1 Waking Up

Bzzz bzzz bzzzzzz bzzzzzz

A buzzing sound pervaded the small space. The walls vibrating slightly. There was a girl sleeping in the middle of the room on a pile of rubble that resembled a bed. The pillows and blankets long since turned to dust.

There were old picture frames along the walls, and the remnants of what must have been a bookshelf. As the noise got louder, she seemed to curl further into herself, trying to escape the noise. Her hair was a beautiful honey blonde and fell to her back in soft curls, she looked around fifteen years old.

"Would you just shut up!" Annabelle's voice shook the room. Almost causing it to collapse.

The noise continued.

"Oh my god!" When she realized the noise wasn't going away, she opened her eyes in annoyance. Looking around for the source.

"The hell?" She was surprised by her surroundings.

'What in the world? Why are the windows covered in dirt? Why is my bed rubble? What the hell!? Joe! I know he was annoyed last week when I had the football team move his smart car into the school's lounge, but this is way too elaborate, he wasn't that angry! Lizzy must be in on it…'

'The heck! I haven't pranked them that much; this is way overboard!' She was moving towards the window closest to her as she thought this.

"Very funny guys." She muttered under her breath as she walked to the window. Ready to take the picture off the sill.

'I can't believe they took advantage of my family being gone to get into my room to prank me.'

"OWW!" She screamed as she fell to the floor clutching her foot. Using every swear word in the book, she waited until the pain had subsided.

"Joe, Lizzy, what the hell! Did you have to put trash all over my room? At least my pranks didn't hurt anyone!" She had stepped on the jagged edge of a board that was about the size of a small pen.

'If I knew for sure those jerks weren't watching I'd just use my powers to fix this but knowing Lizzy she has at least one camera here to see the result of their prank. Well I guess I'm just going to do this the hard way.'

She gently gripped the piece of lumber and started working on pulling it out slowly.

'%#!! THAT HURT!' It had only gone in about a quarter of an inch, but splinters were left behind.

"Joe, Lizzy, when I find you, I'm going to kill you!!"

She hurled the wood across the room and got up. Being careful not to put too much weight on her foot. She slowly made her way to the closest window. This time watching the ground and making sure not to step on anything.

'What?' The window looked weathered, even though the building had only just renovated her floor's windows. As she was looking at the window a worm wiggled onto the glass.

'No way…' She rubbed her eyes and looked again, just in time to see the worm wiggle away. She stumbled back, tripping and landing on her butt.

"No way…" She got up, and ran to her door, tripping over a few things on her way. Throwing the door open she went into the living room. The windows there were also covered in dirt, some of them were even broken and soil had come into the room.

"No, no, no, no…"

'Okay, calm down…'

"WHAT THE HELL!!!" She paced around the room, avoiding the piles of debris and ignoring the injury on her foot. "Don't panic, don't panic, don't panic…"

'Mustn't panic, mustn't panic, AHHHHH!'

She giggled suddenly after remembering that line. 'Okay, deep breaths… Just start with healing your foot, dummy, then focus on the questions…'

After calming down she sat down tried to heal her foot. 'The heck? Why is my power not working?'

She tried again this time focusing as hard as she could. After a few minutes she gave up, sprawling flat on her back. "Well that's just great..."

After what felt like an hour she sat back up and started thinking about her situation. She tore off a piece of fabric from her pajamas in order to tie it around her foot.

'Okay, so something happened, but what, and why didn't I wake up… Also, why the heck does it seem like I am underground. If I am underground is it possible for me to get out of the building? If not, I'm screwed.'

She laughed dryly. 'Alright, up or down?'

She thought up while looking to her left and looked right when she said down. 'Time for a game of eenie meenie minie moe…'

A few seconds later moe landed on down. 'Downstairs it is, if not then I get to walk all the way to the up…'

She was only about a quarter of the way up, so it would be easier to go down. If she was lucky, otherwise she'd have to go up twenty floors.

A quick glance around the living room told her there was nothing salvageable. Another into her room revealed the same thing. She walked across the floor to her parent's room and opened the door.

It was the same there, except there was one picture of her family that had managed to survive.

Her parents had placed it in a silver frame, the frame had clearly corroded over time, but the picture was more or less still in okay condition. It had started to crinkle, and she could tell it was on its last legs, but she could still make out her parent's standing with her and her older brother in front of her school.

It had been her graduation day, and her brother had taken her.

She had been under the assumption that her parents wouldn't be able to make it, but they had surprised her with a last-minute appearance. Barely making it in the doors as she was called up to accept her diploma.

Her mother's gentle smile, and her father and brother grinning like mad men in the picture.

'That was a day.'

She smiled before gently taking the picture and leaving the room.

'Alright, now the kitchen.' She was trying to ignore her foot, but it was a getting hard. The stupid thing was starting to really hurt, but there wasn't much she could do.

There was no first aid kit, no pain medication, nothing. After finding nothing in the kitchen she gave up on the apartment. As she started to the front door she murmured.

'Time to explore.'