Serenity Falls

Chapter 52

Hello! Happy new year everybody! This was meant to go up yesterday but I was at my friends, so I didn't get a chance to go on the computer. Ah well, my first upload of 2012! :D Enjoy!

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"Where’s England?"

Kayla looked at Alyssa with a bewildered expression on her face. The news Alyssa had just broken to her was obviously bad; she could tell that by her depressed expression and tear stained face. But that didn’t stop Kayla from being confused as usual.

Alyssa shot her a disbelieving look through her tears. In a normal situation she would’ve been irritated at Kayla for being so dense, but in her state, she was unable to. Usually she was extremely defensive and wouldn’t let anyone see her cry – after all, she didn’t want anyone getting the impression at Alyssa Taylor was weak – but at this point she couldn’t shift the feeling of hopelessness that had descended upon her.

"You don’t know where England is?"

"Nope."

"It’s on the other side of the freaking world, Kayla. That’s where England is."

Okay, so maybe that was a slight exaggeration. But what was the difference of a couple thousand miles? Whatever latitude England was on, it was a long way from here.

"Oh." Kayla frowned. "Is that the place where there are those triangles in the desert?"

"Pyramids?" Alyssa stared at her in disbelief. She had known Kayla wasn’t the brightest spark, but seriously? "No, Kayla, that’s Egypt."

Kayla opened her mouth to speak, before closing it again when she realised she didn’t have a response.

"I can’t believe Daddy’s sending me away," Alyssa said, her voice wavering as her eyes filled up with fresh tears. The amount she had cried in the past twenty four hours was not human, and she was sure that she must have run out of tears by now. Her thoughts were contradicted as another rolled down her cheek.

"How long are you going for?"

"I don’t know," she answered. "Daddy said it’s going to be at least a year, or maybe even until I graduate."

"But that’s..." Kayla paused, attempting to work out the length of time in her mind. After a few seconds she gave up, shaking her head vigorously as if this would do something, "... ages."

"Do you think I don’t know that?" Alyssa snapped, flipping her head round in time to shoot an irritated glance at Kayla. She hadn’t meant for her voice to be so sharp, but the last thing she needed at this moment in time was Kayla’s stupidity.

"Sorry," Kayla murmured, averting her gaze to the floor. Alyssa felt a pang of guilt in her chest but it soon disappeared when another wave of sadness washed over her.

Suddenly, there was a small knock coming from the direction of Alyssa’s bedroom door. She glanced over to it, as if it may have suddenly become transparent and allow her to see the person requesting entry. But, to no one’s surprise, she found that the door was still as opaque as ever, and she called fleetingly to tell the visitor to come in.

They pushed the door open, stepping inside and closing it again behind them.

"Ruby," Alyssa greeted her, sinking back into her pillows when she realised it was no one of great interest.

"I have a package for you, Miss Taylor," Ruby said, stepping over to the bed where Alyssa was lying and holding out a parcel wrapped in black plastic.

She frowned slightly, removing the package from her housekeeper’s outstretched hands. "I didn’t order anything," she said in confusion, running her fingers over the plastic wrapping in an attempt to find out what was concealed inside. "Do you know what it is?"