3964 falc

Alex uncovers the secrets of her brother's "death" with the help of a mysterious girl with red hair

Chapter 1: The Scene That Never Was

I smelt something off about them, the roses. I couldn’t really tell what it was, but it was repulsive. Something about them, maybe it was the smell, made me want to run. Really run. It was almost like someone was pushing me. Maybe someone was, I don’t really know, but anyway that’s why I did it. That’s why I pushed through the rose bush. I guess it wasn’t significant to me at the time.  Obviously I had felt the blood on my arms, and I had seen the cuts. Just three. One long, two short. But my mind didn’t really give a s**t.  So I had kept running. I didn’t know why, but something told me not to ask. I mean, who would answer anyway. So I ran, like an idiot, like a pawn, I ran. I was too dense at the time to notice, but the path I was taking was unnervingly clear. It seemed that the hellhole was making way for me.

I ran until I couldn’t run anymore. And then, inevitably, I couldn’t run anymore. Again, looking back it almost seemed planned. It seems like a normal occurrence, but I wasn’t out of breath. I just couldn’t run anymore. Like I was a sim and someone had canceled my action. That sounds stupid to say, but in truth that’s the only way to describe it. That’s the only way to describe that feeling.

It was a desert, the place I had stopped at, and I was standing on the edge of a cliff. Well a ledge would better describe it actually. Anyway, it was overlooking this dark void-like Grand-Canyon-sized pit. And suddenly, it happened again. That pushing feeling, terrible feeling, and I fell. Or rather, jumped.

It wasn’t bad, actually. It was actually kind of perfect. The pit, now that I look back, was inducing hallucinations as I fell. But at the time, it all seemed real. All of my comforts, my hopes, and my dreams played beside me as I fell to my death. It was… my death pit. Scenes of a life I wanted to be apart of flashed before my eyes. I had grown up a parent, I could speak 7 languages, I could taste that damn chocolate cheesecake my mom always made for me, and my brother, my family was…it was heaven, and the fact that it would end was hell.

My body hit the ground with a thud, but I couldn’t feel a thing. My death pit wasn’t really my death pit after all, but there was no relief. I began to sob. All of those things, those visions, were all illusions. Perfection wasn’t real. Danny was still dead, and it was sugarcoated and flaunted in my face.

I had not stopped; I could not have stopped crying, until I felt something vaguely familiar touch my back. And then I looked up. Maybe it was a mistake, but I did it anyway, stupidly. Immediately, my gaze froze. He was… Danny was…standing right there. He was wearing that same t-shirt and those same jeans from the night when he came to moronically pick me up, and his glasses were cracked. They were pressing down his light brown hair that was considerably more mangled since the last time I had seen him, but he was still, unmistakably, Danny.

“Listen,” he said, “I’m sorry. I know it was bad timing. I didn’t mean for it to affect you, I didn’t mean for it to affect them, but you have to listen to me now, do you understand? Even if it doesn’t make sense, ok?” Slowly, I nodded my head.

“There’s a girl named Veronica,” he said, “you have to trust her. She knows who you are and she’ll explain what you need to do for me. She’ll find you but you have to trust her, ok?” I was confused, very confused, but his brown eyes had begun to fill with tears.

“Ok,” I said.

“I have about 10 seconds before they discover I’ve tried to contact anyone else,” said Danny, “Good-bye and…”

He handed me a golden necklace, no, a locket, I smiled slipping it on my neck.

And then he was gone.

And then I woke up.

I sighed, somewhat relieved, somewhat disappointed, I had brought my arms up to my face to push back my hair, a normal action.

That’s when I noticed them. The cuts. Just three. One long, two short. Shaking, I brought my hand to my neck. It was there. The golden locket was there.     

I brought myself to open it. It’s what Danny would have wanted, right? It was stupid, so stupid, of me to think that. Danny was dead. I knew that. I was there. But the rational part of me had been destroyed along with my skin, so I did it anyway. I opened the locket.

There were no pictures. Well there were pictures, but they had been scratched through, they weren’t the point. The point was what was scratched on to them. I had no idea what it meant, but I knew it was important. Danny had said it wouldn’t make sense. But how was I supposed to know? How was I supposed to know what the hell 3964 falc was?  

I stared at it. On one side there were numbers that were hard for me to make out at first, but eventually I figured it out. 3964. The other side was clearer. Scratched in with fewer mistakes. It clearly said “falc”. I continued to stare. Suddenly my dully awakened mind had been brought out of it’s state of pondering. I shifted my attention to the clock. 6:30.

“S**t!” I whispered to myself. I got dressed in a band-tee and old jeans that were too lose on me. No time for fashion. At the time I had a pixie cut, so hairstyling wasn’t really an issue. I grabbed my glasses. They were huge, but they looked good on me. I brushed my teeth, the only essential thing on school days. Well, besides cloths. And glasses. And school supplies. 

I grabbed my backpack as I exited the door, no need to say goodbye to my parents. They wouldn’t have cared then, not after Danny had died. I waited for the train, like usual. I checked the time. 6:50. I was ten minutes earlier than I needed to be to get to school on time. Damn. I really was an idiot then. I should’ve had breakfast; maybe that day would have gone a little better.

Anyway, I waited, and this girl with red hair sort of caught my attention, probably because she staring at me. She was wearing that stupid school pin the teachers made us all wear. I thought it was interesting; I had never seen her before. She walked over to me.

“Hi,” she said, her gaze insanely serious, “Are you Alexandria?” Something clicked in my mind. “She knows who you are”.

“Um, yes, I prefer Alex,” I said, “Are you…are you Veronica?” My heart started to beat faster. I blindly hoped she could possibly know what 3964 falc meant. She smiled.

“Your brother probably has you under the impression that I know more than I do,” she said, my heart sank, “But I can tell you this; he’s not dead”.

Chapter 2: Veronica

“I don’t really know what’s happened to him,” said Veronica, in very mature manor, “But from what you’ve said, and from what I’ve experienced, he has discovered some way to communicate through dreams”. I nodded my head, I mean, it’s not like I was surprised. I sighed, and twirled my drink. Ditching school was not how I had imagined it to be. Well, I guess it wasn’t exactly normal ditching circumstances, but I thought it would be a little fun at least, even if only due to the feeling of rebellion.

“Who are you exactly?” I blurted out. I don’t really remember where that came from.

“I’m Veronica,” she replied, “I thought you knew that”.

“I mean who are you,” I said, “to Danny, I mean?” She raised her eyebrows. God I was awkward.

“A friend,” she said, “Trust me”. My eyes widening slightly, remembering what Danny had said. I cleared my glasses.

“O-of course,” I said, blushing. S**t, I really was an idiot. I was nervous though. Something about her…the vibe that she gave off. I couldn’t really pinpoint it at the time. I was lost in my thoughts on Veronica, trying to figure out what it was about her. What it was that made me, of all people, anxious about what she thought of me. I never really cared much for what people thought of me.

Then, I heard a sound. Well actually I had heard many sounds, that’s what tends to happen in crowded cafes, but this sound was dangerous. This sound was menacing enough to pull me out of my daydream, and trust me, that was not easy. This sound was a swish, and a clap shortly followed it.

I looked up. In front of my eyes there was a hand, Veronica’s hand, and it was clutching an arrow. She looked me dead in the eye. I remember feeling bewildered, so to speak. No normal human could do that.

“Run,” she told me, and I ran. I followed her.

The path she took was unusual, unexpected, and over all brilliant. I had never imagined anyone could have found us. As she led me, I realized that I don’t really know why I had put such blind trust in her, but I told myself it was because Danny had told me to. That wasn’t really true, though. I mean, yes, Danny had told me to, but that wasn’t why I trusted her. He didn’t need to. There was something about her that made it impossible not to trust her. Granted I was curious about her, but distrustful? No, to that, I was not at all. I still can’t understand his need to remind me like that. I remember my breath had begun to be ragged at that point. Right at the point when she stopped by the Wall.

“We’re here!” she said, collapsing against the wall.

“Where?” I said, genuinely curious. The place was old looking, and it seems as if nothings there. I mean there was one thing there. There was a wall. I didn’t really know it was the Wall yet, though. She smiled again. She always did that smile, Veronica. Whenever she knows something you don’t. Whenever you seem stupid to her she always gives you that smile. The closed-mouth one with smiled eyes.

“My home,” she said, “You’ll see”. She walked me along the Wall. It was literally just a wall to me. It was boring to me. And what do people do when they’re bored? They make conversation. Except that I’m not that great at small talk.

“So…” I said, awkwardly pausing for a moment to think of a question, “What the hell was that? At the café?” I said it more excitedly than accusatory really.

            “I should be asking you the same question,” she said, eyebrows raised.

            “What do you mean?” I asked. At the time, it didn’t even occur to me that that arrow was anything more than a misdirected shooting at Veronica.

            “That guy shot an arrow at you,” she said, “What do you think I mean?”

            “It was a guy?” I asked.

            “If you mean ‘guy’ as in male, I have no idea,” she said. She always spoke dryly, like everyone was stupid, like everything was stupid.

            “Uh, ok,” I said, my awkward tendencies have not improved, “but weren’t they shooting at you?”

            “I doubt it,” she said, “People who want to kill me, know me. People who know me would never try to kill me with an arrow”. I didn’t really say anything after that. I didn’t really know what to say after that.

            We kept walking for a while, along the Wall. The thing about the Wall was that it was covered head to toe in graffiti. Figuratively so, that is, the Wall didn’t have a single head or toe. It was like those people whose bodies’ were completely drowned in tattoos, it was so overly done that the individual pieces had completely lost their meaning. It was sad, really. So much creativity was just drafted together and unappreciated. To me, it was a metaphor for the individuality in a world of billions. Nothing was seen; so many things would go unnoticed.

            “We’re here,” she said. She had stopped in a place that looked almost exactly like all other parts of the Wall. Almost. I hadn’t noticed it then, but there was a loose brick, barely noticeable amongst millions.

            “Where’s here?” I asked. She didn’t answer, she just began to ease the loose brick out of the construction. Two eyes appeared in the space where the brick once was.

            “Who are you?” spoke the eyes. Well, the eyes were confirmed to be attached to a person whose mouth was probably the one speaking.

            “Veronica Andrews, Floor 4, A-team, today’s passcode is ‘kumquat’” replied Veronica.

            “Whose the kid?” spoke the eyes.

            “Alexandria Woods,” said Veronica.

            “Uh just Alex,” I said.

            “Woods…” said the eyes, “Like Danny Woods? Veronica, did you bring me the little sister?” Ironically, the most peculiar thing to me about that sentence was that she referred to Veronica as if she had known her forever, whereas a minute ago she had asked her who she was.

            “Out of necessity,” said Veronica, her jaw clenched. The eyes sighed.

            “Come in,” they said.

Author's Note

THIS IS INCOMPLETE AND A ROUGH DRAFT! Also there are curses, just a warning.

Reviews

[Stormy]

I like it, mysterious and makes me want to find out what happens next. Keep going!