Unblemished Innocence

Chapter 2 - Chicken

☽︎𒊹︎︎︎☾︎

"Ready or not, here I come!"

Àimèe's voice rang through the empty hallways. She had finished counting to a hundred —skipping from sixty to ninety— and is now running into random directions she thought her sister was at.

The muffled sounds of the ballroom soon grew quieter and quieter, until no sound could be heard anywhere. Looking around at where she was, Àimèe was surprised to see that the entire hallways were deserted. Add in the fact that it was dimly lit, the place looked scary for the five year old.

Hey eyes were now wide in apprehension, but she didn't stop walking. Her eyes darted from left to right, and occasionally over her shoulder to check whether there were ghosts or not.

"Boo!" A voice said, making Àimèe scream in fear and surprise. She crouched down and covered her head with her arms in an attempt to look invisible.

Suddenly, she heard a loud laughter behind her, but this wasn't a scary laughter. It was a mocking laughter.

She turned her head around and what she saw made her scowl. It was just a boy, not a ghost. To make matters worse, he was laughing so hard that he was clutching his stomach, tears forming on the edges of his eyes.

Now more mad than frightened, Aimme stood up straight and glared at the boy. "What do you think you were doing? Were you the one that scared me?!"

The boy, Ericson, had now managed to calm himself, but a taunting grin still layed on his lips. "Why, yes. It was none other than me."

"Why did you do that, you meanie?!" Àimèe fumed.

"Oh, calm down. Nothing happened to you, and it wasn't even that scary." Ericson said, rolling his eyes. His words caused Àimèe to gape at him, then proceeded to stomp her foot in annoyance.

"If-if you were the one who was here, I bet you would be scared too!" Àimèe stated in a as-a-matter-of-fact tone. This made Ericson frown.

"No, I wouldn't. I'm eight already. Big boys don't get scared like chickens." He said, his frown now turned into a teasing smile.

"I am not a chicken!"

He grinned teasingly, "Yes, you are. Or you wouldn't have been so scared." He taunted, "Chicken, chicken, chicken."

As he continued his ranting, Àimèe was now red in anger. Letting out a war cry that startled Ericson, she pounced on him.

"Hey! Get off of me!"

☽︎𒊹︎︎︎☾︎

Catherine sat there on the carpet, still crying at her misfortune. A voice that sounded coming from afar made her quieten down a bit, her sobs now turned itno Small sniffles.

She looked up, and through her blurry eyesight Because of the tears, she saw a figure running to her direction. As it grew nearer and nearer, Cath's eyes were now only mildly blurred.

She blinked the remaining tears away and looked up again, just in time for the figure to stop walking and to end up in front of her.

She studied him. He had dark brown hair and beautiful eyes that had the same color of his hair. He was wearing a cobalt blue suit and white pants. All in all, the outfit suited him.