Forsaken

𝑠𝑒𝜈𝑒𝑛

Mouth slightly agape in shock, she looked at the dog to find it looking back at her in a comedically humane manner.

It panted heavily, tongue hanging out of its mouth as it observed her, each staring back at the other from across the room. It seemed to look her up and down, sniff the air and break into a run again.

The dog jumped up with two paws on her bed, swiped her packet of cigarettes and ran out as quickly as it came, flying down the stairs with its tail whipping behind it.

She blinked, the moment coming and passing so fast she wasn't entirely sure if it had actually happened or if one too many cigarettes had caused her brain to cry out for a hiatus in the form of an imaginary black hound.

But once the confusion passed, irritation appeared in its place as she realised what the dog had ran off with.

She had remained unbothered for the day so far, her host taking it upon himself to keep his distance whilst she graciously returned the gesture, confining herself to this room. She hadn't know he had a dog, nor would she know for a while that he actually didn't.

Snuffing out her cigarette on the remaining scraps of tinfoil from the other night, she got up to find where the beast had run off to, hoping to retrieve what was hers. She ventured down the foreign stairs in the dark with a slight strain, her joints stiff from sitting still for so long by the window.

There was small light coming from the kitchen, but other than that the house seemed to be submerged entirely in darkness. She wouldn't know how to turn on a light if she tried, so she took to slowly looking into the living room for any movement.

"Fuck's sake" she muttered under her breath as the dog was nowhere to be found, along with her cigarettes which were likely ruined by now anyway.

Where she would be able to find more in the middle of nowhere Yorkshire she didn't know, highly doubting there was an off license conveniently down the road.

"Pissing dog" she continued whispering to herself as she stepped further into the room, peering behind the sofa for any sign of it.

Though she didn't want to linger any longer than she had, she couldn't help but notice the room around her.

Even in the dark she could see the thick coating of dust across every surface, on the fireplace, the window frame of splintering paint and wood, warped with age as the one in her room.

The edges of the room where cluttered with odd boxes, filled with old books and piles of paper, with a few tucked away beneath seeming to hold even some clothes and what looked to be record sleeves. Rowan got the sense that there was a reason those ones where at the bottom.

The longer she allowed herself stay in the small, dingy living room, the more she felt she was looking upon someone's entire life packed carelessly away and shoved to the corners of the house.

"Is everything okay?" The voice from the doorway made her jolt round on reflex, how she hadn't heard him walking over she didn't know, but there now stood her father in the doorway.

Her neck burned slightly and she set her jaw as she initially expected some form of reprimand for snooping where she didn't belong.

"Your dog-" She started, her irritation fuelling the impulse of her words before she caught them on her teeth and swallowed them back down again.

Remus waited to see if she would finish her sentence or say anything else, but when she gave no further response and took to avoiding eye contact, he felt as if he ought to say something. He could hardly see her across the dark room and all of sudden became very conscious of how dark it actually was.: