Losing Emma (Divisa 0.5)
J. L. Weil
Chapter 1
A teeny snowflake landed on the tip of Emma’s nose. Spreading her arms out wide, she spun in circles, face uplifted to the sky. The first snowfall of the year, and it was glorious, pure and untouched. The chilly flakes cooled her flushed cheeks. When she saw the flecks falling from her bedroom window, she knew she just had to dance in the white wonderland.
Laughing, she couldn’t imagine a more perfect first day of winter.
Her strawberry blonde hair was bold against the wintry white surrounding her. Glancing at the snowcapped treetops, she felt like Snow White without the dwarfs. What would it be like to be a princess in a frozen castle? Emma loved winter. Emma loved fairytales. And she loved to dance. For the first time in a long time, she felt like a dancing princess in her own fairytale.
Man was she lame, she thought to herself grinning.
Normally, she felt like an army brat, moving from place-to-place without any real friends or a real home. The hazards of her dad’s job, which she had yet to fully understand what that entailed. He was gone before sunrise and often returned after dusk when she was tucked away for the night. She saw so little of him that her own father often felt like a stranger. A disciplined, hard, unyielding man with his suffocating rules. He was worse than a military lieutenant.
She had seen more of the country than any girl her age should. Sure she was well diverse in different cultures, but all she had ever really wanted was to belong. To have a best friend, slumber parties, or a boyfriend she wouldn’t have to break-up with because she was once again moving across the globe.
Emma sighed and hugged her arms around herself, her bright emerald eyes shining. The sweater she wore offered little comfort against the gentle breeze of winter, but she didn’t notice. It felt exhilarating and freeing to be out in the open with the untouched world at her feet.
They only had lived here six months, and Emma was already afraid it wouldn’t last. Just this once she wanted to stay long enough to graduate with people she knew and knew her.
Two years.
Was that to much to ask for?
She was surprised how much she loved Spring Valley, Illinois. Out of all the places she’d lived there was something cute, charming, and settling about the quaint town. She loved the old house, with its wrapped around porch and large rooms.
So much space. Her house was surrounded by trees with more privacy than she was used to. It was hidden from the busy bustle of the city.
She wanted roots. Here.
There was a small dance studio in town where she gave lessons to little girls. Her first real job and it was rewarding watching the impressionable girls open their world to the love of rhythm and music. She didn’t really consider it work. How could she when she loved it so much. Everyday after school she went to the studio to either teach or practice.
She constantly walked around attached to her iPod, listening to the beats of music and composing routines in her head. Later, when she got to the studio, she would put the routine to movement.
Dancing was the only thing that never changed. New city, new friends, new houses, but dancing was the same no matter where her parents forced her and Abigail next.
It never mattered how much she pleaded or begged. None of it made a flying pig of a difference. She finally just stopped, resigning to her parent’s control. At eighteen her life would then be hers, with the freedom to do and go, or stay as she pleased.
She felt sad and pity for Abigail, who at three years didn’t have the foggiest idea what she was in for.
Glancing out at the tree line, she caught the very distinct color of topaz. Squinting, she thought they looked like a pair of eyes, but there wasn’t another house for miles. A spurt of apprehension snuck in her belly.
Who would be nuts enough to hike in those woods? In this weather?
Walking toward the twin glowing globes, she was more confident that they were eyes. Behind her, a rustling in the trees had her jumping like a ninny. A bright cardinal flew from a tree, boldly red and beautiful against all the fresh coat of white.
Sighing, she turned back to the woods in front of her. The golden light was gone, making her question whether it had ever been there. Scanning the immediate area, there was nothing, no one but her.
“It was probably just an animal,” she mumbled to herself unconvincing. She was just so sure. Emma wasn’t the kind of girl prone to illusions, fairytales yes, but not hallucinations.
Rubbing her hands up and down her arms, the chill of the wind finally sunk in. Heading toward the house, she couldn’t shake the nagging feeling that someone was watching her.
*
Travis descended deeper in the towering trees with their canopy white tops. Steadying a hand on the trunk, he gripped the bark.