On The Edge

Chapter one

Alexandra Watson

The feeling was incredible. Running through the forest like nothing else mattered. The wind whirling leafs up all around and the smell of the forest made me feel almost invincible. Faster and faster I kept running as far as I could. The forest floor was moist and soft against my bare feet and the light early spring breeze felt cooling. But the breeze suddenly became cold, the soft forest floor became hard and filled with pebbles, and a thick fog filled the forest. I found myself alone, blinded by the fog, feeling like something really bad was about to happen. I kept running. In the middle of my escape my foot hit something hard, the ground disappeared beneath my feet and I landed on my knees. While trying to catch my breath, I slowly got up. I looked around to find myself starring down a huge ravine with a river at the bottom. Something hard hit me in the back and I fell down the ravine...

I woke up covered in sweat, looking anxious around. The same nightmare had haunted me for years now,  and everytime I fell down the ravine not knowing what or who was coming for me. I stood up, walked out of my room and down the stairs to the kitchen. I did not turn on the lights, partly because I'd always been able to see in the dark, but mostly because I didn't want to wake up my mom. 

Elisa Watson was her name, a very respectable and strict lady. Let us just say that we had our differences. I often wondered how she could be my mom, when we could not be more opposed of each other. She was 60 years old and looked perfect in every way at all time. She didn't even own a pair of sweatpants. 

I had never met my dad, my mom always told me he wasn't worth mentioning. Sometimes I wondered why she decided to have me, she had always hated children as long as I could remember.

I turned around as I heard a sound near the kitchen door.

"Miaaav," complained Buttercup, our red and chubby maincoon cat.

I felt almost foolish for nearly being afraid of the sound of my own cat. I opened the kitchen door to let her in, and returned to the sink where I poured myself a glass of water. The moon was full and shining bright through the window. Our house was an old wooden house placed in a small clearing in the middle of the forest.

I opened the old window, it made a little squeaky sound. The chilly night air flooded in and embraced my body. The smell of the fresh air made my whole body tingle and I wanted so bad to go outside and run until I couldn't anymore, but I knew how my mom felt about it. She had always been over protective of me, and I didn't want to worry her. That was also the reason why I was homeschooled. I tried real school, but I didn't really do well with the other girls and the boys wouldn't leave me alone. My only real friend was Jeremy, who came by almost every other day.

I promised him to go to a 90's event at the local diner tomorrow. I should probably get some sleep, I thought to myself. I had already been starring out the window for an hour. I closed the window, breathing in the cold air one last time and went back up the stairs.

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"So what are you going to wear tonight?" Said my mom as she was making lunch.

"Mmm.. A pair of jeans and a t-shirt I think," I said a little distracted. The feeling of being misplaced came creeping, at the thought of going to the diner where a lot of other young people would be. I obviously had seen them all before. We lived just outside a very small town called Tonawanda near the Canadian border. Here everybody knew everybody.

"You can't be serious, Alexandra you are going to an event with a theme. Can you for once just try to fit in?" She looked reproachful at me, trying to gain eye contact. I avoided her and kept on staring out the window. "Maybe you can go up to the attic and find some of my old clothes from the 90's?"

"Mhm.. Sure," I mumbled, not wanting to discuss it any further. I went up the stairs, past my room and all the way down to the end of the hallway, where af little old door stood. 

The door had once had been dark green, but now the paint was peeling off and it looked like something you would find in a ghost house. The door was hard to open and squeaked when I pushed it. After a few tries the door opened and revealed a narrow spiral staircase. I slowly walked up the stairs and tried to avoid getting spiderwebs in my face. I made it to the end, where a small room filled with boxes, Christmas decorations, and other things appeared before me. I looked around in some boxes and found a baby pink skirt with matching jacket and headband. It wasn't really my style but I really did not want to hear my mom's comments today.

Somebody rang on the doorbell downstairs, it startled me and I knocked over some boxes that was stacked on top of each other. Urgg, of course I had to be so clumsy. 

I sat down on the floor to restack the boxes, when something caught my eye. It was an old brown wooden chest, which had been hidden behind the mountain of boxes in the attic. I brushed the layer of dust on top away and revealed a fine engraving: "Laila Watson". 

I couldn't control my curiosity, so I slowly opened the small chest. The chest was filled with pictures, diaries, old toys and clothes. I picked up a small photo of what looked like my mom in her twenties sitting with a small girl on her lap. Who was this girl? I had seen her before, but she looked like my mom with the dark brown hair and the dark green eyes. I turned the picture and saw writing on the back: Laila and Mother. 

Mother!? What the? The nausea came creeping and I leaned back against the wall for support. Should I try to ask my mom what this was about? Or keep it a secret until I had found out more about what was in this mystical chest?

"Alexandra! Please come down, Jeremy is here!" Yelled a high shrilly voice. I took one last look at the picture, stuck it into the back pocket of my jeans and walked down the stairs.

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