Already Gone [SlyPKC]

Backstories

SSOH POV

"My past?" She questioned, leaning her head on the arm of the sofa. Her legs stretched across the couch, and her feet lied on my lap.

"Yeah." I said.

Peony stared up at the ceiling. "I used to live in Canada, if that's what you mean." She sighed.

"That's exactly what I mean. More detail, please." I pressed, and she pursed her lips.

"British Colombia. I was born in British Colombia." Peony paused and stared into space, as if to discover life's purpose. "I was put up for adoption in British Colombia, and I don't know why..."

"When did you come to America?" I questioned.

She glared at me. "I'm not there yet. Wait." I held my hands up in surrender, and Peony giggled. But her smile soon disappeared. "My foster home was jacked. The kids were nice; they were almost my family because I lived with them for a long time. By my foster mom..." She cringed, "I was positive my foster mom was a witch in another life. The only nice thing she really let me do was join Girl Guides."

"Like Girl Scouts?" I asked.

Peony nodded. "Mm-hm. When we would go camping, I was happiest. I got away Her for a week, or at the least, a weekend." She frowned in clear remembrance.

"What was so bad about your foster mom?"

"I think she was just unhappy. Like, she signed up for this foster care business and she realized it wasn't her style. But then what could she do? Send the three of us to a different home? Then she would be seen as weak. But that foster home was the closest thing to prison. She never let us do anything but clean, cook, that kind of stuff. That's why I enjoyed Girl Guides. I could get at least an hour of not her." Peony's gaze shifted down to her hands, where she was twiddling her thumbs in her lap. "I turned nine yesterday." She bluntly said, and my eyes widened.

"Are you serious?" I asked, moving her legs off my lap and standing.

"Yeah."

"We have to go do something." I claimed, but Peony shook her head and laughed.

"No. Don't." She smiled. "I haven't even finished telling my 'past' yet." She made quotation marks around the word past, and I rolled my eyes.

I sighed, resting back on the couch. "Okay, belated birthday girl. Whatever you want."

Curly took a breath, searching through her mind for memories to tell. "My troop leader was one of the nicest ladies I knew. On the days we'd have meetings, she'd pick me up from school and I'd stay at her house all afternoon with her daughter until the meeting ended. It would usually start at six, but before, she would help us with our homework, feed us. At the end of the day, she made sure I was comfertable. Her house was my second home." Peony smiled. "But I said my farewells to her about a year ago."

Her expression was warm but somber. Of course she had a smile, but I saw pain in her eyes. "I was adopted," She said.

"By who?"

"It was a woman named Veronica, and she had a daughter- Fiona. Veronica was really nice. The day she adopted me was the best day of my life." Peony claimed, smiling at the ceiling. "And Fiona, gosh. she was beautiful- the coolest sister a girl could have."

"How much older was she than you?" I asked.

"Four years. Do you have a brother or sister?"

I laughed. "Nope. I was a mistake anyways. My parents didn't want another kid." Peony's nose crinkled in confusion, making me laugh again. "But I was the best mistake they ever made. They loved me." I rolled my eyes, grinning to the thought of my parents, wondering where they were now. "And you sister wasn't ever mean to you?"

"Not like how my friends at school told me about their brothers or sisters. Their siblings sounded mean!" She crossed her arms. "But Fiona helped me when I needed help, tucked me in at night, made me breakfast in the morning. She even tutored me at school, along with a couple other kids."

"She tutored you in what?"

"Math. I was bad in math." Peony pouted. "Math always brought bad luck, even to Fiona... like they day those creepy 'zombies' came into the school." The name "zombie" rolled off her tongue uneasily. "She was in the middle of a lesson. I remember we heard a scream outside, and Fiona checked what was the matter. And then..." Her eyes started getting teary. I wanted to stop her, but I wanted to hear the rest- even though it was pretty much predictable. "Fiona screamed outside, and growls sounded from the hallways. I ran outside and it was so, so bloody. As if we had a water balloon fight, but the balloons were filled with blood." She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to shake the memories out. "And high screams came from the playground. I ran to the Cafeteria, and kids I ran by were getting ripped apart by those ugly things. I wanted to throw up.

"When I got into the cafeteria, I locked the door behind me and didn't let anyone in. People banged on the doors, but I didn't ever hear any real voices. It was more like roars and groans. And afraid that they would break through, I climbed the ladder that no kid was ever allowed to climb to the roof. The teachers were always afraid the younger kids would fall and crack their heads open."

"I don't understand how you could stay up there that long. You had to have been stranded for at least a week, two at the most." I furrowed my brow. "How did you even-"

"Seamus. It was a cafeteria. And they had a bathroom in the back for the lunch ladies. Everything happened before lunch that day, so the food wasn't eaten yet. They had packs of water and apples and stuff." Peony's gaze shifted to me.

"And what did you do when you weren't eating or sleeping?"

She looked down at her thumbs again, and a tear streamed down her cheek. "Crying... Singing. Wanting my mom to come and get me, but I realized after a few days she was never coming. Sometimes I'd go behind the stage and play with the toys they had on the shelves back there." Peony clenched her fists. "And sometimes I'd see real people walking by while I was on the roof, and they'd see me. They would walk up to the fence, but once they saw the bunch of children in the field and on the blacktop, they'd leave."

I paused, remembering how cruel people could be. "I guess there are the best days and the worst days." I shrugged, unsure of what to say.

Peony sighed, wiping the tears from her eyes. "I take it back. About the best day of my life, I mean."

"Yeah? Why?" I raised a brow.

Curly jumped across the sofa and wrapped her arms around my neck, pulling me into a tight hug. "I changed it to the day you guys rescued me." She choked up a sob, but out of gratitude. I felt her shaky breaths, and she trembled in my arms as I pulled her close."Thankyou."