She wanted to know how much longer she was going to be trapped in here, but she didn’t dare ask. Instead, she kept silent, watching the time only by the sun’s position through the cracks between boards. She waited and waited, so long that her legs were starting to cramp under her, sore jolts working their way up her legs as the wagon shook her. Until finally, finally, finally at long last, the wagon stopped and Lucia, now used to tilting along with it, promptly fell on her side.
She pushed herself up off the floor just as the back was opened. Two hooded men stood there, holding what looked suspiciously like weapons wrapped in dark clothes. “Who goes there?”
“Regan and Fletcher.” The two men chorused.
“And our-”
The hooded man held up a hand. “She can speak for herself.”
Lucia glanced frightfully over to Regan and Fletcher who both shot her stick-to-your-fake-identification-or-else looks. She swallowed hard. “Rose Harken.”
“Identification?” The second hooded man asked, and she handed over her pouch.
“Sister.” She informed him, swallowing the bile that pooled in her throat at those words. “Blood sister.”
The guards nodded to this and handed the pouch back to her before briefly checking the other two.
“And what's your reason for crossing the border?” He asked, handing back the other two pouches.
“We were out of town for business.” Regan said without missing a beat. “We’re coming back home now.”
“Very good.” The guard replied before adding on “Welcome home” and shutting the crate doors.
Border, border, his word seemed to replay in her head. She was really far from home now. She swallowed hard, but the lump in her throat refused to go as she pushed herself back to her corner, grabbing her locket and holding it close.
She felt sick. First she played blood sister to her kidnappers, and now she was being dragged to another town? How would she get home now? Tears welled in her eyes and her first thought was, I wish Lea was here to keep me company. As soon as those words popped into her head, she immediately regretted them. You’re so selfish, she chided herself. You would subject your sister to this cause you're lonely?! All you need to do is live this out.
Live this out? She wasn't even paying attention when she thought it, but a sour taste coated her tongue. The ominous tone that came with those words nearly suffocated her. Live this out, why would she even think that. She was going to get back, it just- might take a little longer than she first thought. She promised herself, squeezing her locket hard. You’re going to make it out, for yourself and Lea.
The wagon jolted on and on, bouncing down the road until Lucia felt like she was about to throw up, and she was the twin with the stronger stomach! She was glad that Lea wasn’t here, she tried to swallow the pit in her stomach again. When at last the wagon rolled to a stop and the door opened again, the sky was pitch black outside. There weren’t even any stars to see, and with the moon hidden behind the clouds, there was only one source of light.
The light came from a building nearby, and Lucia was shoved towards it with Regan in front of her and Fletcher in back. They shoved the old door open and herded Lucia in without so much as a glance at hers.
Just before they made it in the doorway, Regan turned around, temporarily halting Fletcher and Lucia. “Welcome to your new home.. for now” Lucia swallowed hard, her heart pounding painfully against her ribs.
She looked around anxiously. It wasn't that bad. The room had wooden walls and an old rug in the center, there was a bookcase and a cabinet along the wall and a fireplace with a chair next to it and doors connecting to other rooms lined the walls. It couldn't be all bad right?
She reached down to scratch her wrist as she looked around the room only to pull back when she hit her stitches, a sharp pain staggering up her arm as a sharp reminder not to touch. Right those were there, she reminded herself looking down at her wrist that had started to bruise at the stitching. Tearing her eyes away from her tainted skin, she shuffled out of the doorway so she wasn't blocking it anymore.
What now? Are they going to tell me where to go? Am I allowed to ask? What if I touch something I'm not supposed to? Questions flooded her mind as she looked around sporadically.
Regan pushed her forwards. “You’ll live here for-” He broke off, looking helplessly at Fletcher.
“For the time being.” Fletcher interrupted. Lucia swallowed. How long was she going to be here?
“We’ll probably be back after the weekend for you.” he rephrased “ So don't even think about going outside cause we won't be there if you’re in danger. Understand?”
“Danger?” Lucia whispered. What kind of stuff were they leaving her to?
“Life threatening danger.” He specified. Lucia’s heart rate sped up, making her ribs hurt.
He pointed a threatening finger at Lucia and grinned evilly. “And you’ll want to stay in here with the doors and windows locked if you value your life.” He snickered. Lucia’s head spun. Three words echoed in her head. Life threatening danger.
“We have some business to attend to that we can take you to, and we don't want to leave you in our house alone to run a muck or try to escape, so you'll stay here.” Regan continued gesturing with his hand. “But when we get back, you'll move there so we can keep an eye on you.”
Lucia felt her stomach sink. There's no way she could escape when watching her, her best chance was when she was here, but those words kept replaying in her head, would she really die? She didn't want to test it.
“You can do whatever you want here but if you make a mess you're cleaning it up.” Regan continued, eyeing the barren room. “And really don't bother going outside, you'll be dead before you even make it out of the forest, and nobody wants that now do they” he cooed patronizingly Lucia nodded numbly, and he seemed pleased with her answer. She felt cold fear fester in her chest, would she really die?
“Good.” Regan replied, turning to the door. “We’ll be back soon.” He added, turning to the door and leaving. Fletcher followed suit. The door shut with a rattle leaving her alone in the house.
The clang of the door sent eerie shivers down Lucia’s spine. The window showed nothing by blackness outside, and a lone wolf howled. The first thing that she did was bolt the door shut firmly, testing it multiple times as fear got the better of her, then bolted the windows shut and closed the curtains firmly, knotting them together tightly.
There was a draft coming in from the bottom of the windowsill, so Lucia looked around for a rag or something to stuff it with. She grabbed the old rug off the floor (it was hideous. The weaver, it seemed, had been color-blind) and stuffed it in the tiny crack. Dusting off her hands, she stood back up. It was time to explore her temporary home.
She pushed open the nearest door which led to a small but cozy bathroom. Lucia’s breath caught. A bathtub! Her first thought was how filthy she felt, and all she wanted to do right now was run water and clean herself.
She pulled her clothes off and folded them neatly by the side of the bathtub and turned on the water. “Ah!” She shrieked. The water out of the tap was freezing cold, and Lucia turned the knob to warm. The water just gushed harder. It seemed her only options were cold or colder.
Turning away from the water momentarily, she looked in the cracked mirror. Twigs and leaves were still knotted tightly in her hair. Might as well deal with these first, she sighed, intertwining her hands in her hair. It was matted and ratty. Oh well. Slowly and painstakingly, she untangled her hair and removed all the twigs leaves. Her scalp was raw and scratched and she could feel a few wet patches of blood where a twig was sharper than the rest by the time she was done removing them all. Wincing, she rubbed her head and turned back to the water.
Sticking her finger in, the water was still cold but had warmed up a bit while she had worked. Hoping to let the water warm a bit more, she grabbed her clothes and looked them over. They were caked in dirt and her dress was stained with blood which she doubted she could get out, but she might as well try. Dunking them in the water, she did the best to scrub out the dirt, trying to imitate the way her mother did it at home, but she knew she was probably doing it wrong. When she pulled the garments out, they did look cleaner to her surprise but the blood stain on her dress was as stark as before but there wasn't much to do about that. She set the garment aside as she tried to forget the queasy feeling in her stomach she got when she looked at the dark read
Shivering, she finally got into the tub. It wasn’t as warm as she’d hoped for, but it was warm enough. She guessed the water wasn’t going to get any warmer than this, which was still cool but what some might call lukewarm. Only barely though.
It didn’t matter to Lucia though. Water through her hair felt wonderful, but over her stitches was the worst. She winced each time a drop of water hit the delicate skin. Spitting out a stream of water, she stopped the faucet and looked around for the soap or shampoo. She could only find a small bottle of shampoo and an even tinier bottle of hand soap that looked quite old. That would have to do.
Within a few minutes, Lucia was dry and feeling better than ever. Even her cut, though painful it had been to soak in water and rub soap into it, seemed to feel much cleaner, if not a bit sore. Lucia a small ironic smile pulled at her lips. She’d never loved being clean so much and she wasn't even that clean.
Now that she was all clean and dressed, she stepped outside the bathroom. Now was her chance to explore.
It felt weird looking around, like she was intruding on someone else's home, but if she was going to stay here, she had to know what was around. By the look of the dust covering all the surfaces, no one had been here in a while anyways. Pushing open the doors she quickly began to realise there wasn't much there, not that she had been expecting much to begin with. Opening the first door there was an old desk and a chair, the next room held some wooden cabinets and a broken table. One of the legs had splintered off leaving it lopsided. Moving on to the last door she pushed it open to find a makeshift bed. It looked like dried hay with a raggedy blanket over it and an old pillow, I guess that's the bedroom then she thought, eyeing the shadowy room warily.
She wasn’t particularly eager to sleep. For one thing, the cold water in the bathtub had snapped her wide awake, cold seeming to seep into her bone. But the main thing was that she was terrified, absolutely terrified, of what was outside. She wandered around the room some more, pacing back and forth before it dawned upon her that she should probably get some sleep or she would be completely exhausted tomorrow without it and she would need energy if anything happend, that didn't make the prospect of sleeping anymore appealing though.
Reluctantly, she climbed onto the straw, which sank and rustled underneath her, scratching at her arms as she shifted uncomfortably. Her first thought was of the dust that rose up as she settled in. taking a breath in she was immediately thrown into a coughing fit from the dust, coughs wracking her form as she sat up again to get away from the dust, but only more dust was thrown into the air as she moved, standing up she took a step away from the bled, clearly that wasn't going to work. She looked down at herself briefly to see as much as she expected, she was covered in dust, and just as she had gotten clean. She wasent going to take another bath so she would just have to deal.
Dusting off herself quickly she took the blanket and pillow off of the dusty straw, holding them out infront of her as she shook them out, a cloud of dust saturating the air. Once she deemed them clean enough she took them into the front room and settled for sleeping on the floor. It wasn’t the most comfy, but at least she could breath.
Surprisingly, worn out from her last day with the pair and all the events that followed, Lucia fell into an unsettled sleep, too anxious to really sleep, something didn't feel right. She woke up first at around midnight, to a faint tapping. What was that? Her heart lurched as she sucked in a breath, yet she forced herself to follow the sound. It was coming from the bedroom.
Lucia paused by the door, and peered in, before realizing that the thing that was making the sound was coming from outside. Thank God, she thought, her fingers quivering nervously. She circled the room, it was probably a branch anyways and she was just making a big deal out of nothing, looking for the source of the sound and happened to glance up. The curtains, which she had tied neatly together, had somehow become undone. But it wasn’t that that made Lucia scream. It was the face, looking in through the window, illuminated by the moon, which had come out from the clouds. Slowly the face gave her a blood curdling smile and crept away, pulling its finger away from the glass it had been tapping on as it moved along the side of the house.
Scrambling back Lucia fell back on her butt as a scream ripped through her chest, her breath was uneven and her lungs seemed to forget how they work as she clutched her locket in her hands, which were shaking like crazy. She tried to take deep breaths but she only ended up choking and making it worse. Closing her eyes, she pictured Lea making one of her famous flower crowns. Her heartbeat slowed and she could finally breathe.
Clutching her locket close, she crept around to the windows and quickly re-tied the curtains, eyes roaming around like crazy before pushing away from the window. Letting out a sigh of relief, Lucia let her shoulders slump as she crept back to the bed still shaking, What was that? Was it coming back? She felt herself choke on her breath as she held the ratty blanket close to her chest, looking around the room wildly for any signs of movement, but everything was deathly silent again. After what seemed like hours she hesitantly layed back down, pressing her back tightly to the backside of the couch so she was facing the doorway. She closed her eyes again even though she doubted she would get any good sleep. Lying down, Sleep eventually took her, but it was light and uneasy and she woke up quite a few times to the sound of the wind and a chilled feeling weighed in her chest as sh couldn't help but feel that it would be like this for a while.
Comments (0)
See all