Chapter 2, getting to know about me.

As it got dark, I got up from where I sat, a giant rock rising above the sea. "It's getting late.. Aren't your parents worried sick?" Alice asked. "I guess, so long as I don't get lost or anything, they're fine with it."
We met up almost everyday now, from dusk, she'd be at my balcony, and I'd sit outside with her, and we'd talk about almost everything and anything. My parents didn't know about this, though. Somehow I felt that I shouldn't tell them. Not yet, anyway. Sometimes Alice would come before dawn, and I'd accompany her till sunrise. I wondered why she always had to leave urgently. After all, no one knows that she was still alive. I noticed something else, though. These frequent rushing here and there although her footsteps were always silent, and she seemed to melt into the shadows after she'd climbed down the staircase from my balcony to the ground level.. There was just something about the grace with which she moved


At first it didn't bother me. I thought that she was just good at staying hidden. It was only after a few weeks that got me thinking. I couldn't find much, and I tried surfing the net. I didn't get much information, though. I was determined to ask her one day. But, what if, she was really dead? Couldn't be, I said, shrugging the matter off. I yawned sleepily as I hopped into my bed, pulling my covers till it reached my chin. Nanami has already jumped onto my bed, pacing about, finding a comfortable spot to lie down. "Hey Nana, you still remember Alice, don't you?" I asked Nana, while gazing up to my ceiling. She whined and snuggled up beside me. Though Alice made a point to visit me almost everyday, the fear in me, of losing her again, was edged into my mind. I didn't want to lose her, not ever again. I drifted to sleep not long after, dreaming of the past. Walking hand-in-hand to school when we were in elementary school. Being 17 this year, it wasn't really relaxing, juggling with a part-time job and high school work. I dreamt of us together, watching that movie that we've been dying to see, until you told me you were leaving to another country. With a blink of an eye, you disappeared into thin air, and the surroundings changed. From a bubbly cafe into a dark, lonely outstretched road. I was struggling to breathe, and there I was, falling, just falling into the darkness.


I woke up crying. I didn't want her to leave me. She was always there for me, even though we fought over stupid things like, Peaches taste better than Apples. And how you looked better in pink and not red. That night, I was consumed in my own world. Thinking of what to say, or what really happened to her. But it was of no use, it was exactly like a fish out of water. Alice, on the other hand, fished out a topic easily. That night, we watched the stars glimmer and shine in the pitch-black sky. After Alice left that morning, I walked downstairs woozily. My parents noticed that I looked a little paler these few days, and energy drained away, like a lifeless zombie. I didn't realise that my looks had changed quite drastically, since I was so occupied with Alice, too occupied, that I've neglected not only my health and studies, but my family as well. Later on that day, I was still thinking hard. Could it be that this is a dream, a lie? The clues were there, always running away before the sun rose. I later then decided it didn't really matter, since Alice was here with me.

A knock on my door interrupted my thoughts which flowed endlessly. My head was hurting, and I felt exhausted. "Amber, Amber honey, open the door," was my mother's voice. "Coming, mother," I said, placing the pillow to one side of the bed, smoothing down my skirt as I made my way to the door. "Amber, hurry up," was what I heard before I was engulfed in darkness.