-
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.