Her Skin Translucent Like Wax Paper

     "Don't do it!" Jade screams as loudly as she can manage, desperately running towards the edge of the cliff where her newest best friend, Tiffanny, stands. Jade gasps for breath, her lungs burning from all the running, but she doesn't dare slow her pace until she has her hands squeezed tightly around Tiffanny's arms, shaking her almost violently in attempt to wake her from whatever world she's in, the daze that brought her to this spot.
     "Tiffanny!" she begs, her voice not a notch quieter than before. "You have to listen to me. You can't do this!"
     Nothing.
     Tiffanny doesn't move an inch, doesn't flinch. Her eyes are unfocused, a pit of nothingness that seems to go on forever. No look of recognition registers in her face, and for a second Jade is hurt that she seems to have no effect on her friend at all. She blinks back tears, because right now, she has to make her friend see the light in this world. That things aren't all tragedy and tears.
     She cups Tiffanny's face in her hands, praying her eyes will find hers. She notices how pale her face is, her skin translucent like wax paper. Her lips, a bright crimson red from the blood smeared across it. She must have been biting on them, hard.
     Finally, Tiffanny's eyes seem to meet hers, but it's almost like she is looking through her, not at her. Still, it's such an accomplishment from a moment before that Jade can't help but feel somewhat relieved. Almost instantaneously, that feeling is washed away like the waves crashing onto the shore far, far below her, because Tiffany decides to speak, a whisper escaping from her barely moving lips. It takes a moment for Jade to really hear the words, let them sink in.
     "Why?"

Sound of Heavy Footsteps

     I chew nervously on my nails, the result them ending in short ragged stubs. My nerves have got the best of me, and despite having gotten a manicure just two days ago, I have scraped every last bit of polish off my nails. It would be a miracle in itself if I don't get poisoning from all the nail polish I digested.
     Actually, it wouldn't be a miracle. Quite the contrary, it would be beyond my wildest dreams if things ended as simple and as peaceful as that.
     I raise my head to the heave thuds of footsteps outside my door. I know the guards walk that way on purpose, making all that unnecessary noise as a constant reminder that I am trapped, confined and powerless. Most importantly, the sound of the heavy footsteps are there to remind me that there is no escape. No hope. No chance of survival.
     My fate is currently being debated by the city council. I'm the most problematic issue they've had to discuss in years. The entire city is divided in opinion. Not on whether I should live or not. No, everyone seems to agree death is my consequence. The debate is on how I should be killed. My guess is, they'll decide on the most brutal torture they can come up with.
     I go back to biting my nails.

In the Wild

     I itch vigorously at my arms despite my mother's constant reminders not to do so. Another mosquito has bit me again, giving me my thirteenth mosquito bite in a single day. I had emptied an entire can of bug spray, covering every inch of exposed skin and yet those blood-sucking peeves won't leave me alone.
     I've begged my parents not to take me on this camping trip. I was perfectly happy sleeping on a comfortable mattress, taking warm showers and watching movies on a flat screen TV. But no, It won't be family time without you, they insisted. So now I'm stuck in the middle of nowhere with my odd family who considers a weekend without air-conditioning, internet or flushable toilets to be a "fun little adventure".
     So far, this trip has been anything but fun. I barely slept last night with my dad's headache-inducing snoring and my annoying little brother continuously kicking me in his sleep. And, I admit, I was too terrified to fall asleep in the wild with a tent as the only barrier against those ruthless animals and I. Coyotes. Grizzly bears. Big foot. Just one encounter with a massive beast and I'd be dead in a minute.
     Scratch that. More like a second.

Humument

A dove bolts into the air with mighty effort then plunges into the water.

That Feeling Again

     I remember, being young, everything being remarkably immense in my eyes. During the winter months, looking up at a Christmas tree in my living room was like looking up at a mountain. Things aren't really like that anymore, but when I knelt down beside a bush to catch a ladybug resting on its leaf, I got that feeling again. Suddenly, I wasn't in my back yard anymore. I was surrounded by a jungle.

Beyond the Bundle of Berries

     When you first look at something, you look at what's right in front of you. The eye catching. The obvious. If you stare for a while longer, though, watch more intensely, you notice things you haven't noticed before. When I first glanced at a bundle of berries, that's all I saw. Then I looked deeper and saw leaves. Quite colossal leaves, too. After a while, I took notice of something orange on the ground. It stood out from the dull, dirty brown mud. It was a long-lost letter, and that's how it all started.