How... How did this even start?
Well... I saw her, alone, in the forest by my home. The forest, by the home, near a town, in which I'm known as some weird hermit, living by all my lonesome.
She was sitting there alone, crying. A child smaller than most I've met, yet a child louder than anyone I've ever heard. This was no good, she would've attracted surrounding wildlife if she kept it up.
Luckily, she didn't resist, no matter how scandalous that sounds, when I carried her away from her spot towards my home deeper into the forest to keep her safe. She wouldn't stop weeping, however, and being taken to some random weirdo's home for "protection" usually would permit for suspicion and fear. I knew she was scared, but of what?
She could be scared of me, that's one clear-cut possibility. Considering that I'm just some random stranger to her, taking her in, basically kidnapping her, and keeping her safe from the forest around us.
However, she didn't seem scared when she looked at me, she also didn't refuse to eat any of the food I gave her, nor did she resist when I had to take her back out to my car. She especially didn't complain when I drove her to town to see if we could find her parents.
Unfortunately, I had no luck there, and for the sake of her safety, I had to return us both to my home. Luckily, and the only positive thing to happen with us in the town, I bought us both some ice cream. It was a lovely drive back, but she was still silent. At least she was no longer crying.
...
From my car to my humble room of an abode she clung to me as if she wanted to stay as close to me as possible. Like I was protecting her from more than just the wildlife.
She never spoke a single word. Not one since when I found her in the forest, or until I had to tuck her into my bed, so she could peacefully go to sleep.
I was fine sleeping on my little sofa. It gave me enough comfort and space for me to think.
What could I do? I had to find her parents, but what if that what she's afraid of? That would explain why she was alone in the forest. But what if she was separated from her parents? Such a situation would certainly be traumatizing for a child.
Despite so, the way she clung to me as if her life depended on it seems to make the abusive parent situation more probable. During my initial taking her into my home, our walk around the town to find her parents, even during our final walk from just my car, she was desperate to stay near me. All of that, however, may have just been instinctual, as I too would have clung to whoever was supposedly protecting you from the dangers of a dark forest.
Unfortunately, such thoughts will have to wait until the marrow, I needed to sleep.
...
Sleep was not something that usually came to me easily, but this night was an exception. I'm glad for that now.
Even if I was rudely awoken by the shuffling of tiny feet, then the pressure of a small body against mine.
It was her, the child, she who never spoke, whom I just found, and she who needs to find her own home. However, in the meantime, I guess I'm her giant protective teddy bear.
She was snuggling up against me, and I didn't know why. I'm just some stranger helping to find her parents, not at all a good father for her. But all was fine, if she didn't mind my lonely-presence, then I was fine with her cute clinging.
Sleep came even easier then. Even if I was being snuggled to death by a rabid hugger.
...
Morning arrived, the sun was having no mercy on my face as I awoke again. Today was to be a strange day, I had known this to be certain. Three things were different in the way I had woken up today.
One: My insomnia wasn't killing me, that I was grateful for.
Two: I wasn't sleeping in my bed, and isn't ever the case in my home.
Three: There was a little girl curled up against my chest, sleeping alongside me.
Luckily, I wasn't startled by such differences, and my staring eyes hadn't awoken the child. But sadly, I had to move so I could prepare us both to travel back into town. So I had to wake her up to allow me to move off the couch. With a gentle rub of her back, she was awake and beginning to enter the conscious realm.
The sun in her eyes made her squint to see her surroundings, that or she just stared at me with barely open eyes.
Suddenly, and without any warning, she wrapped herself around me tighter and spoke into my ears for the first time.
"Don't leave me. Don't you ever leave me."
I was taken aback!
Her first words and they weren't a threat to me or a cry for help. Such things you would expect from a child who was just taken by some stranger, albeit for reasons of safety for both parties rather than for malicious kidnapping.
Instead, her first words towards me, are a plea to me. Spoken in a voice so raspy and dead sounding, that I almost thought I was still asleep. A quick moment of thinking and a sudden realization that she's was coiling her arms around me reassured me that I was well awake.
This was truly surprising to me. Yet, as I tried to get her off of my neck and chest, she clung to me harder and tighter. So much so, that her arms wrapped fully around my neck, and her head dug deep into my left shoulder. Almost to the point of choking me. Almost.
Between my own exasperated coughing, I spat out my own plea.
"P-Please stop holding onto me so tightly. Yo-You're choking me."
She flinched, quickly loosened her grip on me, and backed her head away so she could look me in the eyes.
It was then I realized, her eyes...
They were pitch black where her irises should be. Like big black marbles floating in her eyes. Staring into me. Yes, those eyes were real, and they worked, but such a unique feature was even more startling than the number of differences I would have to face today.
Now that light of the sun could show me what she looked like fully, everything about this child suddenly felt different.
Her eyes, were, unique of course. Along with her hair, now that I was this close, it didn't feel like hair, it felt like a light fabric. Then her weight, she was not only lighter than any other normal child, and I realize now that her hands on and around my neck felt nothing like skin, it felt more like leather.
She was like a living doll.
Then her gaze changed from staring into my own eyes to the window. Her grip on me loosened on me as well.
With this chance, I completely removed her from on top of me, to on just the couch, so I could stand above the child, and get an even better look at her. She obviously resisted immensely, at least she did until I placed her on the couch so we could sit across from each other instead of piled up together.
She was dazed by my quick movements, and she was trying to process everything that happened. When I sat down across from her on a spare stool I had, she must've realized that I wasn't trying to run away from her, or trying to kill her, or anything of the sort. Because then she said:
"You're... You're not leaving me?"
How did it take me this long to realize this?
She wasn't a human child, or at least she wasn't a plainly "normal" human kid. Her eyes were basically marbles, her other facial features were seemingly painted on, and her mouth didn't move when she "spoke." In fact, her lips were sewn shut.
Poor thing. What happened to her?
"No. I won't leave you. But, does this mean you don't have anyone else to go to?"
She looked away from me, and she was visibly uncomfortable. I had to assume that the question was a heavy one for her.
"It's ok, you're completely safe in here. I won't hurt you, and nothing else can while you're inside. But I need to know if I can help return you to your actual parents. They must miss you."
It took her a small moment to think about my comments, however, after a soft turn towards me, the hurt in her eyes made me think that she was really in pain when she said:
"No one misses me. I have no parents to love. I have no one to return to. I am a monster."
...
If she could, I'm sure she would cry right about now. However, and I assume it's because she is a doll, she isn't crying, only making the sounds that a child would make when they're about to cry.
Also, her voice wasn't even really a voice, it was a transfer of thoughts. She was "speaking" to me through her mind. Which means she's alive enough to think, but, it also means her mouth has got to be in a lot of pain, considering the awful sewing keeping it shut.
But suddenly, I had an idea, it might scare her if I do it now, but I have to show that she can trust me with anything. I've just got to do it slowly and without sudden movement.
"Stand still. Don't move. I have an idea, trust me."
She didn't move from my couch, but she still seemed closer and closer to crying like she did when I first saw her.
I stood up, went to a utensil drawer, and drew out a sharp knife. One I only use for preparing freshly hunted meals. I was about to turn towards her again when I noticed that the food I gave her last night was untouched. Obviously, she couldn't eat. How did it take me so long to notice that? I must have been ridiculously tired to not notice such obvious issues.
Ignoring my stupid ignorance, I turned back towards the girl, knife carefully, and hopefully non-threateningly in my hand. And right as she saw me with the weapon, I had to quickly explain exactly what I was about to do, before she was to burst into further tears.
"I'm going to cut free your mouth. Ok? Do you trust me? Just, stay still."
I walked closer to her, she flinched but remained as calm as can be. Which was incredible, considering she was on the verge of crying a river, and there's a man coming at her with a knife in hand.
I knelt in front of her, just low enough to get to her tiny head. With my left hand on the right side of her head, to hold it steady, I raised up the knife to her mouth as steadily as possible. I knew that any sudden movement would make her flinch harder than what I knew was safe for either of us.
One last check: Her marble looking eyes were trained on me, and in between her blinking, her gaze was switching from the knife in my hand and against her mouth, to my eyes. She was still close to crying, but I could see that she was trying her hardest to trust me. She was shaking a whole lot as well, everything below her little shoulders was steadily trembling.
Luckily, with previous knowledge of helping others with a knife, I began to cut away at the ties keeping her mouth closed. The ties weren't hard at all, they were just strings, but I still needed to be extremely careful.
Then, with the precision of a surgeon, and the delicacy of an artist, her mouth was freed to be opened. However, the leftovers of the strings were still in place, so I had to carefully pull out the rest of each string to completely remove them from her face. Then that was it. Her mouth was completely tie free. No strings attached.
When my deed was done, I back away, removed my hands away from her face and put the knife away somewhere that wasn't threatening.
One more check: Her eyes were still staring. She seemed less close to crying at least, and she was using her own small hands and feeling her newly freed mouth. She opened and closed her mouth repeatedly, seemingly expecting it to hurt like hell.
But her face was brimming, she was smiling, through both her eyes and mouth this time.
However, she couldn't speak with her mouth, all that came out was some poor attempts at language. Which was not at all surprising, considering that her mouth must have been shut for so long.
"Don't rush yourself. That sewing must have hurt a lot, and it wouldn't be necessarily healthy or helpful for you to rush trying to speak."
She was unmoving, staring at me while wiping the remainder of tears from her face.
"Ttt-t-tt-t-ttttt-t-th-th-"
She was pushing herself. Exactly what I said not to do.
"Thank you, sir. I-I don't know what to say. I've never been able to use my mouth before. Thank you."
She stood up, walked to me, mouth wide open with a smile, as she continued being a rabid hugger.
I was ok with this.
"Is- is it ok that I'm the person that gets to take care of you?"
She started to cry again, no how mcuh she was trying not to. Fortunately, these were tears of pure joy, as she stayed attached to me and used her mind to speak.
"You know what. I'm ok with this. Ok with you. Ok, with everything. Even if you aren't my parents. I trust you with my everything now."
...
How... How did things even end up like this?
I met her in the forest alone, crying, and all by herself.
She is some creature that wasn't, or at least didn't look human.
But I don't care. She didn't care either.
I guess this means I'm not alone anymore.
"I'll take care of you as if I were your parents. You have my word. Trust me"
"T-t-tt--t... I, I-iiii."
"I love you, papa."
And to think that it's only been one day since I met her. She gets attached way too easily. I guess I get attached too easily as well...
"I... I love you too."
---------------------------------The End---------------------------------
Author's Notes:
This story was based on nothing except for the burst of random inspiration and creativity that infected me and my siblings for about a week. It just happened, because, reasons...
I'm glad I got to write something at least. Gotta get those creative juices flowing I guess.
also this story was rushed as hell and really doesn't make any logical sense but whatever it's cute I guess yay