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The Others
The Others
CHAPTER I
Camila awoke with a warm feeling in her heart. She felt as if her entire body was wrapped in cashmere blanket that was fresh out of the dryer. It was a familiar feeling, and a good one indeed. After brushing loose strands of chocolate hair from her face, she rose from her twin bed and turned to face the window. Outside, was a winter wonderland. Fresh powder-white snow coated the earth like a crisp blanket of ice, and the towering pine trees that surrounded her house were no exception. They too had been brushed with the touch of winter, and were covered in snow. Snowflakes tumbled from the sky and dropped to the ground right outside her window, some getting lifted by the breeze and sticking onto the glass. Camila leaned into the window, observing the flakes that had gotten stuck on their journey down from the sky. Each snowflake she saw looked unmistakably different, unmistakably unique. One was shaped like a star, with small jagged crystalline formations sticking out of each of the five points. Another looked like an asterisk, but the points were shaped like arrows, and the middle was empty like a donut hole. Another one looked like the paper snowflakes she used to make in elementary school, and another had six points, each of them resembling their own little pine tree, and the middle mimicked the pattern of a blossoming flower. “What a beautiful Christmas morning”, Camila thought to herself.
After a moment of absorbing the beauty outside her window, she decided that the snow would look way prettier if she was actually outside, so she hopped off of her bed and ran down her wooden steps to the kitchen. She swiped a slice of sourdough bread off the cutting board, and grabbed a small chunk of sharp cheddar cheese from the fridge. She ate her breakfast as she wandered around her home, searching for her snow gear. Once she was all bundled up, she swung open the front door to her cabin and leapt outside. Camila could feel the cold, crisp air brushing across her bare face, the only part of her body that was not covered by her elaborate snowsuit. Beautiful white snowflakes poured down all around her, and landed on her rosy cheeks and long black eyelashes. She closed her eyes, tilted her head back, and stuck out her tongue. She felt the snowflakes drift down onto her tongue, land, and then dissipate in almost an instant. They tasted crisp and fresh, like a delicious glass of ice water. She opened her eyes and stared into the sky above her. Tall, dark green pine trees towered over her, coated in piles of collected snowflakes. Directly above her, there was a clearing in the trees, where she could see dark gray clouds, the root of the snowfall. Camila hobbled around in the snow for around ten more minutes before she decided to go back inside for some hot cocoa.
Once she was inside, she filled the kettle with milk and placed it on her lit stove. She fumbled around in the cabinets searching for hot cocoa mix, and in doing so, she also happened to stumble upon a box of chocolate chip cookies, which she took from the cabinet as well. Camila soon realized that something was missing from her Christmas morning, so she quickly set her cocoa and cookies on the table and went upstairs to fetch her parents. When she arrived outside their room, the door was ajar and the lights were off. She tiptoed slowly into their room, to ensure that she didn’t wake them, but eventually she realized that there was nobody to wake. Confused, she flicked the lightswitch on and she searched around the room for any sign of them. Nothing. She ran downstairs and checked again in the kitchen, in the bathroom, in the laundry room, the basement, the balcony. Nowhere. They were nowhere to be found. She swung open the front door and screamed their names out into the vast winter wonderland. Her voice echoed into nothingness. They just weren’t there. Camila sat down on the front porch of her cabin, staring out into the distance. Her heart sank. It was Christmas morning, her favorite day of the year, her parents favorite day of the year, and they were nowhere to be found.
Camila’s thoughts raced around in her overflowing mind. Where had they gone? Why had they left her? Did somebody take them? Were they hiding from her? Was this all just a crazy dream? No. She pinched herself, and sure enough, she was wide awake. Surely her parents wouldn’t have left her here willingly, maybe someone had taken them? Camila became worried sick, she was rendered nauseous and dizzy, and her ears began to ring. The ringing grew louder and louder, until it was almost piercing. She decided that she should go inside and lay down, since she wasn’t feeling all too well. The second she stepped inside she realized that her ears were not ringing, they were whistling, and it wasn’t her ears. The kettle! She had become so distracted from the disappearance of her parents that she had completely forgotten about the milk.
Surely it was boiling by now, she ran over to the stove and turned it off. She grabbed a mug from the cupboard and set it on the counter across from the stove. She reached for the kettle’s handle, but quickly retracted her hand. The handle was hot to the touch, so she grabbed a rag from the drawer below her and wrapped it around the handle, ensuring that her hand wouldn’t get burnt. Once she had poured the milk, she ripped open the hot cocoa packet and shook it out into the mug. She used a small silver spoon to mix it all together. Camila took the mug in one hand, and the cookies she had found earlier in the other. She sauntered over to her fireplace and sat down in a bean bag chair in front of it. She set her cocoa and cookies down, and proceeded to light a fire with the matches that were strewn around the fireplace. Once the fire was lit, she laid back and enjoyed her refreshments. The cocoa was delicious. As soon and the warm liquid hit her tongue, she was overwhelmed with a sense of calmness and pleasure, which was much needed. The taste of creamy chocolate filled her palate, and a warmth spread from her tongue, to her entire mouth, to the back of her throat, all the way down her esophagus and into her stomach. She closed her eyes, taking in the feeling of it all. And for a moment, she even forgot about her parents.
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A Day at the Beach
A Day at the Beach
Nothing beats the feeling of being underwater. When I’m underwater it feels like all of the weight has been lifted off of my shoulders. Time stops, sounds come to a halt, along with my racing thoughts, and I just, exist. Separated from the outside world. It’s a safe place, where none of my problems can reach me. Water just wraps you up like a warm blanket. It engulfs you completely until no area of your body isn’t covered in it. You feel weightless, because you are weightless. You just float there, and that is the feeling of pure bliss. When you’re underwater you aren’t just underwater, you are the water. The water is you, you and the water become one. Nothing can distort the peaceful state of the water and I, not even the sounds of my breathing can reach me there. Because I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe. I can’t- I gasp as I breach the surface, inhaling as much air as humanly possible possible.
The chatter of the outside world fills my ears with agony. Seagulls chirping obnoxiously loud, everybody on the beach talking over each other, waves crashing on to the sandy shore, cars, airplanes; you name it. I quickly snap back to reality. The outside world overwhelms me, and I long to return to my underwater world. I rise out of the turquoise waves and slowly trudge through the water and sand. I reach the shore and I begin to journey across the golden sand. Straight ahead, I spot my destination. A bright white food cart is sitting at the end of the beach, just waiting patiently for me to arrive. I briefly stop at my umbrella to retrieve my money from my bag, and then I continue on. My feet land one after the other onto the powdery sand, grains of sand wedged between my toes, warm and soothing to the touch. The searing sun shines down harshly onto my tanned skin, shimmering in the sky, providing me with an absurd amount of heat. I continue to stroll through the sand, and I slowly begin to creep up on the food cart. So close. Almost there. I can nearly taste it…
“Hello, what would you like to order?,” says a man that looks around his twenties. I respond quickly.
“Hi there, I would like to get a blue raspberry shaved ice.”
“Okay, that’ll be 2.50.”
I hand him three crumpled up dollar bills, he takes them and begins to make my order. I watch longingly as he scoops mounds of shredded ice into a small paper cone. He then lifts up a bottle of blue liquid and proceeds to drizzle it over the ice.
“Here ya go,” he says as he hands me the cone.
“Thank you,” I respond. I really mean it.
As soon as I turn away from the food cart, I devour the flavored ice. Cool relief runs through my mouth, and then through my entire body. The taste is magnificent. Absolutely delicious. I finish the entire thing in around 30 seconds, and I start to head back to the ocean. I cross the sandy border between land and sea, and then I splash my way into the waves. I submerge my entire body in the salty water, and time stops again. Absolute silence fills my ears. I feel blissful once again. I decide that this time I’m going to swim further out into the ocean, since usually I just float around in the shore. I start swimming, dipping underneath the waves and gliding through the water. It takes around 5 minutes to reach the sandbar. I keep myself afloat for a while, pondering if I should pass it, before I do. I keep swimming until I decide that I’ve reached a good point to stop.
I dip underwater and look around. Starfish and coral speckle the sea floor, adding a burst of color to the otherwise drab sand. Small tropical fish are swimming everywhere, chasing each other and fluttering around in the coral. I see sand dollars drifting across, their tentacles swooshing around and disturbing the sand, making the water murky. It’s a beautiful sight. As I float there, just taking it all in, a large dark figure whooshes past me. I turn abruptly, and search all around me to see what’s there. But there isn’t anything there. Nothing in sight. I turn my attention back to the little fish, and then it happens again. I hear a swoosh and something huge passes around me. I start to get scared, and I get the feeling that something is stalking me. I search around myself once again, and again, nothing is there. I rise up from the depth of the ocean, and inhale. I then drop back underwater again. I keep my eyes closed until I’m completely submerged, and then, my eyelids flutter open.
Just floating there, waiting to greet me, is a great white. It just stares at me, baring it’s huge array of sharp teeth right in my face, grinning. My jaw drops and I try to stay as still as possible. I’m in absolute shock, so it isn’t that hard to do. I realize that sooner or later I’m going to have to move when I swim up to get air. I start to panic. Fear fills my entire body, spreading from my heart and trailing throughout all of my limbs. I start to feel as if I need to breathe. I need air, badly. I hold my breath for as long as possible but it starts to get extremely hard to do. The shark is still staring at me. I think to myself, maybe he’s blind? Maybe he hasn’t even seen me yet. I turn my head as slowly as possible, to take one last look around. I look to my right and immediately I’m panicking even more than I already was.
All around me, cornering me from all sides, is an entire pack of sharks. All of them staring at me intensely. At this point, I’m completely out of breath. I know I’m going to die, there’s no way I couldn’t. I give up, and I let the salty ocean water fill my lungs. I close my eyes.
I open my eyes.
“That was a weird dream,” I think to myself.
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Lyrical
The Other Lover
I spend my time all alone
I just wish that somebody would pick up the phone
I hold my own hand
Oh oh, isn’t life grand?
On the other side of the window
There goes somebody that I used to know
You know I just go where the wind blows
But it would be oh so nice if I didn’t have to do it alone
I’m just searching for somebody
To walk with me
To talk with me
To rock with me
To chat with me
To laugh with me
Maybe be the other half to me
Can’t you see how beautiful this could be
On the other side of California
You call my phone but I ignore ya
Baby you know that I adore ya
But I just wanna be alone, I don’t mean to bore ya
Oh I just gotta let you know
I know that it hurts, but I’ve gotta let you go
You know I just go where the wind blows
So it would be oh so nice to just float this river alone
I’m just searching for myself
I must’ve left it sitting
On the bedroom shelf
If happiness was wealth
I’d be so damn broke I couldn’t even feed myself
You and I
When we’re together we can fly so high
We just touched the sky
But we’re flying too close to the sun
We’re gonna die
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Rhyming
I Wish
I wish
I wish
To be a fish
To swish
And squish
To splash
And splish
Until the day
I end up in a dish
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Free Verse
Flying
Gliding
Zooming
Zipping
Flying
Down the snow covered mountain
My chocolate hair
Flowing
Flying
In the wind
I swerve and swindle
Through the white powder
Faster
And faster
Until I begin to float
Flying
Soaring
Through the air
My bare
Exposed face
Quickly becomes
Numb
Freezing
Frozen
In time
The moment feels
As if
It could last forever
Until
I jerk my snowboard to the side
Snow flies in my face
I shred to a stop
And I smile
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Tanka
Summer
The sun shining down
On my glowing freckled face
Adding more freckles
The longer I sit and bask
In the golden UV rays
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Haiku
Paradise
Palm trees towering
Over the deep blue ocean
Swaying in the wind
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