You Have A Strange Name | An OC Story

1: Rain

You Have A Strange Name
Chapter 1 | Rain

12th July | X293

Pit. Pat. Pit.
Pat. Pit. Pat.
Pit. Pat. Pit.
Plip. Plip. Plip.

"Mummy. Why does it rain? Why isn't it just sunny all the time?" Echo asked. She was watching the rain tumble down from the clouds and onto the earth outside, tracing her finger down the window and following the tail of a rain drop before it hit the windowsill.

"Well it would be boring if it was just sunny all the time, and there wouldn't be rivers and lakes. We also need rain for plants to grow. I'm sure you'll learn about the water cycle and the rain at school when you're older." Her mother, Llana Guramie, replied. She was washing the dishes in the washing bowl by another window, where she, too, looked out the glass panes.

Echo's father, Austin Guramie, was shaking Zero, Echo's sister, upside down, where the young five year old giggled. It was too rainy outside for them to go out, unless they wanted a cold.

"Austin, honey. Be careful not to drop Zero on her head." Llana lectured her husband; this had almost become a daily occurrence. "Echo, dear, why don't you and Zero go to the living room. The fire's on, and it's getting colder in here - your father and I will join you in a second, okay?" She smiled. Echo nodded compliantly, smiling and jumping off of the kitchen stool she was kneeling on to see out the window. Zero was released from the playful grasps of her father, and she childishly stumbled in the direction Echo had taken off in.

"Ah. How adorable." Llana giggled.

In the next room, Echo threw her sister onto fluffy cushions, as soft as cotton - short genes quite clearly run in the family. However, Echo did not join her, and instead started to twist her body around once more - her mind was set on something else.

"Where you going?" Zero gurgled out in that drunken way 5 year olds do. Echo simply turned her head with a closed smile and replied: "I'm just thirsty! I'll grab a glass of water and be right back Zero, don't worry." And just like that, she took off around the corner, accompanied by her knee-length, linen dress and purple bobbed hair running behind her.

Echo propped her head around the corner of the kitchen door to see her mother and father talking, though strangely watered down, and under their breathes. Unable to hear clearly, she examined closely their faces, searching for an indicator of what they could be murmuring about though eventually finding herself to be watching their mouths closely as an attempt at lipreading.

"...but we can't just leave like that." She heard her mother whisper, clicking her fingers to indicate the speed by which she means. Echo just stood still, her head still peeping round the corner to the kitchen. With this scene alone, it allowed Echo's mind to wander in curiosity.

"You know the reports Llana...This is serious. We don't really have another choice." Austin tilted his head to the side and lent his whole weight on his arm, which rested on the table. He seemingly understood the situation, whatever the situation was, well, however the look on his face, the feeling reflected in those dark blue eyes, read nothing positive. The young girl frowned, this time her eyebrows creasing together, however she decided to slip by the chairs at the dining table and grab a glass of water quick, going unnoticed by her parents.

"No." Llana insisted. "We can't. They'll be much more affected if--" Austin cut her off.

"--we are dead."

Echo quickly stopped herself from dropping the half-filled glass in her hand. But, she tilted it at such an angle so that water spilled out hard onto the metal bottom of the sink. All of a sudden, two sets of eyes were drilling into her back.

"Echo honey! What're you doing here?!" Llana gasped. As Echo was a little small for her age, she used the stool by the sink, but her mother pulled her off it hurriedly, kneeling to her daughter's height. She examined her arms, just in case a piece of glass had been chipped of and scratched her.

"I wanted a drink of water. What do you mean 'if we are dead'?" Echo pondered aloud, her voice growing quieter at the very mention of those words; Echo had had run-ins with death before, but these only stretched as far as the goldfish they tended to in their garden pond having been found floating belly-up and lifeless when she was 4 years of age. Austin visibly gulped, looking over to his wife, though retained a smile so as to not enforce any more fear onto their clearly worried daughter. They exchanged glances, as though they were talking through their eyes, nodding and shaking their heads occasionally. What was in fact a mere 20 seconds of silence felt like an eternity, and with each second passing by, the longing to break the silence took over Echo. Finally, her father knelt down to his wife and daughter, and spoke:

"We have to leave soon, Echo." He confessed. Echo just cocked her head to the side, examining her parents faces. While both retained their smile, an odd wave of panic had seemed to have crashed over them and settled neatly onto their features.

"Like, to mars?" She asked innocently. Austin just gave a half hearted chuckle, shaking his head sadly.

"Haha, not quite..." Austin forced out another laugh, patting her head; the corners of his mouth seemed as though they were plucked unwillingly upwards, and his eyebrows curved inwards like sad caterpillars. Echo tilted her head to the opposite side. "We have to...go to grandma's for a while. And...I don't think we'll be coming back here..." He finished, heaving out a rather large sigh in the process.

"Okay...should I tell Zero?" Echo stated, more blankly rather than questionably, as she held up her fingers in the shape of a zero, her index finger and thumb connecting. Llana and Austin nodded their heads in unison, allowing their smiles to slip ever so slightly.

Suddenly Echo grinned, a grin smaller than the morning's, but a grin nonetheless. The thought of rich, flavourful meals every night, with desert that warmed the soul (of course, in the company of her ever so sweet and loving grandma), must have wiped her mind clean. With each step she took back into the living room, flowers seemed to sprout from her toes and light up each individual floor board. A happiness glowed outwards from this girl, an infectious one at that - she'd be alright.

Llana bit her nails nervously as she watched Echo leave the room. They had a long journey ahead, about a day or two, but the reports were steadily rising, and they weren't going to stop just for this family. The Guramies would be lucky if they did.

So they needed to move fast.

"I want our children to grow up safe..." Llana sighed. "Anyway...what time is it? What would you like for tea?" She rested her hand on her husband's shoulder, as they both listened to the rain falling outside.