The Landing

The Cliff

Let's just say Tracy hated Mr.Oliver. He had made her erase all the writing of of used work books. The worst part had been how he had stared at her with an evil smile on his face for the whole hour. Now she stood in her favourite spot, the cliff. Tracy closed her eyes and felt the wind blow through her silky dark brown hair. She let go of her worries, no school, no missing mothers, no Janie. The cliff was the only place where she could close her eyes and find peace, the only place she felt safe. Tracy never knew how long she stayed there, time seemed to pass differently. Sometimes she stayed for a minute, sometimes an hour. Either way she always felt the same. When she finally opened her eyes she let out a deep sigh, she had to get back to the real world, to face reality. She couldn't stay up there forever. She picked up her school bag and headed down the hill. All the way down her thoughts came flooding back to her, mainly about Janie. Janie and her group of friends had never been nice to Tracy, but today had been the worst. Really she didn't what to remember any of it, she didn't want to go home and explain how she managed to get both her hands chained to her own locker for probably the twentieth time. As Tracy walked and the thoughts came crashing through her head she thought about her mother, who had disappeared when she was in grade one. She remembered when Janie would bully her then, when she got home her mother would smile and say.
"She only does it because she's jealous. Its because you're too pretty for your own good!" she would mock.
Tracy would smile and hug her mother.
After weaving her way through the dark shadowed forest she made it to her home. Tracy opened the door a crack, and listened. Their was silence, then a series of snores. It was her father, Tracy liked to think of him as a nocturnal creature. Really it wasn't his fault, he had a night shift at the local pharmacy and got back at noon. Today Tracy was glad for her father to be asleep it gave her an excuse to not talk to him. The girl dropped her school bag in her room then sprinted back out the door. She ran and ran down the road to a place that felt more like a home to her than her own home.
Tracy knocked on the rusty metal door. It had been painted a teal blue to try to mask the oblivious fact that something had gone wrong in the house. There were only two doors like that in town, this door and the one on Tracy's home. Her door. Nobody found it a coincidence that in both homes someone had mysteriously disappeared, within the same week. They say the only hint found was a small bird, one black and one gold. Tracy pushed the thoughts out of her head as the door opened. Behind it was a familiar face, a welcoming friendly face. The face had long wavy auburn hair and piercing ice blue eyes.
She smiled
"Hey Tracy, you looking for Jake?"
Tracy couldn't help but smile back at her, she was just one of those special people.
"Yes Mrs.West, is he here?"
"Of course I'll go and fetch him, in the meantime why don't you go help yourself to some cookies from the kitchen?"
"Thank you Mrs.West."
"No problem sweetheart."
Tracy stepped into the house and made herself at home. Which wasn't hard for her, after her mother disappeared she'd always considered the Wests residents her real home. Trace took a cookie and flopped down on one of the chairs. A few minutes later an auburn head came bobbing down the stairs. It was Jake. He was a spitting image of his mother except for his eyes, they were a dark almost black brown.
"Hey." He said.
"Hey." Tracy responded.
"Well shall we?" Jake said impatiently.
"We shall." Tracy responded. The two friends then set off up the stairs to Jakes room. Once they were seated Tracy let out a yawn.
"Dreams again?" Jake asked in his soft tone of voice.
"Ya like always." Tracy concluded. Every night Tracy had dreams, vivid ones. Dreams that always seemed so real....
" what'er they about this time?" Questioned Jake as he sat down on his bed.
"I was on the cliff, and they were calling me again. Saying Tracy, Tracy, one day you'll have to jump." Stated trace plopping down beside Jake.
"How about you?" Jake gave her a small shy smile.
"It was awful, in ma dream I woke up to the sound of footsteps. Then two men kidnapped me. Next thing I kew I was in a lab and a scientist was plunging a humongous needle into ma neck."
Tracy shivered at the thought. Jake squeeze her hand
"hey there just dreams right."
Tracy put a smile on her face,
"Yup, just silly old dreams." At least that what she hoped.