This is where our story begins, on the highway of sunny Arizona. With my elbow resting on the open car window I feel the heat from the sun, a bead of sweat escaping my brow; I tuck a stray strand of hair behind my ear that came loose from my ponytail.
"Have you read any of your class books yet hun?", Thomas, my fiance, asked me.
Tom and I had been best friends since we were eight years old; we met on the slide in our grade school playground and have been inseparable ever since. In the course of our friendship, in high school, Tom had asked me to be his girlfriend. Just 6 months ago he proposed to me in the spot we first met, and here we are now road tripping to my grandmas. I just nodded my head at him, and gave him a reassuring hand on his shoulder. Wondering who I am exactly? My name is Rose , I'm a 21 year old photography enthusiast. My fiance is road tripping me to my grandma Amy's house for the summer. Why my grandma's you ask? Well my grandma and I are really close, and it just happens she lives in sunny California, where they have the top photography class, beautiful scenery to photograph, and the right connections to further my career. All I can ask for and more.
"Don't worry Tommy, if I was anymore prepared Id be at the head of the class teaching", I replied with a smile.
I had been interested in photography since I can remember; my mom told me stories of when I was a small child, I had made my first camera out of a small cardboard box. It didn't actually work but I loved to pretend I was a photographer traveling the world taking all kinds of fabulous pictures. As I got older my father got me my first ever digital camera, and I took that camera everywhere I went. My art teachers throughout grade school and high school always told me I had an eye for photography. Tom glanced at me in the car rear view mirror and asked me,
"How about some tunes?"
"Who calls them tunes anymore?" I said with a giggle.
He smiled as he elbowed me in the side, and handed over a CD case with 30 Seconds to Mars on the cover. I popped the disk into the player, and the car filled with the sound of drums and Jared Letos voice. As the music hums through the car, i slump back into the seat and close my eyes. As the song lyrics ran through my head, I felt myself drifting.
"Im just going to rest my eyes for a bit, wake me when we get to grans", I said to Tom, opening my eyes enough to look at his face, acknowledging what I had said to him.
I patted a hand on his cheek, felt him smiling against my hand, he grabbed my hand kissing it before saying, "Sure, get some shut eye Rosie".
And with that, I let myself drifted off into a deep slumber.
* * *
Suddenly I was drowning; My lungs felt as if an anchor was top of them, making breathing near impossible. Somehow I always end up here, in this ice cold water, the man in the robes watching from the surface. Who was this man? I never get to see his face; all I see is his six foot figure, covered head to toe in a royal blue robe, gold trim. His hood was always pulled over his head, his face in the shadows with over his evil smirk visible. I reached my hand up towards him, it felt like reaching into a bowl of jello, and muffled cry for help escaped my lips. As I started drifting deeper, closer to the bottom, I felt a pain in my shoulder as if it had been jabbed. The pain kept coming till I blinked, and suddenly I was out of the water, in my car.
"Rosie, Rosie are you okay? You look pale", Tom was looking at me with deep concern.
"Yeah... yeah I think so?", I closed my eyes for a second, and opened my eyes to look at Tom with reassurance,"Yes hun I am okay, just silly bad dream."
"It's late, but we are here".
I looked at the digital clock on the dashboard which read eight forty-five in the evening. The sky outside was dark, and out near the coast without all the street lights you could really see the stars. I opened the car door, stepping out onto the stone driveway, my heels making a loud click clack with every step I took. It had been way too long since I had been up to my grandmothers, even though we talked on the phone every week, it wasn't the same as spending time with her. Up until I was ten years-old I had visited my gran on a weekly basis before we moved out to the city; when we moved to live with step father.
I feel my heart beating hard, hammering against my rib cage. I raise my hand, molded into a fist, to knock on the door. My charms on my bracelet jingle as my clenched fist met with the oak wood door, coming down in a knock. I whip my sweaty palms against my jeans, my nerves kicking in as I wait for the door to open. Just as my nerves start to calm down with the sense that Im not getting an answer tonight, I hear the squeal of the doorknob turning slowly. My heart beats fast, humming in my ear, I take a deep breathe and wait for the door to open.
I feel Thomas grab my hand in his, his thumb making circles against the back of my hand. I turn to look at him, his expression reassuring, I relax a little bit and under my breath say, "Thanks", my face relaxing into a smile. He smiles back at me and says "You ready?"
I nod, and turn to face the door, and mentally prepare for what is to come next.