Hair

Twø

Elise awoke to a violent knock at the door, "Coming!" She croaked. Her face was pressed against the desk she'd fallen asleep at. Elalya wasn't on the sofa, but she didn't care. The knock came again, louder.

"COMING!" Elise opened the door, she was still dressed in her clothes from yesterday, but that didn't bother her. A ginger girl, similar age to her own was stood at the door with a clipboard and pen. Her hair was neatly done up and a cheesy smile, plastered on her face.

"Hello! you must be new here!" She offered a hand but Elise didn't take it, "I'm Daisy, Daisy Wells. Did you have a nice sleep in your new home?" Elise nodded, "It was nice until you woke me."

Daisy laughed for a second, "I'm here to reclaim you the property." "Oh..." Elise said. "Just sign in the blank spaces and we're all done."

Elise took the sheet and slid over a pen from a coffee table nearby.

"Y'know..." Daisy started, "...There have been some rumours."

"Rumours?" Goat Mom asked, while carefully reading through the text.

Daisy's smile faded quickly "Did you see a windmill on the way here?"

"No, why?" Daisy signalled Goat Mom to come out onto the pathway, "Can you see in from here?" She asked.

"I'm pretty sure there wasn't any-" But there was, "That's odd. There wasn't one when I got here..." The once empty hill housed a black windmill, the vanes swinging rhythmically. "It only appears when it wants you to see it." Daisy whispered.

Goat Mom laughed, "I probably just missed it on the way in". She handed back the filled papers and went to close the door, "What... Rumours?" She said, turning around, "A disappearing mill isn't a rumour."

Daisy smiled and walked back over.

"There's an old woman who lives there. Cannibal!" Daisy grinned.

"Cannibal?!" Elise shouted.

"They're only rumours, but you never know..." Daisy folded back the papers and stuck the board under her arm, and started her journey down the path, "Have a nice day!"

Elise waved slowly, still in a bit of a daze. "Oh..." Daisy turned around, "Just one more thing... Don't leave your house after dark." She smiled, "Enjoy your time! Stay away from your door at night!"

Elise stood at her door until she could no longer see Daisy's ginger ponytail, "Crazy bastard..." They'd came here to escape, to have a fresh start away from danger. A place to raise all seve- eight of the kids.

But they were only rumours, stories, she didn't have time for stories.

Elise walked up the stairs towards the cupboard she had told herself to clean. She pinched her nose and opened the door. It was empty, except for-

"Thanks for cleaning the room out Elise." Elalya walked out of the cupboard with her blanket and down the stairs. "You're, welcome?" The bags were gone, and behind it was a doorway.

The morning light poured through a window, parallel to the new door, the door that didn't exist before today. The room inside was small, for a child. There was a cot in one corner a small bed in the other. A single dusty window and crate, presumably for toys.

You could see where Elalya had slept the night before. Everything was dusty, except for the bed.

The cot looked as if it was moving or had something in it. Goat Mom stepped forward to peek into the cot when she heard a scream from outside.

Immediately she ran, knocking over a jar on the bedside table. She peered through the window and saw her children chasing each other around on the gravel part outside the house.

Goat Mom smiled, but it faded when she saw the windmill puffing steam, smoke? In the distance. This was the perfect time to find out who lived there.