Once I had walked outside with my family, grabbing a basket from beside the house before I waved goodbye to the two as they got into the truck and began to drive away down the road. With a sigh, it didn't take me much longer to begin walking off from the house myself while Fidel's constant chirping served as the background music to drown out the calming sounds of the wind.
Closer and closer to the forest right across the road, beyond the abandoned wheat fields. It sent nervous bumps across my skin but, I shrugged it off and chalked it up to my paranoia and nerves.
‘A wonder why no one uses this place for farming.’ I thought to myself as I started to whistle alongside Fidel’s chirping.
The forest.
Eerie.
Even during the day.
The sun’s rays shining through the trees’ leaves, illuminating some parts of the forest floor and giving light to what possibly lied beyond? Once, before the cult had arrived in the area? It was a frequent thing for Dad to take me out and see what nature had to offer. To witness the beauty of it all and to understand the vital lesson that man could provide nothing for man, everything we ate, breathed, and slept on? It all eventually boiled down to the fact that nature had provided the necessary tools for us to even make the things that we had currently at our disposal!
However, nowadays, I tried my best not to think of that knowledge...after all, nature was capable of giving and taking things away but the word ‘take’? People had that ability perfectly copied to the point it was nearly a science.
Taking things away...especially human lives?
It irked me out, sending a chill throughout my body and everything.
“Can’t the old hag just come out here herself and grab apples? Pretty sure the cult wouldn’t want to eat skin that resembles fuckin’ spotted rubber.” I mumbled to myself before I jumped up a little to grab a hold of a branch, causing me to shake it a little while Fidel merely perched himself on another tree and poked at the stems of apples to get them to fall.
I scoffed, at least he was useful for more things than just nearly pecking my ear off.
“I mean...Fidel! What’s got the cult so fixated on eating people anyway? Doesn’t eating people kill you or something?”
I only got a head tilt and a slow chirp in response.
Whether he understood the question or not, I still didn’t have a proper answer. The cult wanted to eat people but...the second someone got sick from eating a bad liver or something, the cult would probably be quick to stop their little obsession with having skin stew or cherry brain pie!
“Stop pecking at apples, I think this is enough.” I sighed before I started to put the fallen apples into the basket, Fidel quickly flying to sit on my head before my attention was quickly caught by the sound of a branch snapping in the distance.
I immediately halted my movements, my heart racing a mile a minute as my eyes narrowed. Fidel went dead silent, his heavy breathing resembling a small ‘hissing’ noise while I slowly but surely went to pick up my spear. A minute or so passed...nothing, not even an animal came out of the woods but...the second I felt more than one pair of eyes begin to stare at me? I knew right then and there I had no business sticking around any longer, after all, I didn’t feel like having the apples I picked be served right next to my burnt corpse.
“Never again,” I grumbled to myself before I quickly walked back to the main road, Fidel launching himself off of my head to begin flying on his own.
However, as Fidel and I traveled down the empty main road to Bunny’s house, the feeling of a warm breeze beginning to blow and rustle the golden grasses all around me while the sight of other birds calling in the distance and overheard made me chuckle as Fidel began to do small tricks in mid-air. I began to let my mind wander a tad as I began kicking a rock in boredom.
Walking alone?
It wasn’t a huge issue to me quite frankly, it allowed me time to enjoy how quiet things could be from time to time. You never knew how peaceful life was when you were away from the city and enjoying the natural sounds of grass and birds singing but...that didn’t stop me from missing what I once had in the city. Walking alone? It was rare, you always had people around you whether they were on their phone or not. Honking cars and people chattering and going about their day was the new natural, everyone was more than used to it! I missed that life...not because it was nosier and much more interesting but because, in a way, I was safer. School, as hellish as it used to be despite the fact I had managed to make it through with the two friends I had before I was eventually blessed with the fact my family was moving, it taught me something amidst all the chaos!
All the social hierarchy, the constant bullying, and hair-pulling?
Whispers of how rumors quickly spread about me having two fathers instead of a more 'traditional' family and that they shunned me due to the fact I was an adopted kid and would never know my actual family?
I learned that there was safety in numbers.
Some would be picked off sure, that was just how life worked but, you had less of a chance to be picked off when you were in a group. No matter how rag-tag or clumsily put together it was.
“To my good friends.” I began to whisper to myself as I placed the spear in the basket before I had grabbed an apple and rubbed it off on my shirt a little.
“I hope you two are doing well, that no harm befalls you two now or in your precious make-believe worlds.” I continued with a small chuckle, the sweetness of the apple as I bit into it only making my smile grow just a tad bit more.
Once an hour had most likely passed, my sudden craving for apples finally ceasing as soon as I tossed my third finished apple off to the side of the road, it wasn’t too much longer before Fidel had begun to chirp and sing at the sight of an approaching old house.
It was a small little two-story if I remembered correctly, the kitchen was barely big enough for one person to even fit in it! The outsides of the house were old and lowly beginning to wear away due to time, the once painted green wood having scratches and what-not seemingly covering all sides while the red roof was more of a dull pink color and beginning to peel and have roof tiles slip and fall off.
For such a sorry sight? It was a wonder on the inside!
I wasn’t too much a fan of sweets but the old hag’s cooking?
I’d never say no to having her homemade chocolate candies.
“Bunny!” I called out as soon as I reached the small staircase in front of her house, the steps squeaking underneath my step before I began to gently pull on the doorknob.
Like many times before, the door was left unlocked.
“Bunny!’ I called out once more as I entered the house, Fidel letting out a series of ‘call-out’ chirps that echoed in the house while I looked around.
There was a fresh doughy smell in the house that reminded me of cookies and freshly baked cake. The living room was fairly empty, only a teal-colored couch with pastel flowers decorating it as it sat in front of an old box tv that played black and white ads while two rose-colored love chairs sat on the sides with a small footrest in front of one of them. The walls were white wallpaper but peeling, posters of old-school silhouettes of women in bunny-girl outfits here and before my eyes finally landed on the kitchen. It was small enough to only be able to fit one person just like I had remembered. The counters were covered with used cooking utensils and flour while for the rest of the home?
A door that led into rooms Bunny had always told me to stay out of.
The old woman had made it known that she was a former model for playboy back in her day when I was old enough to handle the information, therefore? I wasn’t too curious to peer into those forbidden places unless I wanted to ruin my eyesight for the next few years.
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