Broken Prodigy | COMPLETED ✓

Chapter 14

How I (kinda) picture Ollie, except more farmy/tomboyish looking, if you know what I mean. For those who didn't realise, Ollie has long, curly blonde hair, suntanned skin, a couple of freckles and hazel eyes. She almost always wears western jeans, to cover up her bad leg and cuz that's what cowgirls wear, right?

*

We start with getting Bess used to the engine on. She's heard it from a distance before, but we have to get her exposed to her right up front, because the competition grounds will have loads of cars and trucks.

Maya walks up next to me. "She's doing well," she says, nodding to Bess.

"Yeah," I answer. "She's really starting to trust Georgia and I. Where'd you get her? Just, you know, out of curiosity."

"Actually, a girl not much older than you sold her to me a year back. She couldn't look after her because she was starting uni."

"Oh." I wonder if there's any chance I might meet her, though I don't ask. Horses tend to take on personality traits like their owners, because they get their courage from them. I turn back to Bess.

Georgia leads her up slowly, but still with confidence, and, after a little hesitance, Bessy easily walks around the car without any room for uncertainty.

After praising her, Gus then climbs into the car whilst Georgia leads Bess back into the round yard. Gus drives the car around it, earning some cautious looks from Bessy, who steps back and stomps her feets a couple times. We wait for her to calm down, but she just gets more agitated.

Bessy pulls back on the lead rope, trying to yank herself out of Georgia's grip. Georgia tries to soothe her, but her voice is getting more panicked by the second as Bess continues to back away. Gus climbs out of the car, his expression alarmed.

Suddenly her chest tenses up, and a part of the old me remembers something. It's a memory, but it doesn't even feel like my own.

There's the tiniest flash of me watching a woman with a horse from the outside of an arena. The woman looks like an aged version of me, with her long, curly blonde hair and hat. The horse she with stamps his feet, and his chest tenses up before he rears.

It's a warning.

I push myself through the railing and into the round pen just as Georgia lets go of Bess' lead. The mare prances back, but she's not done. I jump in between her and Georgia, and motion for Georgia to leave the round yard, though I don't know if she does. Bess' chest tenses up, and just before she goes up on her hind legs I hear the panic-stricken voice of Gus.

Then all sound goes numb as Bess rears.

And it's just me and her. She's so close to me, and I know that if she stretched out her feet that centimetre more, her hoof would come crashing down onto me. But I don't move. I wave my arms up in front of her, letting her know she's been heard, that I understand it's too much for her.

Then, I feel her eyes land on me, and she listens as I call out her voice in such a calm tone that it could tame a storm. Bess comes back down onto all four feet, and an eerie silence feels the air, leaving no trace of what just happened.

"Olivia!" Gus' panicked voice pulls me back to reality, and I realise that everyone is here, too.

Out of the corner of my eye, I can see Gus climb hurriedly through the rails. He reaches me, surprisingly me with nothing but concern in his eyes. Since when did he care?

"It's alright," I say, not just to him. "Bess is fine now."

Gus stumbles for words. "Olivia...how did...she could've killed you!"