Curious

bird on a leash

It's been three months since we escaped. 

Three... 

The social workers were comfortable with us leaving the big city, they appreciated my exercise in caution. Jane and Clover seem to miss home, I've tried to carefully explain to them their options, they were content enough with staying here. 

I don't sleep well at night any more. 

I quietly run my thumb along my ceramic mug filled with tea. I close my eyes to listen to the rain patter on the foggy window. The weather here is very bland and gloomy despite only being two cities away. I found a lovely cottage like house in the plains, It unlikely that someone would look for us here.

We got away unscathed and undetected. 

The private investigator and Stein were left seemingly baffled according to some friends in the city. 

My only regret is my lack of resolution. Even now as I cozily rest at my table, ignored by society and restlessly awaiting a happy ending, I feel incomplete. 

There are some things in this world that are simply inconceivably detrimental, possibly exceedingly so. You'd think that after witnessing movies and games, replica's of death and the worse kind of violence. Reenactments, and this normalization of our nightmares and greed come to pass that we'd be in fact acquainted with such disturbing ruptures. 

Unfortunately for me, those days will presumably haunt me for as long as I walk Earth. 

I wake up at every possible hour of the night, I just can't close my eyes without crimson coating my eyes and the thought of pushing a man off into nothing contaminating my thoughts. I reach out with my hand at times and I feel as though I begin to hear a crack from my bones.

 I retract my wrist, as though to protect it, but there's no threat. 

I open my eyes, and look at the rain washing the rusted windows over looking our small garden. Lavender flowers grow along the edges of the garden around some corn stocks, and tomatoes.

The sun is setting, and my tea is already cold. I've left the light off in my house, the Jane and clover are in their room painting and doodling, they rarely argue, they seem like lovely girls. 

I set my tea down and sigh. I sit on a stool beside a black metal table. 

It's dark outside now, and it's dark inside of the house as well. The rain has this odd ability to bring out a very nostalgic side of people. It felt only natural to feel cold tears overfill my eyes and pour down my cheeks. I felt like I was out in the rain. 

Oh dear me... How pathetic I've become. 

I look out into the garden, seeing our five corn stocks sway in the wind. The closer I look at them, the more I begin to see a figure standing behind them like a scare crow. 

I pause, and lean closer to the window, to get a better look. 

.....Who could that possibly be?.....It was hard to convince my brain that it wasn't simply a figment of my imagination. 

I squint, and suddenly there was a flash of light. 

There he was. He was wearing a white mask that covered his entire face along with a black rain coat and hood over his face. 

The thunder quickly followed, so loud it rattled the window. 

I lowered my eyes to the table, my fingers tapping on the metal to ease my nerves.

Step one: Insight fear.

Step two: Use their insecurity and lack of forethought to your advantage.

Step three: End the game. 

I closed the blinds in the house and locked the doors. All of the lights were turned off. I went into the girls room and pretended nothing of it. 

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing," I reply.

Focus. If Stein is back, I can't act out of fear.
"In 20 minutes, I need you to go to the bunker. In the morning, we're leaving".

"Again?"

I look between their silhouettes in the dark.

"Yes, but don't worry, you're safe."

I reach out a hand and pat Jane's head and then Clover's. I shouldn't have been so careless in taking them into my home.
I thought I was doing them a favor. How could I have known this would have happened. It certainly wasn't planned.

I exit the room and return to the kitchen, I peer out the blinds, hiding my among the corn stocks the girls and I planted when we arrived. 

He's still there.

What does he want? Why me?
I close the blind, and sit back down in the dark room.

It's not safe to drive in the rain, besides, he probably wants us to run away.

If I stay in here, he can't guess what I have up my sleeve. He'd expect me to be prepared for an attack.

I can't say that he's wrong. I go to my room and grab a shank and my pistol. I don't plan on using it unless I'm given no other option.

I have locks on all of the doors and windows, and he has to hop a fence to get in.

If he decides to break in, I at least won't be surprised.

After a while of waiting, the girls head down to the bunker. It's a nicely lit and cozy safe space with blankets and games to play. The door is hidden beneath a carpet.

I smile to them and close the door gently, then cover the top with the rug. They are my focus, protect them.