POV: Agnes

I woke up in a forest naked, there was a body nearby, all covered in leaves. Spattered in red, dressed in a bright blue dress. I couldn’t see their face and for some reason I didn’t want to.

I still tried to just in case they weren’t really dead, or at least weren’t ‘very’ dead. (Revivable). But somehow, I just really didn’t want to. I didn’t understand why, but somehow I felt I should stay away. The blood and the smell, was just wretched so I got away from it.

Just as I got up I saw this little kid staring at me. I don’t know where she came from, I practically tripped over her. She was just standing right behind me. Pale skin, dark hair, darker eyes. She looked familiar somehow but I can’t place her. She took me by the hand and started pulling.

I followed her because I didn’t know what else to do. Besides, there was something about that forest. Somehow the trees felt anguished. I didn’t want to be near them.

There was this feeling that if I didn’t leave then I’d never get to leave. She led me out of the wood into a maze of buildings. The girl knew her way around so it wasn’t so much a maze as it was a long winding construct. Like something someone put together on purpose except that’d be crazy.

No one can just move around buildings and no city planner would build like this. I know this because my Dad’s a city planner and ‘he’ still complains about the first planners making the city’s streets too narrow. The exit to the maze ran through an old clothing shop and there some no so dusty duds on the mannequin. So I wasn’t naked by the time we got out.

We’d escaped, except that’s just me being too dramatic, right? We’d just been sort of lost for a bit. Though my heart was hammering like crazy after. The sky felt to big and Novem felt to wide. The vast immensity of the world overwhelming me. Time passed, precious time, it was probably only fifteen minutes or so, but it still felt bad to waste it.

I saw that it was getting closer to evening and remembered that my parents would freak if I got back late. I wasn’t even sure what I was doing all the way out here.

I headed back home. It was surprisingly easy to find my way. Like super easy. A short ten minute walk was all it took to find my city, Inalkoy’s main gate. I was lucky. I got inside, before they closed things up for the night. I found my way home, to my house. Slipped inside and felt relieved.

I don’t know why but I really, really, wanted a shower. Maybe it was waking up in those leaves, or wandering through all those dusty, grimy, buildings. I wasn’t like a neat freak or anything, but I guess it was just really that dirty. Or maybe it just got to me.

I took a shower, and chucked the clothing from the store mannequin into the trash.

Somehow I didn’t think Mom would like me keep it. It was a bit risque, and she once fought me over a skirt that was just a little bit short. I don’t think she’d approve of me having a ‘grown-up’ nightgown.

******

I had the worst dream. It was nothing groundbreaking or worth talking about. It was just one of those dreams where something chases you. Except in mine I got caught, I don’t remember what happened next but I do remember waking up in cold sweat, panting, heart hammering in my chest.

On the verge of a full on freak-out, till I finally recognized that I was in my home. Home and safe. Somehow it helped that the little girl was there. She lay on the bed curled up next to me, but somehow seeing her, centered me.

Dad says some people have a calming effect on others. But with her it was more like a feeling of completeness. (Weird.)

The door to my bedroom opened, and I saw my Mom there. Wide eyed and staring, giving me this way intense look.

“Hey...Mom. Hope I didn’t wake you up?”

She screamed for my dad and I heard him stomp in. I didn’t get it, I didn’t think I’d done anything wrong. Dad came in and then he started staring, then he started crying.

They both rushed in and grabbed me. It was scary, I almost forgot that we weren’t strangers for a second. I’d never seen them like this. Generally, they’re calm even keeled folk.

Dad’s a city bureaucrat and like his coffee watered down. Mom’s a legal aid, and complains if you move around too much, because it makes her anxious. They’re not rushing and grabbing people. Pats on the head, affectionate snuggles. Those are more their speed.

Suddenly they were Engulfing me in their arms. Hugging me, staring at me. Smelling me. Kissing. Checking me out like they were trying to verify I was me. Asking me all these questions.

Questions like,

“Where were you? What happened? Did someone take you?”

Confusing things. What’s weirdest is that they never asked about my new little sis. It’s like they didn’t see her.

I said,

“Mom, what’s wrong?”

And she kept crying and dad was crying too and they were both squeezing me tight enough that I could feel my ribs cracking.

I asked again.

“Did something happen, what’s wrong?”

They didn’t answer me, they just kept holding me. Like they thought I’d disappear if they let me go.

You’d have thought that they hadn’t seen me in forever. It was only later when they’d sort of calmed down, that I understood.

“Honey, you’ve been missing for months.”