Hunting the Fairy Tale

Chapter 2 - The Dirtman

Willow

When I finally find my way back home, I can still hear my mother and Aunt Beth laughing in the living area. I don't want to spoil my mother's good mood by asking Aunt Beth about the gangsters in the park, I'll ask her later when my mother isn't around. For now, I'm simply happy to have made it home safely. I make a beeline for my bedroom, Little-Piddle on my heels.

As expected, my dress is dirty and it smells. Pine needles, mud, sweat, and something I cannot place, but it's causing my stomach to tighten into a knot and my heart is beating too fast again. Am I panicking? I don't think I am... not quite. I don't want to take the pills. They make me feel loopy. If I act strange, my mother will know that I took them and she'll be worried again.

The scent on my dress gives me a sudden flashback of strong arms, a gruff voice, and dark eyes. He was so hard. Everything had been hard. His arms, his chest, his stomach pressed against me. I'm definitely panicking.

What else could it possibly be?

In spite of the state that he'd been in and the violence he'd been involved in, there'd been something different about him. I cannot identify what made him different, but the atmosphere around him had somehow not been the same as the atmosphere around any of the men I'd encountered in the last three months living in that hell hole with my mother. Alcohol. That must be it, he didn't reek of alcohol and smoke... and he didn't deliberately try to hurt me. I'm becoming more and more convinced of that.

But it was also definitely not the same as the atmosphere around any of the boys and men I used to know in the life I lived before losing everything we had. Different or not, the stranger still terrified me. 

Yes. it must be terror. My heart is jumping around in terror.

I kick off my shoes, pull the dress off my body as fast as I can, and crawl into my bed, pulling the duvet up over my head. Little-Piddle dives in after me and makes himself at home between my feet.

The bed was made in heaven, the mattress is firm, but not hard and it's big enough to accommodate at least 3 people. The pillows smell like spring and the cool material of the duvet cover feels as beautiful against my skin as the floral material it's made of. Little-Piddle's warm body is comforting against my feet. I can feel his little heart beating and I'm starting to relax. I'm also starting to suffocate.

I flip the cover off my head and my eyes are involuntarily drawn to the serene landscape on the opposite wall. Raising my hand, I air-trace the flowing lines of the girl, the unicorn, and the hills. I gradually feel myself slipping into a tranquil state of mind. My breathing evens out and so does my pulse. I feel safe in this flowery, glittery cocoon where there are no dirty, violent people. Just one huge, strong unicorn to watch over me.

After a while, I finally feel like myself again and am calm enough to get out of bed and get dressed in fresh clothing.

♪

"Hunter-Lovey, would you be a dear and fetch the big trunk from Aunt Becks' car and take it upstairs for her, please? Mind, it's rather heavy!" Aunt Beth is calling out from the living area.

I freeze mid-step, just outside my bedroom door. I'm about to meet Hunter, the creator of the beautiful mural in my room. I'm suddenly really nervous about that. I always get nervous when I'm about to meet strangers. I'm even more nervous when the stranger is a male that I'm going to have to share a connecting bathroom with. It's rather a big moment for me. It could potentially set the tone for my foreseeable future. 

What if we don't get along?

I glance down the hall to my left, toward the archway leading into the foyer. Hunter's bedroom door and the study door are both open. Is he in his bedroom? The study? With my mother and Aunt Beth in the large living area? Is he in the dining room to my right or the kitchen across from me? I cannot move before I know.