wildflowers/marcus abbott/on hiatus

v.

FLO DIDN'T KNOW WHERE TO LOOK WHILE SHE RAN IN THE CORN FIELD. should she look at the house? at the random fireworks going off? or maybe even leave the corn field and look for all the creatures they probably attracted? she didn't know.

the air was stolen from her lungs the moment someone grabbed her arm and pulled her by their side. flo almost screamed at this, with the idea of a creature in the maze already in her mind, but the person who grabbed her who none other than marcus.

flo looked at him confused, wondering why he was in the corn to begin with. she didn't see him come home, so where was lee?

marcus then pointed at the fireworks, his own little way of telling flo 'i did that.'

flo nodded at him, smiling after. she assumed that evelyn and lee probably didn't let him light fireworks before, so this made him proud.

she was half right on that guess. lee and evelyn never let marcus light a firework before, but marcus was proud of himself because he made the girl smile.

he tapped her shoulder which made her eyes land on him, and he nudged his head, meaning that they should get going.

flo nodded at this, and the two got out of the corn field and started walking down the path, marcus' flashlight shining the way.

about a couple dozen feet from the house, a crunch was heard.

flo and marcus turned slowly towards it.

marcus shined the light at the sound, hoping to see a bunny or a deer. but instead, he saw nothing.

his flashlight then flickered, and he looked at it nervously.

"it's nothing..." flo merely whispered to him, flipping her wrist at him while she still stared into the corn field.

a louder crunch was heard, causing marcus to back up and get ready to run, but flo didn't follow him.

marcus was too scared to leave her there by herself, so he grabbed her wrist and dragged her along with him, as the two started running in the corn field once again.

the leaves cutting up flo's face were painful, but she kept running behind the boy. until marcus ran into something, causing him to fall by flo's feet.

she leaned down and sat him up, checking his face quickly as she did to rose if she would've fallen off a swing set or such.

"you okay?" flo whispered, as marcus nodded quickly.

••••

THE TWO HAD SETTLED UNDER THE TRACTOR MARCUS HAD RAN INTO. marcus had placed his flashlight outside to attract his family, after flo quickly and merely explained that the monsters were blind.

marcus palms were sweating like crazy, making him wipe them on his sweater every couple minutes, while flo looked at the flowers growing from beneath the tractor's tire.

a crunch in the corn's leaves was heard, causing marcus' head to turn in the direction the noise came from.

flo could basically feel the weight of stress on him. he was obviously having very bad anxiety about the situation. she wanted to help him. but what could she do? they couldn't talk (and she assumed he didn't want to).

so she picked the flower out of the ground. marcus watched as she did, and noticed how gentle she was while she did it. he assumed she was probably the friend who made sure that you always felt included, and put you before herself.

flo turned towards marcus and placed the flower behind his ear, making sure his hair was out of the way as she did.

and for the first time in dozens of days...