⇾ 𝐈 𝐍𝐄𝐄𝐃 𝐘𝐎𝐔 | 𝐆𝐞𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐞 𝐇𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐨𝐧

𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑝𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑇𝑤𝑜: 𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑠

❝ 𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑠
𝑊𝑒𝑙𝑙, 𝐼 𝑐𝑎𝑛'𝑡 𝑏𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑘 𝑎𝑤𝑎𝑦 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑠𝑒 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑠
𝐶𝑎𝑛'𝑡 𝑟𝑢𝑛 𝑎𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑
'𝐶𝑎𝑢𝑠𝑒 𝐼'𝑚 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝑒
𝑊ℎ𝑜𝑎, 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑠𝑒 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑙𝑜𝑣𝑒 𝑤𝑜𝑛'𝑡 𝑙𝑒𝑡 𝑚𝑒 𝑏𝑒, 𝑦𝑒𝑎ℎ... ❞

***

Elouise woke up the next morning at six like she always did. She'd trained herself to wake up without an alarm because she didn't want to wake her sisters before they had to get up. It hadn't taken long for her to fall into the routine once she'd started trying.

She didn't have to make anything for the other girls to eat that day. She always took them to get donuts at a bakery down the road from the school. When she passed the window and noticed that there was now well over a foot of snow standing on the ground, she did a double-take, not knowing if she'd seen it correctly.

When she decided she had, she went down to the phone to see if the school had perhaps called. When she saw an unheard message, hope flooded her veins. Maybe she wouldn't have to go to school today after all!

She clicked the button tentatively, awaiting the message like a death sentence. When the voice of her principal drifted throughout the room, she breathed out a sigh of relief.

Her relief quickly turned to dread when she heard someone's feet pad up the floor behind her. Turning around, she was met with the face of her mother.

"No school?" Gloria asked.

Elouise nodded timidly.

They fell into a heavy silence that weighed down on Elouise like heavy, binding chains, tying her to the scene that she wanted so badly to leave.

Her mother nodded and opened her mouth to say something, but Elouise motioned for her to stop. "Don't yell at me," she said. "Please."

"I wasn't going to," Gloria responded, looking down at her feet. "I was going to say sorry for last night."

"'S alright," Elouise replied, folding her hands behind her back and twiddling her thumbs just to keep herself busy.

"How about I make you girls some breakfast?" she then asked.

Elouise nodded abruptly, mumbling a quiet, "sure," before slipping away from her mother and going back upstairs, feeling angry enough to kick a wall.

It didn't seem right to let Gloria control her like this, but it was always like this. Gloria would yell and get drunk, and then apologize. She'd say she wouldn't do it again, or that she didn't mean it, but Elouise knew that she was lying. She knew that she only cared about herself. That's what hurt most out of it all. Elouise really didn't understand how her mother had changed so quickly. Losing a family member was supposed to make them closer, but it didn't. It ripped them apart. It was like the world was out to get her.

When Elouise returned to the girls' attic room, she found Lizzy stirring around in her bed, clearly not wanting to move.

"School's closed, Liz," said Elouise. "You can go back to bed if you'd like."

Instead of doing that, she sat up, hearing the clutter coming from downstairs where Elouise knew that Gloria was beginning to cook breakfast.

"Has someone broken into our house?" asked Lizzy, reaching into her nightstand to fetch the wire-rimmed glasses she needed to see and slipping them on her face, looking around and adjusting to them.