Letting out another sigh, Petra rolled over onto her back so she was staring up at the wooden ceiling of her bedroom. Her blue eyes were wide open as she traced the pattern in the wood with her gaze, completely adjusted to the darkness.
Outside the wind was blowing steadily, rustling the leaves of the tree that their tree-house were in. It was raining softly, droplets trailing down the glass of Petra's bedroom window.
Petra turned her head on the pillow, searching for the numbers on her alarm clock. 04:00
Petra groaned, rolling over again and burying her face into the fabric of her pillow. Closing her eyes again, and wishing sleep would just come. Four in the morning, that meant she'd gone practically the entire night without a wink of sleep. Again.
Petra wasn't sure why it had become so hard to sleep. One nightmare a few nights back, that was all it took. Her own worries and fears has kept her up every night since.
During the day, Petra had done a good job of hiding the fact that she was tired. Since it was getting cold out, the Order had settled a bit from all their adventures, at least until summer rolled around. Jesse and Lukas spent the days reading, with Olivia occasionally joining them when she wasn't working on a new invention. Axel was most of the time pestering the three of them, eating, or even trying to get on Petra's nerves if he could find her.
Which wasn't the easiest task, as Petra was particularly good at slipping off unnoticed. She spent most of the chilly days in her bedroom, working on enchanting Miss Butter – and of course taking involuntary naps in between.
Come on, just one hour of sleep at the least. Petra thought in annoyance, gritting her teeth slightly. She had a feeling she wasn't going to be resting much that day. Considering how much of a fuss the rest of them made a few months ago for Jesse's birthday, Petra had a feeling they'd be all over her as well.
A small smile found its way onto Petra's lips. When was the last time she actually spent a birthday with somebody? For the past few years, she'd really just been by herself. Never really treating the day different than the other 364 there was.
It was going to be nice to have some people around her on her birthday. Just somebody to hang out with at the least would be so much better than all the previous years there had been.
Amongst all her thoughts, Petra must have managed to fall asleep. When she woke up again it was lighter outside, yet still dim from the rainy weather.
Her eyelids heavy and her head sore, Petra just wanted to bury her face back into the pillow and continue to sleep. Closing her tired eyes again, she retreated back in beneath the covers, hoping that sleep would be generous enough to come again.
But after a few seconds, Petra noticed that something was off. Lifting her head, she leaned over to check her alarm clock again. 07:30
Petra's frown deepened. By that time, the tree-house should already have been bustling with life. Olivia ranting excitedly about a new invention, Axel laughing obnoxiously loud at something, the usual.
But that morning, it was dead silent. The only sound Petra could hear, was the breeze blowing outside.
A strange feeling settled in the pit of Petra's stomach as she slowly sat up on the bed. Standing up, she walked over to the window, listening to the wooden floor creaking beneath her bare feet.
Everything looked normal outside, the sun hidden beneath the thick rain clouds as misty raindrops descended from the sky. It looked about as cold as it felt.
Still a bit uncertain, Petra quickly pulled on some clothes and wrapped her signature bandanna around her head. Pulling open her bedroom door, she was met with complete silence.
Biting her lip, Petra walked out into the main, open-concept area of the tree-house. There was an odd smell hanging in the air that Petra couldn't quite place. Rotten eggs maybe? Had Axel pelted somebody?
But there was no sign of the aftermath of a possible food fight. Nobody were making breakfast in the kitchen, nobody were talking around the dining table.
She was completely alone.
Petra inhaled slowly, feeling her breath shake slightly. Where were the others? If they needed to get food or something from town, usually just Jesse or Olivia goes out? Not all of them together?
Stop trying to make up excuses to them. They made other plans and didn't bother to wake you and take you along.
Petra shook her head, refusing to believe the thought that had come to mind. They wouldn't just bail on her too, would they? Especially not on her birthday?
You actually thought they'd be around forever? You should know better. Nobody ever sticks around.
Petra gulped thickly, all of sudden feeling a lump in her throat. A familiar burning sensation in her eyes, one that she couldn't stand for more than one reason.
Still not wanting to believe that her friends would just leave her, Petra left the room and stepped outside. Climbing down the tree's ladder until she was standing on the soggy ground.
The mud squelched beneath Petra's feet as she walked out from underneath the protection of the tree, shivering slightly as the misty rain effortlessly began to soak into her clothes.
There were no signs of her friends outside or in the stables. Out of place to search, Petra leaned back against one of the horses' stall doors, pulling off her bandanna and raking her fingers through her hair.
The nightmare she had was becoming a reality.
They were leaving her.
She was going to be alone again.
In a burst of frustration and even anger, Petra threw her bandanna across the barn. She gnawed on her bottom lip as she kept back the tears that wanted the come, the tears she refused to let out.
She couldn't cry. She should've known. Nobody ever sticks around... not even the order.
"I need to clear my head." Petra muttered, hearing her voice crack.
She pulled open the stall door she had been leaning against, taking the horse's bridle off the wall. Not even bothering with a saddle, Petra lead the horse outside and pulled herself onto it, bareback.
The horse tossed its head excitedly when it felt Petra's feet against its sides, obeying her orders as it broke into an energetic trot into the forest.
Petra didn't know where she was going. She wasn't even properly dressed for the weather, and she had no items on her. All she wanted to do, was get away from the place she had started to call home.
Petra closed her eyes, tightening her grip on the reins when she felt something warm roll down her face. As if things couldn't get any worse, she was starting to allow her emotions to get the best of her as well. Just perfect.
If only Petra knew that things could in fact get worse. Much, much worse.
But she didn't see the skeleton in the shadows, until she heard it's bowstring snap back into place.
---------------------
Jesse was jogging through the trees, her raincoat's hood pulled over her head. She was clutching a brown paper bag beneath her left arm, trying her best to keep it dry from the rain with her jacket.
"Jesse!"
Jesse dug in her heels, hearing her name being called. She turned her head to see Lukas emerging from the trees as well. He was carrying a box, shielding it from the rain the same way Jesse was doing with the bag.
"What are you doing out here?" He asked her as he came walking up. "Weren't you meant to stay at the tree-house this morning while Axel, Olivia and I went to collect everything? Baking the cake, if I remember correctly?"
"I was doing just that." Jesse said as she and Lukas began walking on. "But it turns out there was a rotten egg amongst the batch, which ruined the entire mixture. We didn't have spare ingredients."
"Oh Jesse, what did I tell you about mixing things separately?" Lukas chuckled, shaking his head.
"I know, I know, I was lazy." Jesse rolled her eyes. "Besides, Petra was still asleep, so I rushed to town quickly."
As they walked through the trees into the clearing where they're tree-house was, Lukas opened his mouth to say something else. He never got the chance however, both of them freezing to the spot.
"Did one of the horses get loose?" Lukas asked in surprise, as they stared at the grey gelding, who was pacing up and down in front of the barn.
"But how did he get out?" Jesse added with a frown. "And why does he have a bridle on?"
Lukas walked over, keeping the present clutched beneath his arm, while reaching the other out to take the horse's reins. Jesse followed him as he lead the horse back into the stables.
"He's injured." She said worriedly, pointing out a cut on his shoulder.
"Seems like something grazed him here." Lukas said, leading the horse into his respective stall. "It's not deep, thankfully."
Something blue caught Jesse's eye, causing her to turn away from the stall. Slowly she set the bag of groceries down on a hay bale, walking over and picking up the blue cloth.
"Lukas." Jesse said softly, holding it up. "I think I know how the horse got out."
They were quiet for a second, before Lukas spoke again. "The fact that this horse has a bridle on, makes me believe Petra wanted to ride it."
"But where is she then?" Jesse breathed the thought that was on both their minds. "And in this weather as well? I don't understand..."
"Why don't you go check the tree-house, while I finish cleaning this horse's wound?" Lukas suggested. "If she's not there, then we'll see about searching for her."
Jesse nodded quickly, breaking into a run immediately and disappearing off to the tree-house. A million thoughts raced through her head. Why did Petra try to go riding so early, in such foul weather? Why was her bandanna just lying on the ground in the stables? Where was Petra to begin with?
A few minutes later, Jesse came sprinting back inside the stables, her brown eyes wide and skin pale with worry.
"Not there?" Lukas asked, to which Jesse gave a quick nod in confirmation.
"Let's go look for her." He said immediately, leaving the stall.
Lukas and Jesse both began to saddle up too of the other horses, rugging them up warmly before leaving the barn. After agreeing to call each other upon finding any leads of where Petra disappeared off to, both of them parted ways. Even with her raincoat on, Jesse could feel herself ever so slightly shiver. She hoped that Petra was at least wearing something warm.
"Come on girl." Jesse said to the pinto she was riding, guiding the mare deeper into the forest.
The trees were at least providing some shield against the larger raindrops, but the fine mist still found a way in.
Suddenly Jesse heard the familiar rattle of bones, looking sideways in time to see the skeleton raising his bow. Acting quickly, she prodded her horse in the side, the mare leaping forward into a trot as a response. Hearing the arrow impale itself into a tree, Jesse urge her horse down the woodland path to get out of the mob's line of sight.
The mare shook her head, the water from her mane showering onto Jesse. She didn't mind, just giving her horse a reassuring pat on the neck.
As Jesse sat upright in the saddle again, her eyes caught something blue in between the trees. She pulled slightly on the right rein, guiding her horse off the path and through the shrubbery.
Jesse's breath caught her throat when she recognised the figure curled up against the tree trunk. Petra's short red hair stuck to her face with rainwater, her skin a pale white. She was huddling herself into her soaked blue hoodie as much as she could.
"Petra!" Jesse called out, causing the redhead's head to snap up.
Throwing her leg over the saddle, Jesse ran over to her friend. "Oh my god, we were so worried! What are you doing out here, what happened?" She gasped as she dropped to her knees beside Petra.
"Jesse?" Petra asked with, seemingly still trying to take in the fact that Jesse was there in the first place. Only then did Jesse notice that Petra's one hand was clutching her leg, fingers digging into the fabric of her pants.
"Are you hurt?" Jesse asked her, carefully guiding Petra's hand away from her leg and beginning to roll her pants leg up.
"It's broken." Petra said grimly, when Jesse sharply inhaled at the sight of the unnatural bend.
"What happened?" She repeated, looking back up at Petra. "Did you get thrown off the horse? We found him wandering outside the stables."
"Yeah." Petra simply responded, as if it was the most normal thing in the world. "He got spooked by a skeleton."
"Come on, we need to get you out of this cold before you get sick." Jesse said, wrapping one arm beneath Petra's and allowing her from to drape an arm over her shoulders. "Then you can explain to me what the hell you were doing out here in this weather to begin with."
Petra didn't respond, only gritting her teeth in pain as Jesse struggled her upright. Jesse, being much shorter than Petra, struggled to heave her friend's weight over to the horse, but she managed nonetheless. Getting mounted was another whole story.
Petra grunted painfully as Jesse pulled her up behind her, letting out a slightly hiss of pain once she was sitting. She wrapped her arms around Jesse's waist from behind as Jesse urged to horse to start walking again.
Holding the reins in one hand, Jesse fished her cellphone out of her raincoat's pocket, quickly selecting Lukas's name and pressing it her ear.
"Yeah I found her, we're not far from the tree-house. The horse threw her, leg's broken. Okay, sounds good, I'll see you then."
"You guys were looking for me?" Petra asked softly once Jesse hung up.
"You disappear from the house at half past seven in the morning, what do you expect?" Jesse asked her, looking back. Her face was laced with worry. "What were you doing out here, Petra? You're not even dressed to be out in the rain."
"Nothing." Petra replied bluntly, avoiding eye-contact.
Jesse sighed softly, feeling her hopes sink. It was really hard sometimes to understand what was going on in her stubborn friend's head. She hated knowing that something was upsetting Petra, and that she was keeping it to herself.
The two of them were quiet for the rest of the ride home. A bit through the ride, Jesse did pick up on the fact that Petra was kind of resting on her from the back, like she was tired. She didn't say anything, deciding that Petra probably wasn't feeling well from the pain she was in at that moment.
Lukas wasn't back at the tree-house yet, and there was no sign of Axel or Olivia. Putting the horse away in the stables, Jesse had helped Petra up the ladder and into the warmth of the tree-house, when she immediately made her friend comfortable on the couch with a warm, dry jacket to replace her soaked one.
"Once Lukas or one of the others get back here, we'll see about getting you to a doctor to get that leg checked out." Jesse said as she brought Petra a cup of hot cocoa.
Petra nodded in response, gratefully accepting the warm drink. Jesse sat down beside Petra, resting one of her hands on her friend's arm.
"Are you going to be honest and tell me what's wrong?" Jesse asked her gently.
Petra sighed as she placed the cup down, nestling herself back into the pillows on the couch. She looked down at her hands in her lap, not saying anything. As Jesse was looking closely at her friend, she noticed an almost red tint to her friend's eyes, dark circles beneath them like she hadn't gotten any sleep.
"Look, I know you don't like talking about stuff like this." Jesse said, wrapping an arm around her friend's shoulders. "But I'm your friend, and I care for you. I'm not going to stop bugging you until you tell me what's up."
For a second it was completely silent. Jesse's words seemed to have somehow gotten through to Petra, causing her to slightly look up at Jesse.
"Where were you all this morning?" Jesse was almost shocked at how low and broken Petra's voice sounded.
"Well, I guess there's no point in keeping it secret now that things have turned like this." Jesse said, scratching the back of her head. "The other three went to collect the birthday presents they all had planned for you. My job was to bake you a cake, but I messed up so I had to buy new ingredients."
Petra's mouth slowly opened, but she didn't say anything, instead quickly looking back down at her hands n her lap.
"What did you think this morning, Petra?" Jesse asked her softly. "That we just up and left you?"
Petra was quiet for a second, before closing her eyes and wrapping her arms around herself. "Maybe."
"Why?" Jesse asked in horror. "We would never do a thing like that!"
"Yeah well, that's what everybody said." Petra responded back in a whisper. "Yet no friend every hung around. I drove every last person in my life away.
Why would you all be an exception?"
It was quite again. Opening her eyes, Petra glanced back over at Jesse. There was a shocked, but also sad look in her friend's eyes. And something inside Petra made her want to talk to Jesse. Admit how much it's been eating her up inside.
A part of her wanted to open up to Jesse, like she'd never done towards another person before.
And so she told Jesse the truth. About the dream that plagued her a few nights ago, where she was convinced that she'd lost yet another group of friends to her cold personality and short temper.
How she hadn't had a proper night's sleep since, and most importantly how terrified she was that morning that the nightmare had become a reality.
By the time Petra finished telling Jesse everything, the lump was back in her throat, the burning returning to her eyes.
"I never realised." Jesse said softly. "If I had known..."
"You did nothing wrong." Petra just said softly in reply, continuing to stare down so she wouldn't have to look Jesse in the eye.
"Listen to me." Jesse said, taking Petra's hand in hers and causing her to look up again. "Whether you like it or not, Petra, you're stuck with us. We're your friends, and we love you just the way you are. None of us are going anywhere, you hear me?"
Before Petra could say anything, Jesse pulled her closer in a firm hug. She felt Petra hug her back, burying her face into Jesse's shoulder. And then, barely noticeable, she felt Petra shake with an unheard sob.
"Thank you." Petra said, her voice muffled through Jesse's jacket.
"Thank you for fulfilling the one birthday wish I've always had. And that's to not spend this day alone again."
___
THERE, YOU GOT A 3200 WORD ONE SHOT TO MAKE UP FOR YESTERDAY'S SHORT ONE XDD
Ahhhh, I loved writing this so much for obvious reasons! I mean, it's my birthday, of course I was going to treat myself to a one shot focused on Petra-
How the hell did I even turn the birthday prompt into a sad one? XD I mean, the ending's happy... if you don't count the fact that Petra'll probably spend a birthday alone again in the future, because the Order broke up- NO, that's exactly why I sent Jesse outta Beacontown with her, screw the depressing thoughts xD
I'm getting way too excited in this author's note, I needa take a breath.
*deep inhale*
Anyhow, super happy with this one shot. Just, this is what happened when I write about my favourite topics xD It's makes for a long story and a happy author.
I hope you all enjoyed this one shot as much as I enjoyed it! I'll see you all again tomorrow with whichever prompt I draw next!