. I hold Lithle close to my body as people appear around me.

            There is a man standing in front of me, yelling for the people to stay away. He growls �" a real animalistic growl �" and steps towards us. F**k it, I think as I fall in to the arms of the murderous looking stranger, I’m going to sleep. The last thing I feel is the rumbling of his chest before the darkness takes hold of my body once more.

Author's Note

Please let me know if you think it would be better in a different point of view, and if the story line is interesting enough to want to keep reading.