BANG
“Hello!? Anyone alive in there!?”
Antonia started her day with a rather fun awakening. After looking around wildly and trying to hide under her covers, she finally realised no one was trying to break down her door, it was just someone obnoxiously knocking on her door. Toni groaned at her stupidity and laid back down, trying to rub the sleep out of her eyes. “Who is it!?” she yelled at the person irritably. It was too early for this!
“Who do you think it is?”
It took Toni a few seconds to figure it out, but when she realised who she grumbled a few words under her breath. Julie. It was Julie.
“Get up, get dressed, get moving! Justin wants to see you, now!” Julie barked at her.
“Alright, alright! Keep it down, I’ll be out in a minute!” Toni snapped back at her bitterly. With a small huff, Julie went back to her duties as a stable-hand. Once she had dispersed, Toni collapsed back on her pillow, her hair fanning everywhere. She hated mornings. Julie just made it worse, too.
About five minutes passed of her just laying there, so she finally decided it was a good idea to haul herself out of bed. After that ordeal with Julie, it was clear to her that staying here for the summer was an awful idea. Sighing, she absentmindedly threw on whatever clothes were closest to her, jeans and a plain old tank top apparently. She looked down at herself and shrugged, good enough!
Looking in the mirror and seeing the same old girl staring back was the worst part of the morning. She was tall and slender and her eyes have always been that same shade of deep blue-green, but what really struck Toni was her hair. It was very long, flowing well past her hips in gentle waves (her reasoning is she just doesn’t feel like ever cutting it), however the bizarre thing about it was how it was so light it looked pure white.
It really made her stand out from the rest of her family. Well, what used to be her family anyway. She blinked at her reflection. If only…
BANG
“GAH!” she shrieked as she leaped backwards, startled. Toni’s thoughts were interrupted once again by that same obnoxious knocking by that same girl who dropped by a little earlier.
“Antonia! It’s been ten minutes! Ten. Minutes!”
“Sorry, sorry! I’m coming!”
“Well hurry up!”
After taking one last glance at the mirror, she dashed outside to meet Julie, who was tapping her foot impatiently on the wooden porch. The way she was glaring down at her actually almost scared Toni, and she followed Julie with no questions asked.
Together, they walked down to the same place Toni had met Justin for the first time. In better light she could now truly see what the place looked like, but quite honestly she couldn’t care less about it. The only thing she could keep her eyes on was the dark bay horse tied peacefully to one of the many hitching posts of the stable, all saddled up and ready to go.
Toni leaned over and whispered in Julie’s ear, “is that my horse? The one I’ll be riding this summer?”
Julie shrugged back, “I don’t know. Probably.” she answered.
She clearly got over that anger this morning… Toni thought as the two stopped in the middle, where Justin turned to greet them. “Antonia! Glad you could make it.”
Julie huffed at both of them and then trekked her way back to the stables, where she resumed duty. At this Toni cracked the slightest smile. I guess she didn’t! Toni let out a small chuckle, man, that girl was sure annoying!
Justin smiled politely at her and beckoned her over with his hand. “Come over here and meet your horse!” he said.
Toni’s smile immediately fell back into a frown and her face paled a bit, her good mood dripping away. “U-uh…” she stuttered, “are you sure I should be riding a horse, I mean I could just-”
“Antonia,” he cut her off, “I’m certain you’ll be fine. Sienna is a very trustworthy horse, she’d never hurt anyone on purpose. Besides, your father mentioned something about you having past riding skills?”
“Well, I guess…” she responded, but bit her lip in worry. Why would her father tell him that? The past was supposed to be past…
“Perfect. Now get over here!” he laughed. Toni sighed and trudged over to reluctantly join him. Rubbing her arm shyly, she scanned over all the little details of the horse. She felt her eyes suddenly widen.
Justin grinned and gently patted the horse. “I’d like you to meet Siennasecret, your horse for the summer. I think you’ll really like her…”
But Toni didn’t hear a word he said, instead she stared at the horse with her wide eyes, and suddenly her horse was staring right back at her. Her heart dropped. Sienna’s large eyes were dark amber, and staring into them told Antonia that something was horribly wrong. It suddenly felt as though she could see into future, because this twisted island’s fate was about to come crashing down.
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