"She's Leaving Home Part One" (standard:fairy tales, 845 words) [1/2] show all parts
Author: Remnant Vie	Added: May 05 2001	Views/Reads: 3553/4	Part vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
With her families' safety(as well as a desire to be on her own awhile) at heart, a seventeen year old girl leaves home with mixed emotions. An update of a somewhat "overlooked" fairytale, this story is a mustread for all ages. **feedback appre

“She’s Leaving Home” (Part One) 

Dear Brother: 

I feel as if the burden of this “sickness” that the Gods have cursed me
with has weighed down on our family long enough. Finally, after nearly 
seventeen years, I realized that as tired as I am of the monster pacing 
restlessly within the walls of my tormented soul, just waiting for it’s 
three night release upon the Ides (15th) of each month, you and Poppa 
must be a million times more tired from trying to contain it. I may not 
be the sharpest tool in the shed when it comes my numbers and lessons, 
but I realize that I can no longer live the lie of pretending that it‘s 
going to eventually get better. I need to get away for awhile Brother, 
have time to think some things through, perhaps make a life for myself 
in another land, thus I am leaving home. 

Worry not for me and look to the bright side of all this, there will be
no more straining our backs and eyes trying to drag the mutilated 
corpse of my victims away from the house before daybreak. Imagine the 
suspicion it would raise if ever we were to slack off...-I don’t want 
to risk it anymore. Do not bother to look for me, by the time you find 
this scrap of parchment paper stuck to the privy door, I will be long 
gone. Please kiss Poppa for me, and spit in the eye of Eirsha. If I 
were more of a fighter I’d be tempted to lock myself in a room with her 
when the sickness takes over. It pains me how she's tried to take our 
Mothers' place all these years, while belittling me every step of the 
way. I don’t care what anyone says, she’s a witch, and doesn’t deserve 
all the affection and praise Poppa showers over her. Hmm, well I guess 
I ought stop stalling, and get a move on. My heart is your heart 
forever and a day. 

-Your Favorite (and only) Sister 

I smiled wryly, before setting my feathered pen down into it’s ink
quill. After folding the letter, and sealing it with a bit of wax, I 
rose from my desk. Thankful for the dim light my candle cast across the 
otherwise dark house, I was able to make my way to the front door 
without stumbling over anything and awakening the entire household. On 
my toes, I opened the door, and had to take a few deep breaths before I 
was able to walk through it, and into the big, black nothingness of the 
night. I stole to the privy (or outhouse as most other commoners call 
it), and tacked my letter to the door. After picking up my bag that I'd 
hidden behind the wooden structure earlier that day, I walked into our 
backyard, turning back to look at my house one last time. 

Despite the crumbling roof, a few broken windows, and scraggly grass,
ripe with the smell of chicken droppings , it is...-well it WAS my 
home. I was literally born in that very yard, my pregnant Mother hadn’t 
been able to make it into our little green house. I’d swung from the 
abundant maple trees with my Brother as a child, wrestled the millers’ 
son, Cassmato to the ground until he screamed for mercy, and broken my 
arm on a dare to jump from the sloping porch onto a pile of hay.  As I 
got older, I remembered taking my needlework outside to enjoy the cool 
breeze blowing off our villages’ river, having water fights with my 
brother and his friends when we were supposed to be watering the crops, 
and even kissing Cassmato behind our huge oak tree last Midsummers' Eve 
before he walked me to the front door. 

On the other hand, it was just a bunch of boards, held together by
nails, and plaster, set on a bit a land, nothing that I couldn’t find 
elsewhere, or build for myself. Wearing a layered look of hope, and 
sadness, I looked back at the house one last time, before hitching up 
my bag on my shoulders. Tears cascading from my eyes, into the curved 
smile I tried to set my mouth in, I took a few steps, before turning to 
look back at the house, imagining my sleeping family within its’ 
tattered walls. I kept telling myself that leaving was for the best, 
especially since I would be killing several birds with one stone. I 
mean, my family wouldn’t have to worry about their reputations, or 
safety, and I would hopefully find a place for myself outside of a land 
that would shoot silver arrows through my heart if my “secret” ever got 
out. Taking care not to get too close to the river that ran as a muddy 
creek throughout our land, I took a tentative step into the threshold 
of an uncertain future. 

~Fin~(to be continued, or in other words, if it doesn't make sense in
this chapter, most likely it'll be explained in the next part!) 


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