Autumn Rose Kennedy's Story

Autumn awoke with a terrible headache. She looked around the lavishly decorated room. She was laying on a large white, queen-sized canopy bed adorned with beautiful decorative pillows. The walls were painted a beautiful shade of lavender, Autumn's favorite color. This was her dream bedroom. I room that existed only in her mind and yet every detail was exactly from her imagination. She was dressed in unfamiliar clothing, a pink tank top and black shorts. "Where am I?" she thought.
Suddenly she became very frightened because she couldn't remember anything.

"Think, Autumn! What is the last thing you remember...." She tried hard to think back as far as she could.

With great difficulty, Autumn remembered getting into the car with her mother, father, and younger brother to go out for a birthday dinner for her brother Andrew who was turning 14. She faintly remembered eating dinner and getting back in the car to go home but after that she couldn't remember anything.

It was then that Autumn noticed the bandage on her forehead. "I must have hit my head..." Autumn realized "By I still don't know where I am or where my family is or how I got here..."

Unsure of what to do and in too much pain to move, Autumn did the only thing she could think to do...cry.

Autumn looked at him startled. A thousand thoughts raced through her head. Mostly questions about wo this man was. Why she was here. Where her family was. It seemed as if he knew something but did not want her to know. The pain in her head was mostly gone but the ache in her heart was not. Autumn knew there was something very wrong. Her heart told her not to trust this man...this incredibly handsome man...but her heart told her differently. She wondered if the man meant her harm but suddenly she knew he didn't. He had been caring for her. She knew it in her heart. Autumn stopped crying and examined her caregiver.

He was handsome to say the least...his dark hair framed his face and covered one eye making him appear very mysterious. Adding to his mysterious appearence was a scar under his left eye and Autumn wondered how he got the scar. As she studied him she began to forget that she was in a strange place with a man she didn't know and no recollection of how she got there. She instantly trusted him.

Autumn's mother always worried that her trusting nature would bring her harm. Autumn had always believed the best about people. Even from a young age her mother would find her making conversation with complete strangers in the grocery store and would remind her to "never talk to strangers." That never worked with Autumn. She wanted to see the good in humanity so she simply ignored the bad in it.

The man turned to look at Autumn again and found her looking at him. "What is your name?" she asked.

Autumn laid there shocked as Nate told her what happened. Her whole family...gone. She wanted to cry but she was so shocked she couldn't. Nate left the room and she sat there thinking about how she would never see her family again...about her brother who bearly got to experience anything in his short life and tears finally fell down her cheeks. She never imagined she would be without her family. They had always been close. If there was a such thing as a perfect family Autumn probably had it. Her parents had been married for 22 years and they were still very much in love. Sure, they had their arguements but they always worked everything out and Autumn loved her little brother. They would tease each other like brothers and sisters did and Andrew could be annoying at times just like all little brothers but they were best friends. They told each other everything. Autumn couldn't imagine not sharing secrets with him ever again.

After 15 minutes of deep thought and a steady stream of tears down her face, Autumn quit had calmed down, interupted by a growling in her stomach. She wiped the tears from her face with a nearby tissue and debated with herself about if she should go down to the kitchen with Nate. Another loud growl and the pains of hunger silenced any doubts Autumn had about leaving her room and she began to make her way downstairs. The hallways and the lower floor were just as beautiful decorated as the room she had been in and Autumn thought how odd it was that a man owned this house because the decor was very feminine. "Maybe he has a girlfriend," Autumn thought. "Or judging by the size of this house he is probably very wealthy. Maybe he hired an interior designer."

After some difficulty navigating the large house Autumn found Nate sitting at the table listening to music. She sat down beside him. "Andrew isn't my boyfriend" Autumn explained. "He is....was...my brother."

Autumn began to eat the food he had given her. She was starving. She glanced at Nate as he ate his salad. It seemed to make him sick and he looked as if he was forcing himself to eat it. She thought about how odd that was as she ate her chicken nuggets. "Why would someone force themselves to eat food that they didn't like," Autumn wondered.

Lost in her thoughts, Autumn bearly heard Nate ask her name and age. "Oh. My name is Autumn." She said with a smile. "Autumn Rose Kennedy. I am 19."

Nate handed her a black bag and explain that the things inside were her belongings. She looked though the bag. Her cell phone. The charm bracelet her parents had given her for her high school graduation and various other items. She was glad she was able to keep some of her old things. It was nice knowing not everything from her past was gone completely. She clasped the bracelet around her tiny wrist and examined the charms. The first charm was a heart, representing her parents love for her, the second was a graduation cap, the third was a kitten, Autumn's favorite animal, the forth was was a sapphire, her birthstone, and final charm was a little red and white nursing cap that her parents gave her when she started nursing school.

Autumn looked up and Nate after examining her things. "Thank you for saving this. It's very special to me," She said smiling up at him, her eyes, looking like sparkling violet gemstones in the soft kitchen lights.

Autumn's face lit up when she saw the adorable puppy. She had always loved animal this is dog was by far, the cutest puppy she had ever seen. Autumn petted Dex's fluffy fur and giggled as he licked her face.

"He is adorable!" Autumn exclaimed.

Autumn sat Dex in her lap and then realized that she had never ask Nate his age. He appeared to be about her age but it was hard to tell sometimes. "I never asked your age." Autumn pointed out as she again studied his tall, handsome frame.

His beauty seemed impossible...even supernatural. She studied every detail of his muscular body before she realized that she had been checking him out. Never in Autumn's life had she looked at a guy so closely. She began to realize that she was attracted to her mysterious savior and began to blush brightly.

Autumn smiled at him. "You are pretty cute too."

She was glad to hear that he was her age. That made her feel less embarassed about finding him attractive. She was excited to go outside again. Autumn loved the outdoors. Especially flowers. Her favorite flowers were jasmine. The meaning behind Jasmine is grace and elegance. Graceful and elegant. That is what Autumn wanted to be though she doubted anyone would ever be able to use either of those words to describe her. She had been called pretty before but she never saw it. Autumn didn't see herself the way others saw her. She was much too modest recognize her own beauty.

Autumn giggled when Nate told her he had never had a dog and she took the leash and collar on the puppy and stood up, excited to smell fresh air again.

"Where are we going to walk to?" Autumn ask.

Jasmine flower