Ashes to Ashes

     Gazing upon the remains of the house was as though I were a traveler of the world, observing the ruins that millions of years of life left behind. Like a ghost, I wandered across the yard from my car, where I had caught little slumber before morning arose with my eyes examining the scene. It was complete desolation, the leaving only sections of the house left standing with smoke ruined furniture and the other half charred to ashes while the other had been burnt to the ground, left in piles of soot and debris. I felt like a doll, returning to my home where the rooms had only three walls; excluding the fact that this house wasn't anyone's home anymore. It was vacant, with no purpose and I suddenly wondered what my parents were going to do with it. Did they think it was worth restoring? Or had all hope been burned with the fire?

     They had all deserted the property when the flames were eliminated, checking into a hotel for the night. When they offered for me to join them, I simply refused. I couldn't bare the thought of watching their sorrowful faces calming Abbey down as she cried herself to sleep missing Mason, much less look them into the eye because for some odd reason, I felt responsible for this tragedy. That perhaps if I hadn't returned here, none of this had happened. They wouldn't be in this situation or have lost Mason. It was my fault and I knew it.

     I followed the sidewalk to the doorstep and closed my eyes, imagining what it had looked like just twenty-four hours ago when I returned back after three years of being away. My suitcase had fallen to the ground with a cloud of dirt surrounding it when the front door opened, the figure of my mother in the doorway and a look of surprise flashing through her eyes that traveled up and down my body, taking in my appearance before folding her arms. I swallowed in a nervous state and forced a smile from my lips with a greeting spilling out, "Hi, mom."

     She rose a brow the moment she noticed the large, bulky suitcase laying on the ground. "What are you doing here, Melrose? You're supposed to be in -"

     "In class, I know." I interrupted her, receiving a disapproving look.

     Her posture changed when she glanced back into the house, stepping forward onto the doorstep and closed the front door behind her. "Then why are you hundreds of miles away?"

     I dropped my eyes, erasing the image of her taking me back with open arms after all the turmoil that stirred within the family for nearly a decade. When I met her vision, the words that I had rehearsed for hours the night before suddenly vanished, leaving me with nothing but the stammering of my pathetic babble. "I-I can't go back to Washington State. Yesterday, I dropped all my classes to come back here. I thought that maybe I could go to the college down the road - the community college."

     "Does your father know about this?" She inquired and I answered her with the shake of my head. "Don't you think he should know? After all, he was paying your tuition. That is one of the finest colleges in this country, Melrose. Why on earth would you do such a rash and irresponsible thing and drop out of school?"

     "It isn't my dream, it's his! Going to that place was my only choice at the time until I realized that there was more to life than trying to follow in his footsteps."

     "I hope you thought this all the way through."

     I nodded my head, "I have."

     She seemed unconvinced as she rose a brow, "And you're going to call him tonight to tell him?"

     "Yes," I promised and meant it before my eyes snapped open when I heard a shuffling from behind me, freezing my body into place and sent caution building a wall that shielded me. The thought of the figure against the tree flashed through my mind while my eyes wandered through my surroundings until I slowly relaxed, continuing through the destroyed house, traveling from room to room and examined the damage.

     The cold of the morning nipped at my nose while I entered the kitchen and stopped at the bottom of the staircase. A fireman had informed my parents to wait for least another day to go exploring through the house and salvaging what was left of our belongings but after staying cooped up inside my car the entire night with only my purse saved, the temptation of peering inside one last time got the best of me. I smiled softly, biting down on my bottom lip before venturing throughout the living room where the couch had patches of burns along with the rug under it had turned black as night and unto the kitchen until my eyes set sight of the staircase. I shuttered at the thought of risking the chance of falling to my death if the floor caved in but still began to climb.

     Everything upstairs appeared to be partially untouched, despite the charred floor in Abbey's room carrying through the rest of the rooms, the distinctive stench of smoke and an eerie feeling sent chills straight to the bone. I felt as though the place was haunted, ghosts of the past lingering behind walls and closed doors while my room caused a heavy depression unto my heart when I noticed the fire had ruined some of my favorite pictures of friends and family. My eyes swept across the burnt walls and landed on the window that had been shattered through with more bottles that were thrown into the living room, appearing in broken green pieces across the floor.

     My fingers glided against the cold glass before I picked a chunk up, placing it in the palm of my hand and slowly clenched my grasp around it. Blood trickled down from my hands when I glared out of the broken window, eyes set on the tree the figure once stood under, leaning against it with glowing eyes. My fists slowly uncurled, revealing the crimson stained glass. I instantly dropped it when the sting of the cut bit me from the salt of my sweat and sharply sucked in my breath.

     I frowned deeply the moment my eyes landed on a damaged box that once held a scrapbook of my childhood, a baby blanket I had since birth and a stuffed animal bear I had named Mr. Jems for his bright eyes and soft fur. My hands carefully opened it, revealing the scrapbook burnt from the side along with the blanket and Mr. Jems ruined. I picked up the remains of the bear in my hands and felt the texture of his fur that had once been like silk, but was now charred by the flames. I examined his large eyes with a small smile until my ears picked up on music that suddenly echoed from Abbey room in a form of a lullaby, making me drop Mr. Jems and twirl around to the hallway with my door still wide open. I timidly walked toward it, pressing my back against the wall beside the door and peeked around the corner to see nothing there. But the presence of another remained as I left my room and passed by Abbey's room, the hairs on my arms rising and bumps trailing down them.

Without hesitation I raced down the staircase and out of the house with my heart racing until I managed to run out of breath. A ghastly fog crept through the backyard as I quickly raced toward the woods to hide but instead, I stopped in my tracks when the fog grew thicker and thicker until I could no longer make out any figures around me. I felt blind, unable to use my vision and could only rely on my hearing to remain alert and prepared for whatever was out there or after me. Suddenly, a deep fear caused my eyes to flicker around my surroundings nervously as another noise sounded from in front of me. "Who's there?" My shaky voice called out.

But only the silence answered.

"I'm going insane." I whispered to myself as my body relaxed slightly when I realized that I was only imagining things and let it get the best of me. The lines of reality and fantasy had burred together until it was no longer detectable. I turned my head back toward the house when the fog became dense and closed my eyes, taking a deep breath it to relax my nerves until a something shuffled from the bushes. I shrieked when somebody popped out from their hiding spot.

     "Boo!" They shouted and laughed with a playful grin plastered on their face. "Did I scare you?" I glared at the man in front of me, attempting to hide the terror racing in my veins.

     "Who are you?" I demanded.

     He tilted his head, confusion wrinkling his forehead. "Oh, come on. How could you not recognize an old childhood friend?"

     I squinted for a moment unsure of who stood before me before acknowledging them, "Elliot Dressel?"

     He smirked, "The one and only. Didn't recognize me, huh?"

     Shaking my head, my eyes traveled across his new body that drastically changed over a year. His glasses had been replaced by contacts and the weight I had once teased him for was no longer there. Instead, I sleeker man stood towering over me with prominent cheekbones and a strong jawline. A head full of curly dirty blonde hair was the only hint of the old Elliot who lived a few houses down across the street. I folded my arms before meeting his eyes. "What are you doing here?"

     "Well, I'm an early bird and I noticed what happened to your house."

     I scoffed, "It isn't very hard to ignore."

     The corners of his mouth lifted slightly, "And you came back?"

     "Yeah." I said softly, "I came back."

     "How come?"

     My hair fell shielded my face from his curious eyes as a smirk traveled across my lips while I conjured an answer to his question. I hadn't really known why exactly I had returned but something about this city had called me back. All I knew was that I had to get away from Washington. Away from my father who controlled every little detail of my life and his obnoxious wife who's only ten years older than me and twenty years apart from him. I had to leave the people who I hadn't related to the entire year of being away. All of it left a hole in my heart and I looked up at Elliot and confessed, "There was a change of plans, I guess."

     He opened his mouth to respond, but was silenced by a cold drop of rain fell from the sky, landing onto his head and my cheek. We both turned our attentions up to the dark gray clouds that lingered overhead, threatening to run for cover and the moment we both caught each other's eye, we knew exactly what was going through our minds. He smiled, pulling the hood of his navy blue jacket over his head. "It was good to see you, Mel."

     Hearing him use my nickname seemed to be off, stirring something inside me that I could detect whether or not I enjoyed it or wanted to push it away. I straightened up as more drops of rain fell down heavily around us. "Yeah, you too!" I shouted to him as he began to continue his run back to his house.

     I raced to my car, fidgeting with the keys to unlock it while lightning flashed in the sky and thunder rumbled in the distance. The rain began pouring down the moment I closed the door and wrapped my arms around myself to salvage warmth. Shivers ran down my spine as I took my hands and rubbed them together, slowly rocking myself absentmindedly as my thoughts traveled like a current to another direction. Question filled my mind about what had just happened and I began to overanalyze the events that took place in the past week leading up to this moment in time.

     Elliot had changed so much since I had last seen him and to my surprise, there was a faint attraction set toward him. I restrained myself from admitting it but there was something there. I couldn't comprehend what exactly it was but for some odd reason, I felt as though he was apart of something great in the near future. "Cut it out, Melrose. You don't know what you're talking about." I hissed to myself, eyes watching his house where he had vanished inside, jacket soaked from the rain. He shook his head of cropped dirty blonde hair just before his hand opened the front door and never looked back.

     I relaxed in my seat, titling my head back and closed my eyes, pondering on what had just occurred and why he had even bothered to cross my yard to speak to me, much less look me in the eye. Our friendship throughout my childhood was nonexistent. He was an easy target for teasing due to the appearance he had once obtained. With thick glasses and a chubby exterior, he was laughed at countless times by kids in our grade and I, myself was guilty for mocking him and even though we lived on the same block, I pretended that he never existed. When we played hide and go seek, the rest of the kids would ditch him to find something more exciting to do then be around him. We were natural enemies.

     He wasn't the only thing that had changed while I had been away. Everything about this city seemed drastically different from what I remembered it to be. Perhaps it was because I had grown used to residing in Washington to notice what Illinois had to offer. Even so, the character of my hometown had changed from a welcoming place to a more stand-off city. Not one person seemed as cheerful as before and I almost wondered if the declining economy had to do with it but I swear I was merely imaging it.

     My hands dug through my purse for my phone, searching to see if I had any messages left before it died. I paused for a moment to hold back the frustration that built up from not finding it until I realized that it wasn't there, but had been on my end table last night. Now, I could only imagine it to be melted plastic and all the pictures, numbers and text messages were gone with it. All because of somebody's cruel greeting that was set to ruin my life or destroy it. Either way, I knew they could be anywhere, lurking in the shadows and completely unseen.

     I looked out to the rest of my street, the memory of my childhood flooding back to my memory and the many trials that followed. The fights between my mother and I until I was fifteen and ran away to my father and his new wife who reminded me of a Barbie doll with the amount of plastic surgery and her dyed platinum blonde hair that didn't compliment her orange spray tanned skin. Everything seemed so far in the past but still unresolved. It haunted my every move with knowing that my mother had been so reluctant to welcome me into her house - the place I had grown up.

     A groan surpassed my mouth as I settled into my spot, feeling the heavy sleep fall against my body, causing my eyes to grow heavy. I resisted it for as long as possible before slumber won and the next thing I knew, a tapping ascended on my car window, startling me awake to advert my wide eyes to my best friend, Emma Chandler. She smiled, motioning for me to open the door and come outside. I became instantly stubborn, not wanting to face the brisk cold air on this gloomy morning. Instead, I mimicked her motions, patting the passengers' seat beside me and watched her sigh, rolling her eyes with her smile never fading.

     "What the hell happened?" She exclaimed the moment she opened the door and plopped down in the seat. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

     The confused expression that spread across my face was swiftly changed by a doubtful look. "I was kinda expecting a friendly hello or a warm hug. We haven't seen each other in a forever!"

     "Oh." She had a slight pout set against her lips before hugging me and cheerily saying, "Hello then, Mel. Thank you for finally coming to your senses and listening to me for a change. It's about time, honestly."

     Laughter rumbled inside my stomach, bursting past my lips while I hugged her back. "It's good to see you too, Em."

     She had changed so much since I had last seen her but her bold personality hadn't altered at all. I was glad to see that her copper eyes held the same bright shine of two pennies filled with life that I had adored, wishing that my own reflection showed the same but instead I only saw a pair of hallow eyes that lacked the spark in her own. I envied her many times for what she had to offer. She was much taller than me with legs that stretched on for what seemed like miles and a small frame fit for modeling. Her pin-straight raven hair held a purple tint in the sunlight and her natural skin glowed during the summer.

     "You don't look very ready for school, you know." She teased.

     My eyes traveled down my body, noticing my attire were my favorite sweats and tank top. Ringlets of my rustic hair were quickly building like a bird's nest after a night of restless sleep and school certainly wasn't the first thing on my mind. "I can't go today. All my clothes are ruined."

     "You can borrow some of my clothes, then. I can't have you skipping your first day and plus, all I've been doing is raving about how my best friend is coming back! Showing up will only make people think that you're nonexistent and I'm not that crazy."

     "Oh, you've already passed crazy." I counteracted her previous joke, twisting it around and received a unamused glance shot my direction.

     Emma buckled settled into the seat as I turned my car on, the engine revving and the body shaking slightly. I silently wished that there would be no problems with my car today. After dealing with the engine stalling twice on my way back from Washington, I had a very low tolerance of patience. Especially after everything that had happened over the last twenty four hours. Turning to Emma, I flashed her a smile that said I was glad to be back with her, just like old times. But I had a deep oppressive feeling shuttering down my spine that nothing would ever be the same.