Part 1: "My new reality"

I have been perching on the window-sit for a while, reading the obscure letter affirming my parents' tragical death. ‘'How pathetic all of it is’', uttered within my head. I assumed it is an absurd and lamentable joke. A cluster of emotions has been lightly collapsing and lately fading away with the thunderstorm flow. It might be resentment, disappointment or even pity. I could not comprehend what exactly was gathering them together and provoking me to feel such an eruption within. Currently, my intention was just to let everything go and relearn whereby I might be capable to live again and again. 

The extended hair, slightly resembled ripples, were fondly stroking brittle skin on the knuckles of mine. Shiny navy-blue eyes stayed shrouding burdensomely tears’ temptation within. It transpired to be accessible to carry all of those emotions inside, until the moment when it was impossible to. The fire inside has continued fading day by day without so profoundly required love and warmth, that was not given in proper time, in a proper way. 

‘Annabeth! Annabeth! Don’t you hearken that I am calling you?!’ I imperceptibly shifted aside a piece of curtain, that was masking my appearance from all of the world, and descried aunt Ward seeking me. 

‘Where are you, young lady?!’, The aunt was becoming more and more annoyed, screeching out the sentence. ‘There you are. Why you did not respond when I was calling you, Annabeth? What an obstinate child!’ I merely was speechlessly hearkening to the aunt's shrieks and emotionlessly staring down at the floor.  

Then the aunt croaked: ‘Get dressed appropriately and go down instantly! I hope today I will not sink through the floor from the humiliation in front of all of the visitors. 

‘Yes, missis Ward.’ I breathed with the soft nod. 

‘And, please, stop mumbling! Don’t make me regret sheltering you.’ 

Ultimately, with the changed clothes on, I attained the living room, where everyone was already anticipating for me.  

Abruptly, the elder woman approached me and quavered softly:

‘Good evening, dear. I haven’t seen you for years. You managed to grow older. Presently, I assume you are sixteen or eighteen? 

‘I am nineteen, missis Reed’, I edited her. 

‘Yes, yes. You are right.’, she proceeded, ‘How long have you been living with your aunt, sweetie? 

‘For about seven years, ma'am.’, I muttered continuing to look down. 

‘Such a precious child.’, the woman smiled moving up the chin of mine. Missis Reed was one of those women, who cherished any child in the world, any age, any nationality, any colour or appearance. This striking old lady had a mysterious secret that she has never revealed to anyone.  

Several years ago, when she had been living yet in the neighbourhood with the family Ward, she had had two blissful children, who died during the Great War with the magical opponent. My appearance reminisced her of the elder daughter. Consequently, the woman invariably approached me like her granddaughter, that had never been born. Nevertheless, after a while, missis Reed left the town, since everything had occurred to be constantly calling to her mind the despondent pain of her unbearable loss.

Oblivion for the mother is the death of her child. 

‘I would like to offer you something.’, said the woman placing the hand in her porte-monnaie. I set the eyes on it, seeing the bulging pendant with azure diamond in a form of the star. The woman handed it over to me, saying with the sense of relish: ‘Behold! From now on, this lavalière belongs to you, sweetheart.’, the woman beamed with altruism. 

I carried it in my hands and promptly embarked on playing with the cotton made rope. Missis Reed incited me to put it on. I, askance looking at the woman, transferred pendant towards my fragile neck, touching with it the convex collarbone.  

The azure diamond emphasized the eyes of mine, that were navy-blue, and the shiny ginger-blond wavy hair, that was freely gravitating towards the Earth. 

‘I believe that you can do it. Don’t let anyone contaminate your sanity, my dear.’, the woman hissed. I gazed at her with an oddity straight away. What was it about? Did she go mad? 

‘Do “what”, ma’am?’, I whispered. The old woman just began to chortle irritatingly, struggling with accumulated saliva in her mouth. I found it to be very bizarre, gazing at the woman with despair, assuming her to be slightly tipsy. Consequently, I had the only choice to obscure by going to own room and clenching two parts of the door.  

Subsequently, I went back to the window-sitter and tightly closed curtains to dispose of the snarling of my aunt for self-abasement and sinister attitude. Whilst I was sitting on the window-sitter, laying her head on a glass of the window, I proceeded to finger the given pendant, inspecting every millimetre of the diamond. I had possessed the dexterity of feeling an enigma and right at that moment I regained it back. I have always been a weirdo for others. My friends from the orphanage seemed to not notice it and always attempted me to feel convenient among them. However, it never managed to work out, since something was always incomprehensibly enchanting about my appearance. It was tricky to be observed but felt the burning flame within. The power of my heart. The strength of my sanity that I had not believed back then. 

I glanced through the window at the street, that was covered by the dark veil of night. The trees outside were trembling from the breeze.  

All of a sudden, I noticed the guy glancing at me from the outside. He sat on the bench looking at me. His black hair was fully covered with the snow. What a creep? We starred at each other for a while. The music from the feast was joining two delicate hearts and connecting both through the eyes. Opening the window, I could finally feel the breeze coming from the guy’s side.  

‘Hey. How are things today?’, asked the guy waving softly to me. I ravelled a knot and swiftly came down through the window (that what she usually did to run away from my drunk aunt).  

‘Hey.’, I whispered going down the hand-made rope but stumbled and was about to fall when the guy carefully caught my innocent light body. My eyes were tightly closed from the fear and hands were crossed on the chest. Nevertheless, after a while of regaining the sanity back, I finally opened my navy-blue eyes. 

‘I am sorry.’, I muttered softly. However, the guy merely grinned at me with a tiny blush on his face either from the cold or from the shyness.  

Our duet budged through the limpid fog towards the lake in the town. The terrain was surrounded by oak-trees sleeping under the showy mantle. The snowflakes were tenderly touching the ground with a barely noticeable sound of winter. All of the water of the lake was fabulously hiding under the layers of the ice. It seemed to be magical and salubrious for anyone, who would like to exploit it. 

The ceaseless snowflakes were delicately covering my vivid hair. I raised the head towards heaven, attempting to catch a snowflake by the tongue. However, they allegedly purposefully were trying to avoid this meeting, as thousands of stars, were merely delicately falling on the ground, inspired by the gravitation. 

The young man was just staring at me, blindfolded whether by the sympathy or by the loathing towards me. The blue eyes were exploring every corner of me tender and innocent appearance. 

We were simply wandering next to the lake sharing with each other glances and the spright smiles. The abandoned mansion in front of the lake was fully overgrown by the shrubberies. I walked carefully towards the ice. 

‘Annabeth, wait!’, the guy shouted to me; however, I proceeded moving forward recklessly...so torpidly. It was beckoning me. It was announcing my name. Suddenly, the ice fractured under my legs and the last broken free scream was: ‘Je-e-e-e-eff!’, after what I arose under the water sinking lifelessly.  

The only memory I was available to mark was fissured pieces of ice drifting on the lake’s surface. The following image emerged to be couple glistering flows merging into the shiny whirl. Eventually, the whirl disintegrated into tiny flakes of ice and clustered around the remarkable lady in an azure dress, with ginger hair, mysterious navy-blue eyes, and a flamboyant appearance. The woman was shining as the water’s far-fetched gleam. The whirl, adorned by several bright and glossy colours, was shrouding whole my appearance and tenderly building the proximity between me and the lake. 

All of a sudden, the variations of colours transpired, tinting the surroundings with crimson colour. The drowning fireballs from the air with the greatest rage submerged. The flames of them were screamingly eliminated by the water. Those explosions have been occurring with every moment of me laying beneath the ice. My vision was tarnishing suffocating within the darkness. The body, bearing my barbaric thoughts, suddenly merely tuned out, trembling beyond its limit. My sanity was taken by the onslaught of dawn, shattering my feeling as much as possible. I opened my eyes, laying on the floor at the bathroom next to my aunt when I heard another blast of fire outdoor. The explosive sounds encompassed me, making me feel a fury within my soul. It was not just a fear. It was something more. It was like blurry seen thousands of knives besieged me and were about thrust.  

The phobia was growing with each occurred burst turning to a magnificent animal fear. The type of fear when your body and mind go to the survival mode and the only choice is to breathe once more when you do not think of anyone but yourself, when you nauseated, due to the overgrown tension and anxiety, when you are so desperate that even miserable. 

I attempted to stand on my legs, however, due to the aforementioned fear I simply could not. My legs were merely quilted from the stress. I made another attempt, handling my aunt, we were about to come out when the worst happened. We got bombarded from the collapsed buildings around us. I contrived to found a safe place, yet, I was not capable to save my aunt, who hustled me towards the place under the table. My aunt was crumpled by the rocks. Howbeit, I still admired her. The thought of my sudden loss was shredding me apart, wearing every corner of my soul, remorselessly ripping my sanity apart. At the moment, it was merely her soaring in the air soul such intricate and bright. After all, I could just think of her as of a reluctant slain hero with the resilient soul. 

Suffocating from the ashes, I quickly budged towards the exit, shunning the flying at me flames. As soon as I achieved an exit, I burrowed beneath inverted cardboard. I was not questioning what specifically was going on. My only purpose was to survive the assault.  

After a while, I proceeded my way towards the safe place, scrawling on my knees as a toddler. My hand had got oozing blood from the bump I had acquired, attempting to safe my auntie.

Suddenly, one of the warriors attempted to shoot me, implying that I might be one of the opponents. Why did he think so? The third arrow had finally accomplished to rip apart the tissues of my hand, successively bereaving my consciousness.