One Little Bird

[Katie]

I wrote this story last year for my English Class. Thats why the chapters are a little short. : D Mine ended up being 20 pages while everybody's was like, 5.

One Little Bird

Prologue

It’s really quite unbelievable. I mean, the whole thing. If somebody told me the story I’m about to tell, I would recommend them to a mental institution.

But it’s real. Trust me. I lived it.

I guess it really started five years ago, when I was eight years old. July 15, 2000. My birthday. Mom, Dad, and I were on our way to my Aunt’s house, when suddenly we were in the river. The car was sinking. My seatbelt wouldn’t open. All I remember is the panicky feeling I had, and then ... nothing.

I found out the next night, when I finally woke up, the terrible news. My parents were gone. I didn’t understand at the time. Nobody understood why, but I laughed. Nothing could make it seem real to me that my parents, Lillie and Jason, were actually dead. Gone forever. Two days later, I finally understood.

After a week, I was released from the hospital. I had to go live with my Grandpa and my 11 year old cousin. Grandpa was nice for the first three years, but then he seemed to get meaner. Treating my cousin, Kylee, like royalty, and me worse and worse as the months went on. He seemed a little ... uncomfortable around me. As if he were scared.

But enough about then, I should go forward to a couple of weeks ago, when I accidentally left my window open.



Chapter One


“Lucia! Get up here now!, “ my Grandpa yelled. Great, I thought, what does he want now?

“Yes,” I yelled, putting down my book and going up the stairs. My bedroom was the only room on the third floor. I hated walking up all those steps all the time.

“Lucia, it’s freezing up here! Why did you leave the window open? Better yet, why did you open the window in the FIRST place?!,” he shouted at me. I looked at him, my mouth opened wide. He was yelling at me for something as small as this!?

“Last night it was burning up in here!” I exclaimed.

“Well now it’s freezing!” Grandpa slammed the window as he yelled this. He turned around and stared at me. The attic room suddenly seemed dark and desolate as the silence filled the room like a cloud.

“Lucia,” he said quietly, in the kindest tone he had used with me in two years. “You just have to be careful. You can’t be careless and leave it open like that.”

“W-what? How is it ... dangerous? It’s just a window and it is on the third floor.” Then I added, “The worst that can happen is a bug flying in, or forbid me even saying it, it rains.”

Grandpa massaged his eye sockets. “Lucia, it’s not that simple. Things have happened, things I can’t say, things I can’t explain. I-it’s just, nothing. All I’ll say is leave your window down from now on!” With that, he left the room leaving me thoroughly confused. I stood in the middle of my attic bedroom for five minutes, staring at the door. Nothing made sense anymore.


Chapter Two

“Hey Lucia!,” my best friend, Natalee, shouted. I turned around and waved. I didn’t feel like talking. I’ve been trying to solve the mystery of my grandfather’s words. I’ve also been missing my parents. If only they had lived, then maybe I wouldn’t be so sad.

“Is today a sad day?”, Natalee asked as she dropped into step next to me. I solemnly nodded. Natalee patted me on the back. “Why?,” she asked.

“Long story.”, I replied. “I need to go.” Natalee just nodded.

“Okay, see ya tomorrow!”, she yelled as she turned and ran the other way down the street toward her house.

As soon as I got to my house, I ran upstairs to my bedroom. Quickly and very quietly I opened the window, feeling the cool breeze on my face. If there was something strange with my bedroom, I was going to figure it out today. I clicked the door shut and sat on my bed holding my mom and dad’s picture in my hands. I hugged it while I sat there. Tears filled my eyes as I thought about them.

Rustle, rustle.

I looked up. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. But then I noticed it.

A bird was missing from my wallpaper.

I immediately got up and ran to the wall. Where there should have been a bird, where there had always been a bird, there was no bird whatsoever.

Suddenly I heard a rustling sound behind me. When I turned around there was another spot where there had always been a bird. What was happening?!

Then even as I watched, another bird peeled off my wallpaper and actually started to fly through the air! Then more and more were joining it, filling the room with amazing colors. Pastels, oranges, blues, reds, greens and all the colors of the rainbow were all swirling about. It became hard to make out the individual birds with all the colors and movement.

But then, just when I thought things couldn’t get any stranger, the ceiling opened up revealing a strange, bright white light. Brighter than the Sun, brighter than anything I could ever imagine! The birds were all off the walls now and were flying every which way. Each one was a different color, and each one gave off it’s own special light. I was filled with awe.

I realized that the room was starting to fade away. Everything was disappearing bit by bit. The birds still flew, the light still shown, and I stood there with my mouth gaping open, not able to even move. Finally it was just me, the flying birds and the light.

BAM!

Everything stopped at once. All the furniture was back where it belonged, the light was gone, and all the birds were back on my wall in their usual spots. But I could hear something. Something that I knew it couldn’t be possible to hear in the middle of busy London.

My dainty white shoes seemed to make the loudest stomping noise as I slowly crossed my room. My hand reached out for the door handle, but then I froze. Did I really want to go out there? Did I really want to find things that maybe shouldn’t be found? And maybe put myself in danger. Did I REALLY want to do this?

But no matter what I told my hand not to do, it continued to reach out and open the door. The door slowly creaked open.

I gasped! No ... it couldn’t be!

[Katie]

Chapter Three

Seagulls flew overhead, and a salty breeze filled my nose. The waves lapped onto the sand. I was at ... the beach!

Slowly, a little unsteadily, I walked out the door and onto the sand. I sat down and took off my shoes and stockings. The warm sand squished between my toes.

Suddenly it occurred to me. I whirled around in fear. Good! The door was still there! I could still see the walls of my attic bedroom beyond the door.

Did I fall asleep? This had to be some crazy dream! It couldn’t be real ... could it? But it sure felt real. The smooth sand on my feet, the salty breeze; nothing felt like a dream.

“Lucia! Come here Sweetie!” I whirled around and stared. No ... no .... why? Why? Why? It couldn’t really be!

“Yes Lucia! Come to Mommy and Daddy!” Tears welled up in my eyes and the lump in my throat grew larger as I watched myself as a five-year-old running to my mom and dad.

How I wanted to run up to them and hug them! To tell them I loved them so much! Maybe I could?

I started to run toward my mom and dad. I was screaming, “Mom! Dad! It’s me, Lucia!” But they didn’t turn around. “MOM! DAD!”, I screamed even louder. They still didn’t look my way.

I reached them and tried to wrap my arms around my parents to give them a huge hug but my hands passed right through them. No matter what I tried, my hands passed right through their bodies. It was like I was a ghost. I was able to see and hear them but not able to talk to or touch them.

I threw myself down on the sand and sat there, head in my hands. Why was I here? Why did my life seem so fake, when it was so real? The pain and sadness was there with me every day, but I kept it behind a disguise of happiness to everyone that really “knew me”. Nothing made sense. Not even going through my daily routines. Brushing my teeth, feeding my fish, reading before bed; why did I do that? Everything at that moment seemed like one big psychological nightmare, a dream that I couldn’t get out of.

“Why? Why here? Why now? Tell me why!,” I whispered, barely audible even to myself. What was the point of trying to be heard when my parents had already disappeared from the spot where they had so recently stood? No point that I could see.

Suddenly I felt a hand on my shoulder. What the heck? I turned around in a whirlwind of confusion ... and found myself face to face with a dark-brown haired, bright blue eyed girl.

“Who are you?!,” I screamed, jumping up.

“Before you do anything you might regret, just listen to me!”, the girl yelled back.

I stepped toward her and she stepped back. “all right! Now you tell me right now who the heck you are!”, I screamed once again.

“My name,” she began, “Is Jovie. Jovie Lee Hatten. And you, you are Lucia Annabelle Moore.”


Chapter Four

I immediately stomped on her foot. Hard. “How do you know my name?”, I demanded.

“I believe the real question is, why did you just kill my foot when I asked you to listen to me!,” she spat back.

“I did listen, I just didn’t like what I heard.”, I answered angrily.

The girl, Jovie, stood up, obviously angry and annoyed. But there was something else in her expression I couldn’t quite lay my finger on. Was it ... happiness? Excitement? Eagerness?

“As I was saying before my foot was massacred, I know your name because I saw it in a dream. The dream told me that this girl, Lucia, would help me to get out of here and that I would also be able to help you.”, Jovie calmly stated.

I started to cool down a bit. “Well, isn’t it easy to get out of here? All you have to do is go through that ... “ I stopped. The room with it’s open door wasn’t there anymore!

“Yeah, I kinda figured that out five months ago,” Jovie replied as she rolled her eyes.

“But that makes no sense at all! I remember looking back at the room right after I stepped out. I know it was there!”, I said as I started to panic again. Jovie just looked at me.

“All I saw was a room fall out of the sky and then a girl comes running out, runs down the beach like a maniac screaming ‘Mom! Dad! It’s me, Lucia!’, when there was nothing there but air,” Jovie said.

“But my parents were right there!”

“There you go interrupting again!”, Jovie yelled, raising her arms up. “That really is a bad habit.”

“Oh, just be quiet!”, I said.

“Anyway, as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, the room disintegrated right before my eyes.”, Jovie stated. She says everything with a very heavy British accent. My accent was there I suppose, but not as much as her’s.

“Just ... poof?”, I asked.

“Poof.”, was all she replied.

“But ... how??”, I asked.

“If I knew that, wouldn’t you think I’d have told you?”, Jovie sighed.

“Jovie, if we are going to work together to get out of here, you need to stop being so ... so ...”. I couldn’t think of the right word.

“Snappish?”, Jovie offered.

“Yes! Yes, exactly!”, I exclaimed. She sighed again.

“I’ve been told that a lot. It drives a lot of people crazy, but it’s just me. I can’t
stop saying the first thing that pops into my head. It probably comes from my parents dying when I was only eight years old.” I froze as she said that.

“Your parents died when you were eight?!, I asked excitedly.

“Yeah ... and I went to live with my Grandma. Why are you so interested in that?”, Jovie asked.

“My parents died when I was eight too! Only I was sent to live with my Grandpa.”, I explained. Jovie looked at me.

“Maybe that’s why we are supposed to work together. Because we both have no parents!”, Jovie exclaimed.

“No ... it can’t be that simple. There has to be something more.”

“True enough, you have a good point.”, Jovie admitted. “Why would there be such a complex place to only unite two kids with no parents?”

This all started to seem so weird. Even though I had met Jovie just a very short
time ago, we were already friends. Even after I stomped on her foot. Maybe this was meant to be. There was something about her. I already felt that special bond.

“Something here makes everything seem brighter. More cheerful.”, I said. She nodded.

“Yeah, I noticed that a while ago.”, Jovie said, sitting down on the sand. The sun was starting to set, but we both had many other things on our minds other than sleep.


Chapter Five

“Oh-my-gosh! GRANDPAAAA!!!,” Kylee screamed. She stood in the doorway of the third floor bedroom and screamed for Grandpa. Grandpa ran to her quickly.

“What Kylee?!” He stopped short as he approached the bedroom. All that stood in front of him was an empty room. Nothing. Not even Lucia.

“Aren’t you going to call 9-1-1?”, Kylee yelled. He just shook his head.

“It’s already too late.”, he stated.

“What do you mean by too late?!”, Kylee said with alarm. “Lucia’s gone and you don’t care?!”, she yelled. But is was no use. He was already gone back down the stairs.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


“I wonder what’s going on at my house.”, I said. Jovie just shrugged.

“What I do know, is that we need to find a way out of here. And quick.”, she replied.

“Have you ever tried wishing?”, I suggested.

“Gosh Lucia. We have a better chance of a pack of wild penguins attacking us.”

“Nooo ... not wishing like that!”, I said.

“Then, like what?”, Jovie asked, standing up. It was three days later and we still had no solutions except maybe this one.

“Like picturing in our minds where we want to go. Both of us. Together, at the same time. Maybe we can go there, just maybe.”, I replied. Jovie slowly uncurled her eyebrow.

“You may just have an idea there Lucia. It’s certainly worth a shot.”, she said. I smiled.

“all right. Are you picturing your choice?”. Jovie nodded, her eyes closed. “Okay, 1 - 2 - 3, WISH!”, I yelled. We sat there for a minute or two. Each of us hoping, dreaming of our place in our minds. Then I felt it.

Jovie shook my shoulder and I popped open my eyes. She was grinning like a madman and I soon joined her. The birds were back!

We both smiled like crazy as the birds flew around us. All the different colors surrounded us as they flew in a tornado of color. Then the sky became bright. Brighter than it was in my room.

BAM!

Everything went dark as Jovie and I crashed onto the floor.

“Ow!”, Jovie yelled. She had banged head on the hardwood floor. I had hit my head on the edge of a hard object too. I opened my eyes and looked around. My room!

“My room!”, Jovie and I both shouted at the same time. We looked at each other confused.

“No ... it’s mine ...,” I said. Jovie just looked around the area.

“Wait ... this isn’t anyone’s room.”, Jovie said firmly. I looked at her, confused.

“What do you mean?”, I questioned.

“I don’t know,” she said, “I can just feel it. Something’s not right. You know what I mean?” Jovie’s hands fumbled in her pockets, something that I do when I’m nervous. That’s odd she does it too.

Suddenly things started to turn gray. The room was fading away. I grabbed Jovie’s arm and started to run. It was no use. No matter what, we were going somewhere else. I had a bad feeling that there was going to be something there that Jovie and I didn’t want to know.

[Katie]

Chapter Six

“Lucia! Where are you?”, I heard Jovie yelling. I opened my eyes to see a fuzzy scene.

It was raining hard. And I could hear a baby crying somewhere nearby and the muffled sound of people talking. I was laying on the cold, hard ground getting completely drenched by the rain.

“Lucia?!”, I heard again.

“Jovie?”, I yelled back.

“Lucia, don’t move. I see you now.”, Jovie yelled back. I stayed still. Suddenly she was right next to me.

“What happened?”, she asked breathlessly.

“I ... I don’t know. All I remember is you standing there, and then everything turned gray. My head hurts horribly though. My arm too.”, I replied. My head felt light, and everything still looked fuzzy.

“Lucia! Lucia! LUCIA!”, Jovie yelled in my face. My eyelids kept drooping and I couldn’t seem to control them. “Lucia! Don’t you dare! I need you. This whole thing will be over if you ... you ...”, Jovie exclaimed. Nothing she yelled helped. I fainted.

“LUCIA, NO!”, was the last thing I heard before it went dark.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kylee was calling someone on the phone. “Hello?”, Kylee asked.

“Kylee?”, Lucia’s best friend, Natalee, answered. “Why are you calling me? And where’s Lucia been?”, she asked. Kylee interrupted her.

“Natalee, you need to come down to my house NOW!”, Kylee said.

“But why ...”, Natalee started to ask.

“No time for questions! Just come over here now!”, Kylee exclaimed and hung up.

Natalee just sat there. Why in the world would Lucia’s cousin want me, she thought. Natalee stood up and decided to find out.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Lucia,” Jovie whispered, “Wake up!”

Slowly my eyes opened. It was still pouring rain and very dark but I could tell that quite a lot of time had passed.

“J-J-Jovie?”, I asked. She widened her eyes.

“Lucia! You are feeling better! You’re awake!”, she exclaimed excitedly.

“Yeah, yeah, I feel much better. My head just hurts a bit.”, I said as I stood up.

“Thank GOODNESS you’re okay!”, Jovie exclaimed. I even laughed a little at that.

“Well don’t we need to get a move on?”, I asked. Jovie looked shocked.

“You feel that much okay? I mean, it is still pouring.”, she said. I interrupted her.

“Jovie, it’s not safe here.”, I said. She looked at me and stood up.

“Okay,” she whispered, “Let’s go.” I nodded and started to walk. Jovie followed. My head still hurt but I couldn’t tell her that.

The rain was still pouring down and I was walking toward the sound of that baby’s cry. I really wondered what that was all about. All I knew was that the sound was coming from the building up ahead of us. Other than that, I had no idea what the baby crying was all about.

Jovie followed at a bit of a distance. I think she thought I was a little odd, what with the fainting and then my insisting we walk especially in a downpour like this one. To tell you the truth, I thought I was a little odd too. I guess it was the baby’s cry. It was like it was a force, pulling me toward it.

Suddenly, we came to the building where the baby’s crying was coming from. I could see three people inside. A man and ... my parents!?

Jovie walked up beside me and stared at the group in front of us. A look of pure joy appeared on her face. There were two babies in the middle of the room, both looking to be about the same age.

“No Lillie, that’s NOT an option.”, the strange man said.

“But it has to be!”, my mom yelled at him. My dad hugged her.

“We have to make you disappear or your twins die!”, the man yelled. My mom let out a sob.

“Not Lucia! Not ... not Jovie!”, my dad yelled.

Wait! What?? Twins ... Lucia and Jovie ... WHAT? We snapped our heads toward each other.

“Lucia!”, Jovie whispered.

“We’re ...,” I continued.

“Sisters!!,” Jovie finished loudly.

Three heads turned toward us.





Chapter Seven

“Kylee, what is it?”, Natalee asked as she walked in the door of Lucia’s room. “Wow! What happened?”

“That’s what I need to know.”, Kylee said, standing in the middle of the bare room. “My Grandpa said it was ‘too late’ to help Lucia,” she continued, “So now I need your help. Did Lucia say anything to you?”

“Wait, wait, wait ... She’s just ... gone??,” Natalee asked.

“Yes! Now tell me, did Lucia say anything weird four days ago?!,” Kylee yelled.

“Okay! Okay! Ummm ... the only thing she said was that she was sad.”, Natalee said as she remembered again why she wasn’t friends with Kylee.

“Well, that isn’t much.”, Kylee said, disappointed.

“Kylee, if you really wanna us to be able to think, you need to do this ...,” Natalee said as she opened the window. “It’s burning up in here!,” she exclaimed. Kylee nodded her agreement.

“all right.,” Kylee said, “Let’s get to work.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Run!,” I whispered to Jovie. We both got up and sprinted around the house.

“Intruders!,” the man behind us yelled. He started running through the house.

“Here ... Hide ... underneath ... the ... next ... window!”, Jovie said, semi-loudly. I nodded. It was hard to talk while running.

We both slid to the ground under the window, pulling ourselves closely together, hiding there and trying not to breath so heavily.

Suddenly the man leaped out of the window and ran to the right in the direction away from where my ... OUR parents were. He never even saw us hiding right there.

I got up and started to sprint back the way we had come. I was going to talk to my ... or rather our, parents. Jovie was soon beside me.

“Where ... are ... you ... going?,” she asked, out of breath.

“Mom and dad!”, I responded. I could see her nod and start to run faster.

When we got to the window, we hopped through it and onto the floor below. Mom looked at us in shock. I put my hand on her mouth.

“I am Lucia. Lucia Annabelle Moore.”, I told her. I lifted my hand off her mouth.

“And I am Jovie Lee Hatten.,” Jovie said, stepping
forward.

“We got here through the room, and we think we are your daughters.,” I finished. Mom looked like she was about to cry as she came to us and hugged us both.

“Come on,” she said, and started to walk. “We need
to hurry!,” my mom said facing us. Jovie and I looked at each other, shrugged, and started to follow her. My dad picked up the two babies and then we all started to run.







Chapter Eight

“So explain to me one more time?,” Jovie asked. We were in a car traveling on a country road. We had been in the car for four hours.

“Well, the room is like a super room. It can bring you to the past, present or future. The power of this room is passed down through the family. Therefor, I, who had the power, lost it when you were born.,” my mom explained again.

“So Dad doesn’t have, or never had, the power?,” I asked. Mom nodded.

“Correct. Anyway, whenever there are twins that the power is passed to, something different is added to the way it works. The twins have to be together in order for the room to work. But there are people out there who don’t want our family to use this power that can save the world. So they attempted to separate the two of you and it worked for 13 years.”

“But then we found each other.,” Jovie said, smiling at me. I grinned back.

“I still have a question though.,” I asked.

“What Luce?,” Mom said.

“How did we both end up on the beach when we weren’t together?,” I asked. Mom sighed.

“Okay. Now, when somebody with the power turns 13 and they don’t know that they have it yet, they get transferred to the beach. Which is how you and Jovie met up with each other. That’s why your Grandpa, Lucia, and your Grandma, Jovie, were so tense. You see, that guy that was just chasing you two, he was actually the man who pretended to be your Grandpa. He and his wife pretended to be your Grandpa and Jovie’s Grandma.”, she finished. Jovie and I gasped.

“They were exiled from the family for using the power for evil deeds.,” Mom explained.

“So they were former holders of the power?,” Jovie asked.

“My own brother Luke. First born in my generation, so I never should have gotten the power. But then when they were exiled, the power became mine. I was going to use it for good, unlike my brother.,” Mom said.

“We’re here!,” Dad announced.

“Here? Where?,” Jovie and I asked at the same time.

“At the house with the original room.,” Mom answered. “If you girls will take us back to the present, to 2005, all this stuff will end. We would never ‘die’, and Luke and his wife, Jessica, will be erased forever.,” Mom continued.

“Like off the face of the Earth?,” I asked. Mom nodded.

“We can then live as a family with no disturbances, as long as you take us back with you. But everyone you have encountered in your life while living with Luke and Jessica will no longer know you. Any efforts being made to search for you will be halted and the people that are searching for you right now will be transported back to the time before they knew you.,” Mom explained.

“All our friends won’t remember us?,” Jovie asked. Mom once again nodded.

“Anything to be with you, Mom and with Dad.,” I replied.

“Me too!,” Jovie said.

“Then let’s go!,” Dad yelled. And with that, we went into the house and up to the third floor attic bedroom.





Chapter Nine

“all right.,” Mom said. “Think of us all together in the present 2005!,” Mom said excitedly. Jovie and I nodded and stood in the middle of the room, holding hands as Mom instructed us to do. Dad opened the window and we started to wish.

Suddenly I could feel it again. The birds flying. I popped open my eyes to see everyone looking at the birds. They encircled us, and then they all suddenly flew right at us.

BAM!

Mom, Dad, Jovie and I all collapsed to the floor.

“Did we do it?? Are we back?!,” Jovie asked almost immediately. I looked at the calendar on the wall. It said ... 2005!

“We’re back!,” I shouted.

“Yeah!,” Mom yelled.

“You did it!,” Dad screamed. We all hugged each other as we celebrated. Together, as a family once again.

I looked up to see one little bird flying down and suddenly becoming a flat, two-dimensional bird. I picked it up.

“What’s this?,” I asked. Mom looked up.

“Ahhh, ... you get a new bird each time you complete a mission.,” she explained. Jovie came to me and we held it in our hands together.

“One little bird.,” we said together. And then we hugged each other for a long time.


THE END![/u][/size]