A scene where something goes wrong

Stars going out woke me up.  Well, I don't know what woke me, but the sky was fading from deep blue to periwinkle in the dawning light of day, with faint traces of starlight still blinking here and there.  Although I often grumped when I was woken earlier than usual, today I jumped out of bed and ran to the window, because the sky looked strange.  An odd grey cloud appeared to be spiraling across it, and I knew it wasn't smoke.  It was something deeper, maybe smoke's toxic cousin.  I watched the grey smoke-like cloud float across the beauty of the dawn until I realized that my gut was signaling my head and the signals were all bad. 

I pushed off from the window frame and dashed to my wardrobe.  A grey shirt, grey boots, grey clothing fell down onto me.  I scooped them up and tossed them aside.  My nightdress was exchanged for a violet shirt and a dark blue skirt.  My short boots I pulled on as I hopped toward the door.  After wrestling with the handle in the semi-darkness I scooted out into the hallway and ran awkwardly down the stairs while braiding my hair. 

Jereese was opening the curtains downstairs but didn't bother to ask why I went hurtling through to the back of the house.  She was used to my impulsive ways after knowing me my whole life.  My feet took me out the back door and toward the garden.  When I reached an open space with no shadows, I took a breath and looked up at the sky.  No, I hadn't imagined it.  In fact, the smoke spiral had become awesomely longer than I'd seen from my bedroom window.  My gut tightened again and I knew for certain this wasn't just some smoke from an early riser or the baker's.  It was a warning, but against what, I couldn't say.