The Bright Colours of Misery [COMPLETED]

𝙲𝙷𝙰𝙿𝚃𝙴𝚁 𝚃𝚆𝙴𝙽𝚃𝚈 𝚃𝙷𝚁𝙴𝙴 -the signs-

The air froze the girl's noses, causing them to turn red within seconds, Heidi and Frieda looked identical. They didn't exchange a single word with each other, but they both held onto Gisela's hand tightly, they were both fond of her. That was one of the very few things they had in common. The little blond girl hung between them, as if she were on a swing and her joyful expression warmed Heidi's heart. She was still so young, barely five yet. Sometimes Heidi wished to go back to that age, but at the same time she couldn't think of anything worse. She didn't know Alexander back then, and she was too shy to even look anyone in the eye. Through Gisela and Manfred she realised she had grown and improved on certain things. I found it interesting and it also made me feel incredibly proud of my human. I had been guiding her for almost a decade, and oh how much I had enjoyed it (for the most part).

I truly loved Heidi and it might have been against the rules but

I never had any intention to follow them anyway.

Once they reached  the street Ingrid lived on, Heidi looked around and noticed it was so much prettier than apfelstraße—like most streets—but there was something about it that she couldn't quite put her finger on, that she didn't like about it. It was more of a feeling than an observation, but she couldn't get past it, no matter how hard she tried. Regardless of how many wonderful colours and strange sculptured shapes clung to the buildings, she couldn't bring herself to like it, solely because of this strange sensation building up in the pit of her stomach. It wasn't fear, it was discomfort, like people were watching her, like judgement followed her.

Frieda knocked on the Blum family's brown front door since she was well aware of the fact no one else would do it. It took a while for the door to open, during those minutes, Frieda turned to her sisters with a raised eyebrow, they could only shrug in response. Heidi turned around for a second, feeling these strange omnipresent eyes on her once more, Gisela turned around curious about what Heidi might have been looking at and Frieda found herself doing so as well.

"Hallo..?" A dark haired woman then greeted halfway out the door, her face hinting immense confusion.

Frieda hurriedly turned around and conjured a polite smile.

"Guten tag." She said, but before she could say anything else the woman who Heidi supposed was Frau Blum raised an eyebrow and looked around the street hurriedly, seeming to ignore Frieda.

"Sorry," She then said, after noticing no one was around, my human wondered if she also felt this invisible gaze. "Guten tag, young ladies" She got a better look at them and her face broke into a smile, they were all holding hands, bundled up in thick homemade coats, gloves, scarves and mittens, and she had seen one of them before. "Frieda, how nice to see you again" something in her tone made me think she was weighing her words carefully before saying them.

"It's nice to see you too, Frau Blum." she started holding out her little basket with the Strudel. "I baked today...with my sisters and we wanted to give this to Ingrid as a late birthday present. I haven't been able to see her much lately but I could never forget her birthday."

Frau Blum took the basket from her gently.

"I'm sorry, it's not much, we can't afford to give it all-"

"Don't you worry about that, Frieda. Thank you very much, I'm sure Ingrid will like it,I'll tell her you came by with...Heidi and Gisela right?." She interjected, keeping her warm smile. Heidi and Gisela nodded.

"Can't we see her?" Frieda asked, her eyes filled with hope. I had noticed how much she longed to talk to her at school lately, but her teacher wouldn't let her or anyone else do so.

Frau Blum shook her head. "You better get going girls, it's getting dark, but again, thank you very much." She told them hurriedly, before slamming the door shut.

Frieda stood there for a moment, silent. She turned to her sisters and without taking Gisela's hand just walked away before them. Heidi exchanged a look with Gisela, they both agreed to just follow without questions.

When they came back to their house, everyone was home and Manfred took great pleasure in tugging on Heidi's dress. He was now walking and running around, behaving more like a toddler than a baby. It made Wilma—who sat on the couch—laugh a lot. My human's expression was priceless as little manfred didn't stop when she ordered him to.

"Come here, Heidi." Wilma chuckled, shuffling to the side of the sofa and patting the spot beside her. Heidi rolled her eyes and sat down, Manfred following her with his wobbly little legs as quickly as he could.

"What are you knitting?" the girl asked, watching Wilma work on something with a lovely lilac colour.

"A pair of mittens for mama, she always forgets to make some for herself." Wilma whispered to her. "Don't tell her though, it's a surprise."

Heidi grinned and quietly watched the two wooden sticks move and shape small patterns while resting her head on her older sister's shoulder.

She almost fell asleep to tell the truth, but then she was woken up by Frieda.

"I just don't understand why!" She exclaimed. Trudy sighed and got down on her knees next to her.

"It has nothing to do with you, dear." Trudy started. "I'm sure Ingrid would have loved to see you."

Frieda looked away quickly, it seemed like a stupid thing to say, her question had not been about that.

"But why can't I?" Frieda tried again. "Not even her mother wants me to!"

Trudy gave her a sad watery smile, and gently wiped her daughter's few tears.

"Frau Blum made you leave for your own good." She told her.

"But what about Ingrid!?"

The room went quiet then, neither Alfred or Trudy had the words nor the knowledge to explain it all to their nine year old, so Frieda's questions remained unanswered, but they wouldn't remain that way for long.