FLO GRABBED THE HAT OFF OF THE WINDOWSILL and placed it upon rose's head, making sure she would at least have a little bit of warmth on the trip. she took a thin flannel she had and put it over rose's white shirt.
buttoning up her own brown flannel, flo grabbed a hair tie and tied her knotted-hair back and away from her face. after how many days they had been in that cabin, they were finally going to leave. once and for all.
rose grabbing the rabbit she had by it's ears and dragged it along with her as she went outside to wait and cool off. flo picked up her bag and followed after her.
she grabbed rose's hand and they began to walk away, before flo came to a stop, remembering something that could be a great tool.
"stay here." flo whispered, holding up her hand in a stopping way, as she quickly went up the stairs into the cabin.
rose stood there and looked around the forest. all the trees either had a couple orange and brown leaves or none at all. they had all fallen to the ground. she had learned in her kindergarten class that it was apart of fall. it made sense to her. if all the leaves were falling, that meant it was fall.
looking around once more until flo came out, she noticed a bundle of flowers by a tree's visible roots. thinking that the flowers were pretty enough to give to flo as a little gift, she began walking towards them. they were blue with little spots on them, which made rose happy due to flo's favorite color being blue. and once she was just about over there, she was stopped.
flo came up behind her and picked her up, stopping her from going any further. the idea of a twig snapping, rose falling, or even just stepping on a crunchy leaf terrified her to death. and the moment she went outside and saw her off the trail? her instincts kicked in and picked her up.
"what were you doing?" flo whispered, shrugging her shoulders.
rose turned towards the tree and pointed at the wildflowers, and flo followed her eye-level. her eyes quickly found the flowers she was talking about and looked at rose.
"why do you need them?" flo whispered.
rose pointed a finger at her sister, signaling that they were actually for her.
flo's heart warmed up at this small action her sister did. she smiled and turned towards the flowers, picking one of them up and tucking it behind rose's ear.
"my favorite color on my favorite person." flo whispered, as rose smiled happily at her.
the older sibling nudged her head towards her bag, signaling that they should get going. rose lifted up her rabbit into her arms and walked by flo as she grabbed her softball bag.
flo finally grabbed rose's hand, and the two were off. never to be seen at the cabin together again. it was a great feeling, such as the feeling of getting out of school for the summer. the stress basically slides off your shoulders, you can feel your breathing go back to normal, and just maybe, the air smells a little fresher.
but flo felt different. yes, of course she was free from the cabin, but her shoulders still felt heavy. the stress of taking care of a little girl in a world where you can't talk overcame her.
"just wait for the outcome, florence." she told herself in her mind, as the softball bat sticking out of her bag shuffled a little bit.
••••
AFTER ABOUT 15 MINUTES, the two made it into town. they headed straight towards a diner, planning to stay there for a while, maybe even just for the night. the thought of going a different direction from their cabin was terrifying. what if it wasn't worth it? what if the people wouldn't help them? thoughts rushed through flo's mind as her hands became sweaty.
they entered the diner (where the door had been torn off) and rose headed towards a booth, sitting down and turning towards flo.
"can i have paper?" she asked quietly, writing on her hand.
flo nodded and opened her bag quietly, bringing out the paper and crayons. rose happily took them from her hands and began coloring, which flo had come to learn that it was a way for her to calm down.
"i'm going..." flo made her two fingers walk on her hand, "to the pharmacy." she finished, pretending to open a bottle of pills.
rose nodded, understanding what she was saying.
"i need you," flo pointed at her, "to stay here." she pointed towards the ground, then putting up a thumbs up as a way of saying 'got it?'
rose smiled and nodded her head yes, as flo patted her head and got up, heading towards the door.
••••
FLO STOOD BEHIND THE COUNTER OF THE PHARMACY, taking anything useful that others probably wouldn't need. such as one roll of bandages, a pack of bandaids, a bottle of mixed pills she had brought together, and a couple extra pairs of socks.
thinking she had everything she needed, she decided to walk through the aisles once more.
the aisle of chips was still full, which wasn't a surprise to her. who would want to make a huge sound just for some chips? even though flo missed eating chips with her friends, she could live without them.
her friends. flo had barely thought about them through this whole time. they were in a whole different town. she never got to say goodbye because she never thought she would have to say goodbye that quickly. a couple of her friends were on her softball team, but she had known for a fact that only a couple were hiding. most of them had died, due to her visiting the field a couple days after the incident and seeing leftover softball bags and bats.
tearing up at the thought of the empty field, she thought back to her friends. wendy had probably panicked and hid in her basement, but flo couldn't really blame her. her basement was awesome. smiling at the thought of all their sleepovers down there, her smile was interrupted by the thought of her basement being torn up and quiet, with stains all over the walls.
flo shook the thought from her head and moved onto another friend, avery. avery was the definition of perfection. from her blonde hair to her blue eyes, girls wanted to be her and boys wanted to be with her. the only reason that avery and flo became friends was due to the fact that flo didn't want to look like avery. in fact, flo thought that sometimes, she looked better than avery. she knew that even pretty girls can have insecurities, but she doubted that avery had any. she was tan and thin, she had brand new expensive clothes, and a nice smile.
the brunette thought of avery being in this horrifying situation. what would she do? would she actually be smart and take cover in her house, or would she run down two blocks to ask josh if she could come into his house? flo had decided that avery was smart enough to stay at her own house, and came to the conclusion that avery was still probably still alive.
flo could've thought of many more friends, but was snapped back into reality when she remember that rose was all alone. looking at her surroundings, she was still in the chip aisle.
she left the aisle with her things and began walking to the door at a fast pace.
well, maybe a little too fast.
right as flo was about to walk out of the store for a while, she heard a thud, making her blood go cold, her face go pale, and her hands go sweaty.
she slowly turned away from the door, and back behind her. sitting on the ground, now opened up, was the bottle of pills.
and about 45 seconds away was a creature, running towards that sound.
"no, no, no, no!" flo whispered, now fully aware that she was going to be expose, one way or another.
she ran down an aisle to the back, throwing open the small doors and hiding behind a counter. she dropped all of her things beside her and put her sleeve up to her mouth and nose, trying her best not to breath loudly, or breathe at all.
the tears that were forming in her eyes out of sadness earlier were now falling out of her eye with anger and anxiety.
"why did i drop those pills?! why did i wait so long to leave?! i'm such an idiot. i'm just a pathetic little idiot, idiot, idiot..."
the thoughts faded into her mind on replay, as she heard something enter the store.
flo heard it walking around from corner to corner, as she prayed it wouldn't get to the back of the store. her heart basically flying out of her chest, flo looked in the back of store in hope of anything to help her.
the footsteps became more audible, making tears run down flo's face as she shut her eyes tightly. hoping anything would happen just to get the monster to stay away from her.
"what about rose?! oh gosh, she's all alone in that little diner! oh god, please say she's ok." flo's mind spoke to her even more, as the sounds of the creatures feet was so close, she guessed it was getting closer to the counter.
until she felt something drip onto her shoulder, making her freeze in place.
slowly lifting her head up, she saw it.
flo thought for sure she was done for. she should've said her prayers right then and there and let the creature take her alive. she sat behind the counter, waiting for it to happen. but it never did. why?
because it can't see her.
the creature listened a little longer, before leaving the back and going out the broken window.
flo sat in shock. she couldn't move. she wouldn't dare move. it was right above her. it had gotten it's...stuff on her flannel. flo turned on her side and quietly grabbed her things, and walking out of the store in shock.
"it's...blind." she mouthed to herself in shock.
••••
AFTER FLO RETURNED TO THE DINER, she found rose in the kitchen. and once she asked her why she was in the kitchen, rose simply said that she heard noises.
flo knew how smart rose actually was. if she heard noises, she would hide. even before the incident, she would always hide if she heard noises.
with the sun setting, flo decided to make rose a little bed in one of the booths. she rolled up an extra blanket into a pillow against the wall, and had a thin blanket ready for rose when she got tired.
the two then sat at the booth, with rose coloring and flo wrapping a bandaid around her own finger.
"what did you get at the pharmacy?" rose asked.
"bandaids." flo responded, remembering that she previously had a deal to herself about not telling rose what happened. it's just that if rose heard a creature actually came into town, she wouldn't sleep. so flo had convinced her that the noises she was hearing previously were probably squirrels.
rose rubbed her tired eyes as she continued doodling on her paper, the sun almost setting enough to stop shining on her face.
"want to rest? we have to walk a lot tomorrow." flo offered.
rose nodded and quietly yawned into her hand, leaning down on the pillow by her lap.
flo stood up and grabbed the blanket, throwing it over her sister and tucking her in. she slipped the hat off of her head and felt her sweaty forehead. bunching the flannel at her wrists up, she wiped it across rose's forehead so she'd be a little bit more comfortable.
she turned to her bag and pulled out another pill, handing it to rose and grabbing the water.
"these don't help me, flo." rose insisted quietly.
"yes they do, you just don't feel it at first." flo assured her, opening the water for her as she put the pill in her mouth.
rose took a sip, and flo closed the water up and put it away.
finally, flo pressed her fingers to her lips and placed them upon rose's forehead.
"goodnight." flo smiled, as rose smiled back to her.
flo then went to her side of the booth and laid down as well, attempting to get a little bit of sleep.
"hey, flo?" rose whispered with a tired voice, whispering to her under the table.
"yes?" flo asked, turning towards her.
"i'm so happy that you're my sister."
taking the compliment by surprise, flo still put on a smile.
"you're not too bad yourself, rosie."
A/N:
helloo!! so this chapter was a little longer than the first one, and i'm happy about that! anyways, i think the next chapter will be my best <3 it's such a cute one!! (it's really not)