It was painful, not the kind of I fell out of a tree and broke my arm kind of pain, but more like the world split apart and I am looking into a dark chasm of burning wreckage, blinking back salty tears filled with every emotion I had ever experienced kind of pain. I forgot to breathe, I forgot how to speak, not a single thought in my mind the emotions, more powerful than the explosion that just took everything from me. My parents, my sister, my dog, a smoldering black hole that erased the center of my universe. My life destroyed, left in a pile of ashes blowing in the wind.
I should by all logic be a burning corpse as well, except I wasn't a corpse, I was breathing, but to say I was alive, well I wasn't. An emptiness that I had never felt before smothered my joy, my heart, my soul. It made me wish for death, to join them, to change time, a thousand possibilities, but I just wanted to be any where and anyone but me.
My only goodbye was a slamming door, leaving behind my family and my life behind my final words, filled with anger “ I hate you!” Those were the last words my family heard as I stormed off after my parents and I fought, yet again, over me going to a party or maybe it was because my shorts were too short, I cant really remember now. Their last memory of me was a slamming door and those three horrible words.
“Why can’t I go on a camp out with my friends?” I screamed much louder than I had intended at my mother.
“You know why, there will be no adults, its not safe to go off in the woods alone.” My mother sighed. It was another battle of wills between us, and I would not let her win this one.
“I will be fine, stop treating me like a child, am an adult!” The tears of frustrations welled in my eyes.
I knew I had pushed the wrong button when I saw my mothers eyes narrow.
“You are only 17, you are not an adult yet. I am done, I love you too much to argue.” She turned back to scubbing pots with a sigh.
“You are the worst mother ever, I hate you!” I instantly felt guilt over my words, but I didn’t back down. I stormed out of the kitchen, grabbing my bag and crashing into my sister in the process.rther anger me.

“Owe! Mom!” She exclaimed with a whining tone to get voice that only served to further anger me.
“Get out of my way you freak.” I glared at her. “I hate you!” I screamed in one final atempt to make my point and I slamed the door behind my self. I heard glass breaking and my mom’s, I knew that the force of the slamming door had knocked the vase off the shelf by the door. I didnt care, i dint want to hear what she had to day.
I stormed by my dad who was working in the yard. He had tried to speak to me, but I ignored him and I moved away from my home as fast as I could. my childhood home, we had lived there as long as I could remember, every memory i had was of that home. Now I was certain that it was gone with the rest of my town.
My knees began to shake, like that nasty green jello with carrots mom always made, mom, my mom. My dad. My sister. My house. My dog. Gone. I sat here on my rock, aching for a chance to turn back time. At the top of the hill where I can see the world, my world, and my rock. A place where I had sat so many times before, a place that normally brought peace and inspriration, failed to bring me anything. Like a doll left by a forgetful child, I am alone.
I kicked at the ground, spraying pebbles and dirt on to my sketch book, laying in the dust where I dropped it. Always with me, I filled it with dreams and drawings. Sketches of what ever inspired me or like today angered me. Following me through my life, today that was up the hill, and to my rock, a place where I had spent many hours drawing. Today joined the rest in my past as I stormed up the hill like a out of control tornado, threw my bag on the ground and sat sulking on my rock. Eventually a bird peaked my interest and i dug my sketch book and a pencil from my bag and started drawing.
At first hadn't noticed the low rumble that echoed in the distance, a dump truck a semi, they all sounded like that when they lumbered down the road at the bottom of the hill. Except this time the sound didn't fade off into the distance, the sound got louder, like a thousand bumble bees buzzing over my head and i looked up and what I saw confused me. Three airships hovered silently in formation all focused on one direction, Edenburough, my town, my house, my school, my life.
Black wasps of death, they moved to the center of my town pausing for  they shot straight up until they almost touched the clouds. Hovering for a split second they dropped their fierce payloads, three gourd shaped black objects tumbled towards the earth below, and i realized what was happening. Gourds of ashes, in a split second, thats all they left, ashes and smoke, with skeletons of broken buildings littering the edges of the past.
My mouth fell open, a scream spilled out, and the world ended in one second of silent destruction.  Knocking me to the ground with my terror echoing around me, with no one to pick me up, leaving the pieces of my life falling around me in silent ashes.

Time is a comedy that ends each day full of tragedies and errors, sometimes it moves faster than you want it and other times it creeps painfully by.  Today it just stood still and I stood with it. Barely breathing, just staring at paper memories, written on the pages of the story of my life, but my story wasn't what it should have been, nothing i ever dreamed it would become. Ashes and tears were all that was left.
I curled into a ball and for the first time in forever, I cried, deep sobs of anguish poured from me. There was no one to hear, so it didn't mater that I wailed like an injured animal. I cried until there were no more tears left to cry, my eyes burned and my head throbbed, and i just lay there whimpering with snot running from my swollen nose,while tears streamed down my puffy face.
I got lost in time and fell asleep, waking to a silent night. No chorus of crickets, no low hoots of the owls, not a single sound except my own breath that kept reminding me that I was alone.
The morning woke me with a gentle nudge, coaxing me to life. The morning came, the birds sang, the sun shone, just like any other normal day.  Sitting up, I awoke, confused and alone. It wasn't a normal day though, the ache in my chest told me otherwise. There were no more tears to cry, my tongue felt like sandpaper, and my memories reminded me that my life would never be the same again.
Shivering from the chill of the morning dew, pulling the twigs and bits out of my hair, I looked again in the direction of home, but home wasn't there, No flickering street lights, no cars zipping people to their jobs, nothing but desolation.

I watched tiny ant danced at the top of a green blade waving in the breeze, back and forth, and back again until it dropped off on the ground below.
A gentle breeze amde me shiver and filled my nostrils with an abomination to my senses. Heavy, thick, and almost putrid, it wafts by me. It was a smell I am not sure i would ever forget. An awful, acrid odor coming from what was left of my home. My home, my chest heaved as sobs filled my throat, though I had no tears left to cry, I had cried a river that had long since run dry.
Nightmares that haunted my dreams did’nt go away when I woke up, they were still here and I was still alone. A child who only wanted my mother to wrap her arms around me, to comfort my pain and to fix what was wrong. My mother wasnt here, she was at home, if home still existed. The smoke had cleared enough for me to catch sight of something that gave me hope. Hope stood in the form of a few houses, still standing at the edge of town! Hope had found me, and I embraced it with everything I had left in my soul.
All I knew is home, so  I gathered my bag, and a tiny drop of courage I had and made my way towards my home. I didn’t know what else to do or where else to go, maybe my home had been spared from the bombs that tore through my life.  So down the dirt path I went, stumbling on rocks and twigs as I made my way back to my home. When I finally emerged from the woods, I saw that Edenburough had why fallen under a deathly hush and not even the breeze dared whisper.
A whirlwind of bombs ripped my little town apart - peeling roofs off buildings like the lid from a sardine can, scattering glass like rainfall, and cutting through human lives like the most vengeful of tornadoes. Leaving only me to wander through its broken pieces of concrete and glass.
The silence protested as I made my way through the debris, breaking the silence like the thousand shards of glass under my feet. Echoing through broken bones of my town, I held my breath with each step.
Sulfur, dust, and the faint smell of food cooking permeated my nostrils. The smell of food confused me as there didn’t seem to be anyone left to cook anything. If there was, it meant that people survived the blast. Perplexed and hopeful, I followed the smell, but I found nothing. Turning on my heel in the direction of my home, my foot caught something sticking out from the rubble and I fell. I went down, hard, crashing into broken glass on the ground and cutting my hands in the process.
“Damn it” I swore, as I looked back at what had been in my path.
 A seconond was enough for me to wish I hadn't looked back. A second to make the bile rise up in my throat and vomit spill on the ground when I realized it wasn't food cooking I smelled, and it wasnt rubble I had tripped over. I had tripped over a body, unrecognizable, except for its shape, a charcoal shadow of a person, the mouth frozen open in a final scream. A scream that came from my own lips, echoing though the streets and I ran, as fast as I cold back up the hill from where I watched the world end.

That is how I ended up at the top of this hill, starting into space, clutching a bag full that carried nothing more than drawings and pencil. A mouse trembling by my rock, I sit beyond the sunset, staring at nothing or something all at once. I don't know how many times the sun made is journey across the sky, 2 maybe 3 times. I lost track, I know it must have been a long time because my lips were cracked, my stomach complains constantly that it is empty, but I have no power to move.
I must have fallen asleep again, as sleep was my only escape, but my escape was short lived, as sound intrudes my pain. Crunching leaves, breaking twigs, clumsy foot steps moved closer to me and my rock. My heart pounding,  my eyes search the darkness for the source of the sound. There is no where for me to run or hide to, I had nothing but  my bag, my sketch book and my pencil. Frantically dug my pencil out of my bag, gripping it in my hand like a knife I crouched by my rock waiting to do what, I wasn't sure.
Leaves crunching under feet was a normally the sound of a happy fall day raking leaves with my dad, then flinging ourselves in them joyfully as mom glares at us through the kitchen window.  Today that familiar crunching of fallen leaves only serve a purpose of making my heart beat like a rabbit running from a fox.
I don’t want to be alone anymore, I want those feet to belong to someone I know, but glancing in the direction of my home told me that that was literally impossible. Wild thoughts of who ever bombed my life away raced with my heart, competing for what was left of my sanity.
I slide my hand in my bag, gripping the only thing I have to improvise a weapon, my pencil. I flatten my body against my rock and I wait. I wait while the sound of leaves crunching underfoot grows louder and louder, and then they stop. All I heard was my heart beat, and slow, soft, masculine breaths. I knew it, I knew it was going to be me or him, I wasn't ready to die just yet, so I jumped and I yelled. I push all my energy into it, flying out from behind my rock like a girl possessed, pencil in hand, squeaking like a crazy mouse that had been stepped on, I fly at him. Whom ever, “he” is.
“Eeeeiiighhhhhhhh!!!” I squeal.
I ran at him, pencil in hand, flying as fast as my too  long legs would move. For a moment her stood there, in shock at the dirty crazy girl flying at him, I see who I was facing. A boy, maybe a couple years older than me, green eyes, tan, almost good looking, if he wasn't there to rob me, or kill me. I ran at him faster, stumbling on rocks and branches, I have never been graceful or athletic, that shows as my feet lost purchase on the ground below. Down I went, rolling, then flying face first into the remnants of a mud puddle, mostly dried out now. My body makes a sound I had never heard before, but it reminds me of the time I dropped a pudding cup on he kitchen floor. Only today instead of pudding, it was mud, and I was in it.
“What the hell are you doing?” He speaks his voice the first one I had heard in days. “Are you nuts?”
He reached for me, but I am not going to give him the upper-hand, so I slide away from him in a failed ninja move/somersault, holding my pencil in front of me ready to defend myself.
“Gahhh!” I grunt. I some how can not force words out of my mouth.
I breath sharp breaths through my mud covered lips, tasting the earthy grit on my teeth. I pushed my self back and in to a sitting position, still holding my pencil my muddy hands.
“Seriously?” he rolled his eyes at me. In one quick move he grabbed my pencil from my