Open In A Week

[Elise Ito]

The air was still crisp as Elise walked out to the lawn and laid down in the middle of the grass. She had Nyx with her of course but she had let her bird fly freely for now as she felt her body fully relax. She had expected her bad mood about Ezra not being at school to pass overnight. But it had been a few days, and while the weight on her heart was lifting it still clung to her at times and she wasn't sure why. She had always considered herself independent and sometimes found his protective nature a bit suffocating. She should feel free, but instead it felt like loss. She closed her eyes and listened to the sound of the breeze in the grass and the faint conversation of others in the distance. She thought of her mother and took in a sharp breath. She hadn't thought about her in a while and that made her feel guilty. Maybe that was what was haunting her? Maybe her body couldn't tell the difference between someone being gone and being dead? She wasn't sure why, she didn't feel that way about her dad or anyone else in her family. There were a lot of questions swirling in her head and she didn't like most of them. Instead she tried to focus on the current moment and things she could physically feel. The cold, the blades of grass tickling her ears. She imagined herself laying here forever and wondered how long it'd take her to turn into dirt.