‘Wait. The… ground? How did I end up on the ground?’ I think, snapping my lids open once more. I lift my head. The slick mud sticks against the side of my cheek, making a sucking noise when I try to move, “Ick,” I say to myself, placing my hands palm down against the soil. When I push up, it comes to my attention that my golden bracelet is gone. I sigh, frustrated, and sit on my knees, wiping the wet dirt on my now dingy gown. I turn my head all around, taking in my surroundings; I sigh, “I guess that’s what happens when you run blindly through a storm in the middle of the night; you run into the middle of nowhere.”
After a while of skimming the room with my eyes, I stand up and look down at myself. My white dress is now brown, my arms and legs spotted with dirt, my toes caked with mud and a few blades of grass, and my once beautiful ringlets have died to straight frizzy tendrils, “A mess,” I mumble quietly to myself. A twig cracks in the forest to my left; I startle and gasp, darting my eyes left and right, “Who’s there?” I call.
No one responds.
“I said who… is… there?” I shout.
Silence.
I roll my eyes and walk forward a little to see if I can find anything that looks familiar, “Probably just a squirrel,” I conclude, “Now let’s see about getting home. I think I saw a- whoa!” Not even getting three feet away from where I was laying, I stumble over a deep hole in the ground, the same one I remember tripping in last night before blacking out. This time, however, my palms break my fall and I lay there abashed… even though there is no one around but me.
Something bright flashes to my right, capturing my attention. I gasp and my face lights up, grabbing for it and no longer caring about my little incident, “My bracelet!” I cry with joy, looking it over; the grin fades, “…is broken.” I groan and get back up to my feet, “Could today get any worse? I mean. I wake up on the-!”
The twig cracks again and I glare in the direction of the sound, grumbling, “Stupid forest animals.” I try to make my leave again, but another twig snaps. Then another, another, another, and yet again… another, ‘This is too strange. There can’t just be a whole bunch of squirrels just huddling in spot, can there?’ I question silently. The snapping continues and suddenly begins to become louder; I back up slowly, picking up a rather large stick in the process. I cradle it close to my chest and stand in a fighting stance, my eyes wild; I shout, “Who’s there? Show yourself right now!”
Once more, a twig snaps, but is followed this time by two voices in quiet conversation. My ears perk and I lean in forward, trying to hear a little better but I only get snippets over the conversation. Something along the lines of, “Last night… missing… searching… marriage… lately… mother… Vyla… killed… believes in love… crazy family… follow…”
I gasp and drop the stick, ‘They’re following me. My mother has sent a search party to look for me! I should go talk to them and get them to take me home; they would know how to get there.’ I think hopefully, moving to walk over to them, but a new thought suddenly stops my step, ‘But if they take me back, I will have to confront my mother and deal with her issues.’ I go with the second option and decide not to turn myself in. Instead, I turn slowly on my heel and run straight ahead, not knowing or caring where I end up.
---
The bedroom door bursts open and a young girl comes storming in, her hands planted on her tiny hips and her eyes narrowed in a fierce glare, “Mum!”
The older woman lounging in bed cracks an eye open and stares down the intruder. Once she realizes who it is, she sighs and closes her eyes again, “Maddy, how many times must I ask you to knock before entering?”
The five year old, eyes still narrowed and her lips in a tiny pout, stomps her foot with her hands still firmly on her hips, “Mum!”
The woman peeks through one eye again, “Do not stomp your foot at me, Madeline.” Her youngest daughter did as she was told and stopped stomping, but her glare and pout remained, “Now what is the problem?”
Madeline takes her hands off her hips long enough to run across the room to her mother’s bed. She leaps on and grabs a handful of the thick covers in her tiny hand, trying to pull herself up. Mary, seeing her daughter’s weak efforts, chuckles and bends over to help her up. Madeline scrambles onto the sheets and sits on her knees, pouting with folded arms, “You like Vyla more than me.”
“Aww,” she coos in reply, “Why do you think that?”
“She gots a party!”
“One: It’s ‘she gets a party’, and two: no she doesn’t; not the kind you’re thinking of.”
“Why don’t I get one!”
Mary smiles and gently pats the side of Maddy’s cheek, “We are trying to find your sister; she’s run off somewhere.”
Madeline’s eyes widen and her arms drop to her side, “Is she gunna get in trouble?”
“You don’t need to worry about all of that,” Mary chuckles, “Where is your father?”
Madeline sighs silently and rests her head on her mother’s bosom, letting the older woman toy with her hair, “Riding horses with Alexander.”
Mary nods silently, mumbling under her breath as she gazes out the window beside her bed, “And here I thought he said his back was hurting.” She averts her attention back down to Madeline and smiles softly, “Maddy?”
She looks up from poking her mother’s naval, “Hmm?”
“I need for you to get up so I can get started on my day. I have a lot to do, and I need to hurry and get to it.”
Madeline lifts her head and adjusts so that she is sitting cross-legged, “Like what?”
Mary pokes her nose and smiles softly, “None of your concern, little Miss nosy. Aht!” she cries once she notices another pout getting ready to etch onto her daughter’s face, “None of that.”
Madeline’s half pout dies and she, with the help of Mary, gets off the bed and makes her leave. Soon after, Mary clambers out as well and stretches her arms and legs. She moves the stool at her vanity and picks up the whip that lays there. She runs the thick line between her fingers, “Yes. Today I will be very busy indeed.”
---
Voila! The next chapter. Hope you liked it just as much as the first one! Crit please!
Woah! Didn't see that coming! I'm scared now!
Lol
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