Lost Goddesses Chapter 1
| The baby girl opened her eyes. She looked at the beautiful face of the woman holding her and gave a large yawn before she closed her eyes again. “Sleep,” the woman whispered. “Go to sleep.” The little girl was lovingly cradled against the woman’s breast, and slowly drifted into a deep sleep listening to the steady thump of the woman’s heartbeat. The baby girl felt herself be placed on a soft bed next to four others her age, all already dreaming deeply. The last thing she heard before slipping completely into darkness was the woman muttering softly, “Sweet dreams, my darling Dierlia.” The baby Dierlia was awoken again not long after. She grumpily opened her eyes, expecting to see the woman’s smiling face, her warm bottle of milk ready. But she only saw darkness. Startled by these unfamiliar surroundings, she tried to move, to cry, only to discover her hands had been bound behind her back and a piece of cloth was tied over her mouth. Now very scared, she wished to be back in the woman’s caring arms, back in her soft, warm bed, not in this strange, dark place with four other tiny bodies pressed up against hers. Regardless of the cloth and ropes, a large jolt of whatever she was in caused her to start crying and resisting against her bonds. Her small movements awoke the others, who were equally as scared and confused as she. The jostling was constant now, as if what she was inside of was now traveling quickly. The cloth tied around her mouth was apparently done so loosely, as it had been bounced down enough to encircle her neck. Sensing that her mouth was free, she opened it wide and wailed, “Maamaaaa!!” She was about to yell again when two things happened at once. A man’s voice yelled, “Shut up, you little brat!” and she was struck from outside of what she was in. She cried out in pain as the jostling quickened. Louder than the man’s yelling, the sounds of the woman’s piercing screams of fury could be heard. “Shit!” Dierlia heard the man mutter. She felt one large, last bounce before she and the four other little ones felt as if they were falling…falling…falling forever. “NOOOOoooooo……” the woman’s loud mournful wail quickly faded as the baby girl fell further away… “…ber…ember…” A girl heard a woman’s voice out of the darkness. “…ember…wake up…” The girl felt herself be gently shaken awake, as the feeling of falling slowly faded away. “November…wake up, honey.” November slowly opened her eyes. She rubbed them open to discover she was still in her mother’s van, sleeping in the passenger seat. No darkness…no bodies pressed against hers…no falling feeling. Had that been a dream? It felt too real to be one. Her mother’s voice interrupted her thoughts. “November, honey. We’re almost there.” November left the thoughts of the strange dream alone enough to remember that her mother was driving…where? Ah yes…she remembered sulkily. To the new house. She stretched herself, arching her back like a cat, trying to get the leftover sleep out of her body. She didn’t want to be in this strange new place, with new people and new everything else. She wanted to be back in her old house, in her old room, with her old friends. She yawned as a response to her mother’s statement. Staring straight at the dashboard of the van, November tried to interpret the strange details of her dream. Why was she in the body of a little girl? Who was the woman holding her? Who were the four others? Obviously, she and they had been kidnapped. But by whom? And why? She had never been kidnapped in her life, had she? She would have had clearer memories of it. And why had she fallen for so long? The stopping of the van made November dismiss it as another of her strange dreams. “We’re here,” her mother said, taking the key out of the ignition. “Goodie,” November said sarcastically as she grabbed her purse and duffel bag before opening her door. The first thing she noticed when she stepped foot inside the two-story house was the smell of cardboard. There were boxes everywhere. Her mother and father had obviously not unpacked yet. He and her older brother would be arriving later in the week. “November, sweetheart, you can put your stuff in your room, it’s the first door at the top of the stairs,” her mother said from an echoing kitchen. November picked her duffel back up and sighed, trudging up the stairs without bothering to take off her sandals. She at least wanted her golden retriever, Sirius, with her, but he had to stay with her brother until everything was unpacked. She opened the door of her new room and dropped her bags on the floor before falling onto her mattress. The sheets weren’t on it yet; they were still on one of the boxes littering her room. It didn’t seem like her room. The walls were naked, covered only by a solid coat of light blue paint. Her furniture was clustered in the middle of the soft white carpet, waiting to be placed into their permanent homes. Her bookcase was strangely empty, and all her clothes were crudely stuffed into a box somewhere. She gazed longingly out the window next to her bed, wishing she could fly into the moonlight back to her real house, back to where she could be seen as more than just a shy, homesick 14-year-old girl. She remembered hearing her mother bustling downstairs and wondering if she could ever truthfully call this place home before falling into a dreamless sleep. |