A Long Way From Heaven

A Long Way From Heaven

Chapter 1
I listened to the light sound of the rain softly pattering on my roof, as I lay in my bed absent mindedly. I stared at the sky blue wall as I thought back on the lazy week I had. There was a nagging voice in the back of my head, that no matter how hard I tried to block out, I couldn't. It taunted me mercilessly, saying that I wasn't in the place I wanted or needed to be. That everything wasn't ok, and that I would never find another place to fit in with all those happy-go-lucky islanders. That Hawaii and I weren't getting along to well.

My younger brother Davie pounded on my door, and screeched
"Wake up Emmy! Mom made pancakes! You better get up before we eat them all! Wake up! Wake up!"
Leave it to Davie to ruin a perfectly calm moment.

I sighed and dragged myself out of the warmth of my bed; the only place I felt home on this god-for-sacking island. I looked into the mirror to see a red faced teenage girl staring back at me, and with purple bags under her eyes from lack of sleep. I couldn't recognize this mess I had become over the few past weeks. I went into the bathroom (another negative to living in Hawaii, I had to share a bathroom,) and splashed water on my face. Then rushed to the kitchen; not wanting my brother to come and get me again. The old me would have enjoyed pancake Saturday, but now it just reminded me of the life I had left behind. Sadness crept over me as I fell back into the depression I'd been trying so hard to stay away from. Leila and Kevin's faces crawled into my mind, and I fell even deeper. As I reached the kitchen I fought back tears. I didn't want Davie to see my like this, I needed to set an example for him.

I tried my best to hide my sorrow, and play a happy act; at least through breakfast. Davie didn't seem to notice a thing as he served himself a generous third helping of pancakes, but my mom sensed something was up. I just smiled and excused myself as soon as possible. I escaped her prying eyes, and went back to my room, where I dove into a book. When I didn't want to deal with reality, I read to get away from everything, where life is how the author wants it to be. I was drifting into To Kill A Mocking Bird when my mom knocked on my door, and I hear her smooth voice ask me if she can come in. I sighed and got up to open the door that she could have easily opened herself. I hadn't been using my brain to much lately, and who could really blame me?

As I opened the door, she slipped in besides me, and we sat on my bed. My mom tried to act more like a friend then a mom sometimes. That was defiantly one of those times. She put one arm around me and casually said,
"So, how do you like Hawaii?"
I tried to mask my sadness and really pretend to be happy.
"I really like it here mom. It's every girls dream to live in Hawaii."
I looked into her eyes and sparkled with sincerity. I always had been a good actress.
"I just miss my friends, that's all."
"Ok." she sighed as she got up to leave.
"Just remember that you can always go back and live with Aunt Paula."
"I know mom." Believe me I knew.


Later that day, after it stopped raining, I decided to go on a walk. I have always loved the way the air smelled after it rained. The way moisture touches your face as you walked, cooling you off. The way everything is so quiet, even though it's the middle of the day. Most people say I'm crazy when I tell them that, but it smells differently to me. Maybe I am going crazy. That would explain a lot.

I made my way down to the beach as I thought about all the times Leila and I had played outside in the rain, dancing and running and laughing. No. I don't want to think about her. It will only make it worse. I tried to push the thought out of my head the way I had been doing these past few weeks. I hadn't noticed how long it had been as I saw a cliff ahead of me. I decided to walk to it and then turn around. As I walked closer I began to hear the faint sound of music. It sounds like it's in some foreign language that I'd never heard before. I walked quickly forward towards the cliff, following the strange, sweet song. I was a few yards away when I first heard it. A blood curdling scream. It sounded like an innocent child being tortured. I froze and couldn't make my body move another inch.

My basic survival instinct told me to turn around and run for my life, bur all I could think was that someone needed help. I needed to help them. I quickly strode the last few yards, paused, took a deep breath, and then turned to see what was under the cliff.

At first I could see nothing but darkness, but soon I could pick out five pairs of gleaming red eyes focused on me. The screaming had stopped and I could smell the smoke of a fire that must have gone out. What happened after that was so fast that it all seemed like a blur. One second I was standing on my feet, the next I was on the ground pinned under a giant bolder. I closed my eyes and waited for the pain to start, but it never did. I slowly, reluctantly, opened my eyes again, to see five red eyed males standing around a dimly lit fire. They were speaking softly, but so quickly I couldn't make out anything from their slur of words. There was no evidence of a child being tortured, nothing but them and me.

At first I was relieved that no one had been hurt, but then I became angry with myself. How could I have been so stupid to blindly come into a cave where I heard screaming? How could I have been so delusional to think that I could do anything to help? And how did this bolder get on top of me. I hadn't remembered moving from where I stood. As these questions flung through my head, I found my voice and stammered,

"Who are you? What are you doing here? Why am I under this bolder?"

The fast talking stopped and all their gazes shifted from one another to me.

"You woke up," one of them murmured.

Woke up? I was asleep?


One of them steeped forward into the dim light of the fire. I was shocked.

His features were like nothing I had ever seen before. His eyes were spread widely apart, unnaturally so, his hair was a crimson red, as if the color of blood, and his skin as black as midnight. At first the unnaturalness of his face shocked me. It appeared ugly as I began to stare at him, but after a while, he was strikingly beautiful. I decided his peculiar features suited each other. He spoke smoothly but fiercely, with an edge to his voice.

"My name is Iakopa. We are performing an ancient Hawaiian ritual, and you are pinned under a bolder, because you have intercepted with fate, and now, you must die."


Chapter Two

I layed in a daze unable to speak, move, or for that matter make my body function. My voice choked in my throat and no matter how hard I begged for my mouth to form words, the deathly silence remained. I fought with the urgeto shut my eyes and pretend that none of this was real, when another figure slipped into the fire light. His straight blond hair fell away from his face to reveal two hazel eyes, more beautiful then life it's self.


As I continued to stare, he cleared his throat to say,

" Now, now, Iakopa. Let's not be too hasty. There are other options besides death. "

I couldn't believe this! This striking boy was defending me. I was unable stop myself from returning my gaze to his stunning eyes. I thought about how gorgeous didn't begin to cover the shade of hazel they were. But then a thought came to mind. How could his eyes be hazel when they were unmistakably red in the darkness. The light did something to him. I had been so focused on Iakopa's words and midnight skin that I hadn't realized that his eyes weren't red in the fire light, butinside coal black, holding all the bitterness in the world.

The fire light did something to there eyes, or perhaps I was just going insane. Perhaps none of this was real, and that I was having a hallucination. Yeah, that would explain it. Or so I thought...

The silence of the room was broken. Iakopa spoke once more.

"What other options would there be Riley?"
Riley spoke softly,
"We could keep her here, for one. I would hate to take her away from her family, but that's better then death is it not? Or, we could make her forget everything. We've been there before, and it wasn't pretty, but she may be different. And then there's always..." he trailed off before finishing.


As if reading his mind Iakopa shouted,
"No!! That is NOT an option!!!!"
" How would we know? We've never tried!" Riley responded.
Another figure stepped out of the darkness. His eyes and hair were both a dark chestnut brown, and his skin a pale olive color. Funny, he seemed normal compared to the other great beauties besides him.
"Just 'cause she's yours Riley, doesn't mean the rest of us would want her to be one of us."

What did he mean by that? How was I Riley's?

"Maybe we should let her decide then?" suggested Riley.
By the dim light of the fire, I could see everyone's eyes turn to me.
"Decide what?" I somehow chocked out.
"Your fate," answered Iakopa.
"Her fate has already been decided," reminded Riley, in a confident voice.
"Oh shut up about that. You know the fire can lie," responded the brunette.
"It wasn't right last time, if I remember right, you had no sympathy for mine. Was it, or was it not, you who casted her away?"

Riley's face softened. His eyes filled with saddness, as if someone, who was very dear to him parished. As if he had lost a part of him, and it was a wound that could only be healed with time. I wanted to confort him, reach out and squeeze him tightly in an embrace, and murmur that everything would be alright.

But as I came back to reality, I relized that I should be teriffied of him. He and his friends were talking about killing me. And yet, my instincts for survival disappeared, and I longed for his touch. I wanted to feel his arms tightly wrapped around me, I wanted to feel his hot breath on my face. I wanted deperatley to run my hand over his pale skin, and memorize his face, over and over. If there was such thing as love at first sight, I had most definatley found it.


Chapter Three







Riley







The moment I saw her, I knew. I knew it was her. The one. The one I wanted to be with forever, to share everything, to give and take nothing but . Of course I knew I would always feel guilty taking a life that could have held happiness, but I knew I was not strong enough to leave her alone. She was the most beautiful creature I'd ever seen. They say that love is blind, but I knew it was not just my heart clouding my eyes. It pained me to see her pinned under that rock, but I knew it was nessicary. Right now my only goal was to save her life from Iakopa.





I responded to Gregory's question, with a soft,


" You know I had no idea what it was like then. None of us knew. All we were trying to do then was survive. Even that seemed like a lot then. Please. Please. If she was still here, you would do anything to save her, wouldn't you? What if, you could have Lily? For just her lifetime? It would be short, but it would be worth it. Please, I'll do anything!" There was a pleading tone to my voice that I was sure he heard. Of all of us, I knew that he would understand.



"I would do it. If I could have Lilly. Of course I woud do anything..." Greagory trailed of, obviously in thought. Probably recolecting about Lilly. She was beautiful, but was nothing compared to my Emmy.



"So," I turned to Iakopa. "It's settled. She'll become one of us."

" I don't like it" Iakopa spit out every word, like he was tasting something horrific.

"I don't like it at all. I wish there was another way... I still think we should kill her, but if it is really that important to you, we can try. The only thing is that we don't know how powerful she'll be. She could have some talent we've never dreamed of before. It will be a major risk, and it will be your head on the chopping block if this falls through Riley. But if it what you really want..."

"More then anything," I jumped in.
" Alright then. Greagory will you do it? I am very tired and need to save my engergy for the travel back."
"Of course," replied Greagory.

With that he carefully lifted the rock off of Emmy, and scooped her up into his arms. Before they walked out of side I spoke softly to her,
"It will be alright. I won't let them hurt you."

Waiting was definately the worst part. My feelings were stirring inside me, as I anxiously made the trip back. I fell behind the others, letting Iakopa lead the group. I had been dreading the trip back, and feeling the wrath of Madiline. Once she had found out what I had done, she would surely disapear forever. As if I didn't feel guilty enough for stealing Emmy's life, now I had to worry about Madeline. I could see how her face would draw into a deeply pained expression, and how she would cringe away into a dark corner, to suffer alone. I would miss her dearly, but I was fighting for something much larger now.

I was fighting for love.

I was fighting for the right to wake up every morning to her angel face, that would cure any type of sadness, driving it out of my body forever.

I was fighting for being able to spend hours walking on the beach, hand in hand with the reason of my existance. I could picture in my mind how her dark black hair would blow in the wind, how her tanned skin would shine in sunlight, and how we would be perfectly and blissfully happy. If only I could find a way to evade this guiltyness that keeps building up inside me.


Chapter 4


Greagory