Prompt: Leaves
Word count: 1850
Notes:
• Again, Edith, Timothy, Robert, Mr. Jackle, and Mrs. Jackle are all OC's created by StorySnippets SaharaCastine and myself.
"Get back down here, you little brat!"
Mrs. Jackle yelled, heavy footsteps sounding on the bottom step, echoing dully.
Edith hurried inside her room and slammed the door, she knew that those were Mr. Jackle's steps, not her aunts.
She locked it, hid her key on her desk, and hurled herself onto her bed, already knowing she'd get double the punishment- double the slaps whenever she went back down, maybe tomorrow for school.
But, she couldn't go back downstairs right now, she would never apologize. Not when she had done nothing wrong.
Father wouldn't allow any of this if he had been here- but he wasn't here.
Trying to keep the tears away, she bit her lip and widened her eyes. Robert was the only one who knew where she'd hidden the spare key, she desperately hoped he wouldn't tell his father- her uncle, otherwise her only safety would be gone.
Like Alan.
Already, Edith could hear her aunt's words tomorrow, "You're so ungrateful! We've taken you in, fed you, kept you warm and yet you complain! So selfish!"
Then she'd get a slap from her uncle.
A hard one. And another.
Timothy would smirk, blink, and do nothing for her. Robert would stare, he too never stood up to his father for her.
No one did.
And that was alright, she could take it.
She could.
•••
"Ha! Pole, you look so... upset. What?- did my words hurt you? You. A big girl?" Edith felt the familiar smirk light up her face and she twisted her skirt to make a bigger show out of this.
Below her bangs, Jill's pale eyes watered fast and her lip trembled, but she kept her chin high, "Leave me alone," She acknowledged the rest with an even deeper frown, "All of you!"
Typical Jill, she thought, thinking that by standing up for herself the group would leave her alone.
"Are those tears, Pole? Remember, big girls don't cry." Edith teasingly chastised, clicking her tongue in the way that she knew was infuriating. She'd learned it from Timothy mostly.
One of the boys snickered from behind, his sweater too big and hanging off his figure funny, "Poor Pole... Who are you going to cry on? Mummy?"
Darla sneered, her sweater also too big, but sure to be a haven of not just scratchy fibers- but of warmth, "From what I've heard, Jill's parents are too busy and don't care about her- but who can blame them, I wouldn't want to have to care for such a... crybaby."
Shoving at Edith a bit, Jill broke away from their mob, tears visibly slipping off of her cheeks.
Rolling her eyes, Edith stopped a fierce Darla from following the girl with a hand, "We all have to get home, let the chicken run away where she can bawl her baby eyes out. Besides, there is always tomorrow."
Jimmy shifted, "Yeah, Mom will be mad if I'm late, but I'll see you," He grinned and scurried off on the school's half-frozen, prematurely cut lawn, in the direction of his house.
Edith said goodbye to the rest of the splitting-up group and then walked in the direction of her aunt and uncle's house, mindlessly moving.
But halfway there, as the cold, autumn air wafted through the town, she saw a bench, polished metal, beautiful- and covered in trash and dirt. Wrapped in the grey London filth.
Not caring if her skirt would be ruined by the dirt, she sat down and pulled her knees up to her chest, resting her head and setting her bag next to herself.
As the sky darkened, the lamp posts all down the streets began to be lit, and the sky looked cozy with warm light.
When her legs began slipping away from her chest and her eyelids began falling, something scurried on the ground around her feet and she pulled her black flats up quickly, sure to see an animal.
But nothing showed itself, only an orange and scarlet leaf, crispy and dainty, flew past. She lowered her legs back to the ground and looked up.
In the yellow light, Edith studied the leaf, as it turned in the air, as it somehow, beautifully mastered gliding in the wind.
That leaf was followed by a swarm of others, swallowing up the sky, so angelic in the way they moved that she envied them.
And then she realized she envied them for more than that they were celestial, but for the fact that were leaves, they could run away in the wind, they could float close to the clouds, they could leave.
They weren't stuck, they were always propelling forward in the wind, seeing new places, but always with another leaf beside them. Never alone.
Then she looked down to the street, and beneath one of her flats was a leaf, a bit trampled, a couple of holes broken into the golden center, struggling to free itself from under her shoe.
Stuck.
There she was.
Gently, Edith moved her foot off of the leaf and she silently urged it to fly off with the rest- to get away.
And it did try, it started off the ground in a flurry of spirals, it leapt for the sky and touched the rest.
But then it fell, slowly, sadly onto the stone path. The leaf was left alone while the others flew away.
Discarded because it was broken and not quite good enough to soar. Like her, she supposed.
Crunch. The sound of footsteps clapping on the pathway startled Edith and she almost fell off the bench.
"Good evening to be walking, yes?" A man asked the woman linked on his arm, walking gradually on the pathway, refined and wealthy.
The woman snorted and licked her red lips, using one hand to fix a carefully planned curl, "Yes, dear." She giggled and covered her mouth with a floral handkerchief.
Then, in a horrible dull crunch!- Edith watched as the toe of the woman's heel fell over the discarded, lonely leaf.
It was truly broken now.
As the couple moved on, she reprimanded herself, what was she doing mourning over a leaf?
She still hadn't received the punishment she was supposed to be getting yesterday for disobeying and she was sure to get it tonight.
So, she needed to go home, sneak in quietly lest they see her and punish her, and lock herself in her room. For how long she didn't know.
•••
That night, as the grandfather clock chimed one o'clock exactly, Edith shifted again in her bed and pulled her blanket tighter around herself.
Her stomach growled loudly, yearning for the dinner that the rest of the Jackle household had enjoyed.
But she couldn't leave her room, she couldn't take the punishment, and besides, if she left, she probably wouldn't be allowed dinner; so, it was pointless.
She hadn't been able to sleep, her hunger clawing at her, and also for the fact that she was too petrified that her aunt and uncle would try and get in her room if she closed her eyes and let down her guard for one moment.
Tears stung the sides of her eyes and some leaked down and onto her covers, but she reminded herself to take her own advice- "Big girls don't cry".
Yet every time something creaked, every time the wind smacked her window, she whimpered and she clenched her blankets so tightly her knuckles turned white.
In case the lock failed or they found a key, she had situated her chest full of clothes in front of the terracotta-stained door and hoped that her uncle wasn't strong enough to blow right through and that she would have time to escape.
Then, all of a sudden, in the dark moonlit aura of her room, she sat up in bed and thought hard.
An idea crept into her mind. Edith couldn't be punished or slapped if she wasn't around. If she stayed, she wasn't sure she could stand it anymore.
Maybe her plan should be set into action earlier than she'd originally planned.
Leaving was for the best.
Her bag for school sat lopsided on the floor, the rest of her room- the guest room, was empty, all of her things having been packed away way before.
Sliding out of the bed, she picked up the schoolbag and breathed out confidently.
Today was the day, if her one friend- the one who understood- had done it; she could too. Like him. Like the leaves.
She was brave.
Brave enough to be a terror at school, brave enough to laugh at Jill Pole's pain- she had to be brave enough to run away.
Besides, who would miss the bully?
She slung the bag over her shoulder and blinked, in the dark; especially in the dark, the white-yellow walls of the room looked so blank, the room held an air of emptiness- of loneliness.
Edith grabbed a woolen sweater and a large coat, and she put on a pair of wool socks, it was cold out, and she wouldn't stand around contemplating this for a second longer.
She headed for the window and her fingers slowly unlocked the window cinch, careful to be sure it didn't make a sound, she held the bottom of the window with her right hand and situated her body in-between the exit.
She didn't know where she would go- or how she'd survive, but, somehow, she would.
The frosty wind blew into her face and stung her cheeks, hands, and ears, but there were only a few feet until the ground, she wouldn't die.
Bracing herself for impact, Edith hurled herself off of the windowsill and felt the hard ground come up to meet her.
Blood trickled down from her lip and began already drying on her chin, gravel embedded itself into her palms and knees, and her ankle felt funny, but she didn't have time for this.
The feel of wind gushing around caused her arms to come up, and she cradled herself instinctively. And then she ran atop the hard-packed ground, hearing it slap against her feet, hearing the low murmurs of life in a London that was past her bedtime. Somehow different than London in the morning. Very different.
Where she was headed for? She had absolutely no idea- but, she reminded herself, that she, like a leaf, would float, effortlessly, or slowly, no matter which; and she would leave, she would fly- she would find what she was looking for. Even if she might fall, she'd get back up.
And maybe, just maybe, she'd find someone who'd keep her safe- if people like that, like her father, like her brother, existed, she didn't know anymore.
What if someone robbed her? Hurt her?- she had no other family to go to, she had no friends that could assist her and the people lingering on the streets tonight looked less than friendly and inviting... but as she turned to see the Jackle's house fading from her view, she sucked in a breath.
Anywhere was better than here.