The Brightest Dawn

Faster! Faster!

Dawn mentally admonished herself for leaving cardio out of her weekly workouts. Any gym she'd find herself in when she was on her trips served her well enough to tone her arms, legs, and core but she would always look at the treadmill with pure disdain. Her reason being that she could never foresee having to run for her life and yet, there she was. If she somehow managed to escape, she vowed to herself to run three miles every day.

Focus, dummy! Dawn thought, realizing there were more important things at hand. She had been foolish to run towards the lake behind her parents' house instead of towards the road where she could've begged into someone's car and made a quicker getaway. Now, she had to figure out how to maneuver through these woods to get to someone's house and away from her psychotic mother. But it wasn't really her mother was it? Was this like a real life case of the body snatchers? Dawn nearly tripped over an exposed tree root.

Ugh, c'mon, she chided herself. Escape first, ask questions later.

She finally came upon the edge of the lake. It could've been as big as four football fields laid side by side and Dawn knew it to be a lovely sight on any other day except this one. She didn't have time to gawk at the lush greenery. She needed to make a decision on which direction to go. From the right, Dawn could hear rustling among the trees and the chill in her spine that she'd managed to ignore as she ran crept back to the forefront of her mind.

"Dawn..." her mother's singsong voice drifted towards her. "Dawna-Fawna sweetie pie... come out, come out, wherever you are..."

Silent tears fell from Dawn's eyes. Never in a million years could she have imagined having to run from her mother, her hero, her best friend but the menace in Diana's voice as she taunted her daughter was unmistakable. The urge for self-preservation took over and, within seconds, Dawn took off running to her left and away from the sound of snapping twigs and her psycho mother. She pushed herself harder, having caught her second wind. The first house came into sight and Dawn decided to take a chance, veering away from the lake and sprinting at full speed towards it. She could still hear the scornful voice behind her but she tried to tune it out- that was not her mother. Dawn noticed a fallen branch in front of her and readied herself to easily jump over it but as her right foot met the soft dirt in front of it, it felt like she hit a spring board. In the blink of an eye, Dawn was being propelled through the air in a massive arc, arms and legs flailing and a horrified expression on her face. She landed gracelessly on the roof of the house which, luckily, was not severely slanted. She scrambled to the front side of the roof when she saw her mother emerge from the trees, peering ever so slightly over the top.

Could she have seen me in the air? Dawn wondered. Her dark brown eyes followed Diana's every movement as the older Goulding woman slowly stalked up the small house. From her aloft position, Dawn couldn't tell what her mother was doing once she got right up to the back wall but she could hear her footsteps moving around the side and to the front of the house. Dawn tried to ease herself over the apex of the roof as quietly and covertly as possible. She heard the doorbell and a short minute later, someone opened the front door and Dawn clenched her eyes shut, hoping beyond hope that her mother wouldn't kill whoever was inside and chop them up into little pieces like her poor father.

"Hello, I'm sorry to bother you," Diana said sweetly. "I live a little ways around the lake and I'm looking for my daughter. She's just a little taller than me, brown skin and black box braids down her back... She was wearing a pink t-shirt."

"No, I'm sorry," the homeowner said with regret. "I actually haven't seen anyone pass by all day. But I'll keep an eye out for you. What'd you say her name was?"

"Dawn. Dawn Goulding. I'm Diana Goulding and thank you for looking out."

"Not a problem. Hope you find her safe and sound."

The door shut and Dawn watched her mother retreat from the house and down the driveway. She ducked down, pressing into the roof to lay as flat as possible, just in case Diana decided to look upward. She counted to one hundred before daring to peek over the apex again. Diana was gone and Dawn breathed a sigh of relief. Her relief was short lived, however, because she was still stuck on top of a stranger's roof. She heard the sound of a door opening from the back side of the house.

"Um, hey, Dawn." It was the same voice that had answered the door a minute ago. "Whenever you're ready, you can come down. She's gone now."

Dawn peered down at the yard and saw a woman with one hand on her hip and the other shielding her eyes from the sun. She hesitated. "I'm not sure I can. Do you have a ladder lying around somewhere?"

"If you got yourself up there, don't you think you can get yourself down?"

"I got myself up here?" Dawn let out a humorless laugh.

"Just jump down and trust that your body won't let itself crash into the ground."

"Lady, who even are you?" Dawn asked, suddenly on high alert. "How did you know my name and how'd you even know I was up here?"

"I heard you from my kitchen," the stranger replied. "As for the rest, I'll tell you once you come down."

That response irked Dawn but, honestly, she was ready to not be on a roof anymore. She adjusted herself so that she sat with her feet anchored on the rain gutter and her knees were under her chin. The lady said to trust herself to not go splat on the ground... but isn't that what happened when things are flung from on top of buildings?

"Come on, Dawn. It's only a one story house. You can do it."

"Easy to say when you're the one on the ground," Dawn mumbled as she closed her eyes. She tried to clear her mind and focus on her own body; she tried to recall the feeling she had on the way up here but it was unlike anything she'd ever felt before. It was like there had been an invisible magnet pushing her from the ground and up into the air. Maybe she could imagine the magnet was pulling her towards the ground instead... With her eyes still closed, Dawn stood precariously on the rain gutter and put her hand on her chest where she'd felt that magnetic feeling the most. She felt the gutter leave her feet, a slight breeze across her cheeks and arms. Was she floating? More importantly, was she floating in her desired direction?

Right, focus, on where you're trying to go. Dawn envisioned the short distance between the roof and the woman in the yard and felt her heart tugging at her in a downward and slightly right direction.

"Dawn, open your eyes."

She did. And found herself face to face with the stranger of the house. She couldn't help but smile. She did it!

"You've still got about six more inches to go."

Dawn looked down to see her feet hovering just above the short cut grass. With her focus shot, she landed on the ground hard, stumbling just a bit. Despite herself, Dawn laughed. "I did it! I, I... I flew?"

"Yes," the woman said with a smile. "Yes, you flew. And that's only the beginning, Dawn."

"Only the beginning?" Dawn asked incredulously. "In the few hours I've been awake today, my boyfriend turned into a rage machine, my mother has become a murderous cannibal, and I'm defying the laws of gravity. I can't imagine what else there could possibly be."

Placing a sympathetic hand on Dawn's shoulder, the stranger's smile grew serious. "Let's get inside. This is something you'll want to sit down for. Do you like tea?"