Beautiful Effect

Beautiful Effect

(10 years later) I took a deep breath and looked at all the people in the room, some were orphans and others were employees of the orphanage. I am at the Orphanage of the Church of Greece. They were waiting for me to start. “My name is Aphrodite Sea and my parents are Leonarda and Dimitri Sea. My parents met when they were little kids and were inseparable since then. My life was great. I had everything I needed and more. The house I lived in was beautiful. I grew up in it. I thought nothing could ruin my perfect world. That was soon changed.  I was sixteen years old when it all started with a dream.  In my dream  I was running through my favorite garden, Athen’s National Garden. I didn’t know why I was running but as soon as I got to the beautiful arch that had flowers over it I saw a person on the other side. The sun was suddenly no longer shining and the flowers were no longer beautiful they were dead, shriveled and black.

“Who are you.” I had shouted at the person. They stepped forward. It was a girl with a white dress on. As I got closer I noticed her face was badly burnt.”

“The girl slowly lifted her hand and pointed. She says in a deep un-natural voice “I am you.” Then she suddenly laughed in a creepy voice, not sounding human at all.”

“I felt as if this dream was a warning of what was about to come next. . .”

“Wake up Aphrodite!” I heard sounding out of place. “There’s a fire!” Someone was shaking me. I woke up my mother was standing above me coughing with her shirt covering her mouth. “Come on!” She pulled me off the bed and pushed me down on the floor. “Crawl!” She said choking on the smoke.

I started crawling but I couldn’t see where I was going. I grabbed on to her shirt. We slowly made it out of my room. When we got out into the hallway I could finally see,  I gasped because the whole house was in flames and was creaking like it could collapse any second. The heat and smoke was so suffocating.

My mother and I got up and sprinted down the stairs. The front door was engulfed in red hot flames. My mother grabbed a nearby vase and threw it through the nearest window. “Go!” my mother said. I climbed through the window cutting my hands in the process. I dropped down onto the ground and rolled out of the way so my mom could jump out. I remember laying there looking up at the sky, trying to catch my breath. I looked over and my mom was just laying there. I got up panicked. I looked up and realized all of the neighbors were standing in front of us looking concerned. My father was among them. He was at work and must of got a call. He runs over to us and hugs us. We hear a siren, a fire truck and an ambulance speeds up and six firefighters and two paramedics jump out. The firefighters try and put the fire out while the two paramedics run over to us. Then all of the sudden everything is black.

I woke up to an annoying constant beeping noise. I open my eyes and groan. The lights are white and bright. “Where am I?”  I say, voice a little scratchy. I try to wipe my eyes but my hands are wrapped in bandages.

“You’re in the hospital hun.” I hear my father say. “You inhaled a lot of smoke and passed out.” I slowly sit up and everything starts to come back to my memory.

“Where’s mom.” I said looking around frantically.

“Calm down, Leonarda is in the room next to you, and she is fine.” My father said. He only uses her first name when they get an argument. “I have something to tell you,” he says looking down. He takes a deep breath and blows it out. “We lost the house and all of our possessions. The insurances refuses to pay for anything. Last night I was actually on my way home to tell you and your mom that I lost my job.”

I look up, eyes wide. “What, no this can’t be happening!” My dad looked away and I could see that a tear was rolling down a cheek.

“I’m sorry hun, it is.” He said softly.

After we were discharged from the Laiko General Hospital my dad said that he made a call and his close friend Zek Rouse and his wife Renee Rouse would take us in for a while. They were going to pick us up. When they pulled up, I suddenly started to get very nervous. The man and lady in the car jumped out and took turns hugging my mom and dad.

“Dimitri its been too long.” Zek says with a smile. He was a very tall man with short brown hair and friendly brown eyes. His wife also had brown hair but she had pretty green eyes. She was about the same height as me, short.

My dad smiled and said “I know, we have a lot to catch up on.” Zek nods at him and  turns his bright smile towards me and says “Well hello there, Aphrodite.” I was wondering how he already knew my name I’ve never meet this man before. I swallowed my nervousness and said “Hi, its nice to meet you and you also.” I said turning to his wife. She smiled.

“Well we need to get going my house is about forty minutes from here, its in Omonia Square.” Zek said.

My parents and I slid into his black suv. Zek slowly pulled out of the parking lot of the hospital and made his way onto the highway. My parents were being really quite. I stared out the window thinking about my house. A tear rolled down my face. I quickly wiped it away and looked up to check if anyone noticed, Zek was looking in his rear view mirror at me. He gave me a sympathetic look. Zek pointed out a few places he liked. “There’s the Voula beach.” He said. 10 minutes later he points out the Athens Concert Hall, Vouliagmeni Spa Lake and the Acropolis Museum. The rest of the ride went like a blur. We pulled up to his house. The house was gorgeous. It was big and white with pillars. It had windows that were almost as big as the walls. He pulled the suv into the driveway and stopped. He unlocked the doors and we all got out. He guided us up to his three car garage and opened the door. He had two other cars. A red convertible and a black Benz. We walked past the cars to this door, Zek opened it and we followed him in. The house was also white inside, it was very comforting. There was a large fuzzy rug on the marble floor. There was a waterfall in the wall. There were more big windows facing the backyard. A big screen tv decorated the wall. Zek and Renee gave us a tour of the house. I couldn’t even take it all in. Zek finally led us upstairs to our rooms and of course all the rooms were huge too. They had 4 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms, one downstairs and the other four in the rooms. Zek let me pick the room I wanted. I picked the one with a large tv in it and a view to the backyard. Zek left me alone to fresh’n up I went into the room and closed the door behind me and walked into the room’s bathroom. It had a jacuzzi bath and shower. I quickly took a very needed shower. When I got back to the room there was new clothes laid out for me.  After I got dressed there was a knock on the door. I opened it, it was Renee.

“Your parents are leaving to go job searching and Zek is going to drive them. . .I was wondering if you wanted to hang out.” She said.

“Sure.” I said a little uncertain.

We ended up watching a movie. She seemed like the type of person that doesn’t like to talk much anyways.

I ended up falling asleep during the movie. I was woken up to a phone ringing at about 2:00 a.m. Renee groaned and slowly got up to answer it.

When she answered it. Her eyes got wider and wider. Finally she said “Okay I understand,” and dropped the phone.

“They’re dead.” She said. “He killed them, I know it.” Renee cried.

“What, who?” I said already starting to think the worst.

“Zek. . .killed your parents.” Renee said.

“How, Renee tell me what happened!” I said grabbing her by the shoulders.

“He’s crazy, Aphrodite.” Renee said. “I should have warned them.”

“What happened!?” I repeated.

Renee takes a minute to speak and then says “I just got a call from the police, they said that Zek’s black suv was in a ditch. Zek was gone but your parents were there. . . they had multiple stab wounds. Aphrodite, I know it was him because he would threaten me everyday saying that he would do,  what he just did to your parents.”  When she was done speaking she started to sob.

I was shaking I couldn’t believe what I heard. “What do we do? He could be on his way here!” I screamed.

Renee started to calm down and said “We have to leave and find somewhere safe. Go up to your room, there is a suitcase in the closet. Start packing all the new clothes I got you in your dresser and come back down here in five minutes.

I ran up the stairs, tripping clumsily. When I got into the room I had to take a minute just to find the closet. Once I found it I nearly ripped the door off the hinges. I took the suitcase out and threw it onto the bed. I started packing all the clothes. In a blur I had the suitcase packed and was running back down the stairs. Renee was standing at the bottom of it with her own suitcase. We made it towards the door that leads to the garage and Renee turned and took one more look at her house then said “Let’s go.”

We jumped into the Benz. She pressed a button and the garage came up. Then she reversed and speed off.

“Where are we going” I asked her.

“To a hotel called Alassia.” She said. “Then were gonna contact the police and tell them where we are.”

I slowly nodded. We drove for about four hours when we pulled up into a hotel in the middle of no where. She made the arrangements. While I waited in the car. I sat there thinking and everything started to hit me. My parents are gone and they will never come back just because of one man.

Someone cleared their throat. I came back to reality. . .that whole time I forgot I was even in this room. I looked up and continued.

“I suddenly got so consumed in anger that I got out of the car and just ran and kept running. All I remember is running past the Hygeia Hospital and the Zappeion Hall. When I stopped I was exhausted and collapsed. When I woke up I was here, at this very orphanage. The police decided that the orphanage should keep me since Renee is not  a parent but I should of told them no. She’s the only reason why I’m alive right now.” I said feeling suddenly tired. I looked around the Orphanage,  little kids had their mouths open. “I’m sorry I need to go.” I said and ran out of the room.

I ran out into the parking lot and got into my car. I need to apologize I thought. . .When I got to her little house that she bought after the incident, I rushed out of my car to the front door. I started knocking like a crazy person. The door opened slowly. “Renee.” I cried full of emotion. “I’m so sorry.” I ran forward not even looking at who it was and hugged them. I looked up and jumped back. It wasn’t Renee. It was a young girl about 19 years old.

The girl looked back into the house awkwardly. “Umm, I’m sorry m’am but Renee passed away like 3 weeks ago.”

I couldn’t take it. I fell down onto my knees and cried. It felt like everything has came crashing down. “I was too late.” I said over and over. . .”I was too late.”

Never wait too long to show appreciation, forever doesn’t exist.