Secrets Within - Carol x Mildred

Prologue

Running away from everything you ever knew was a scary thing to do.
But there was one thing Carol could think of that was even scarier:
Living the rest of your life with a husband you did not love.  

She had no idea what exactly was the trigger for her to decide to leave all of the sudden, but a week ago she had found herself packing her suitcase while her husband Harge still was at his work. He never did her anything wrong, overall he was a good guy, so she was not sure if he deserved to be left behind like this. But he didn't love her and she also didn't love him. 

She looked around their house one last time, taking everything in before she hopefully would never see it again. For a split second, she thought about taking a picture of him, just in case she might miss him occasionally.
No. 
She shook her head to get rid of that ridiculous thought. No turning back now. Nonetheless, she indeed took one picture that already rested in her purse. The only memory she allowed herself to bring. 
A picture of her and Abby that they had taken a few years prior, before Harge had found out about them and strictly limited all contact to the woman Carol knew since they were children. 
Abby was the one person she worried about. The brunette was the one person that did not deserve to be left by her like this.  

It was around six in the evening when she entered the airport, the sun already setting outside and the temperatures falling significantly, that even inside the busy airport the air was chilly. 
"What can I do for you Ma'am", the guy at the desk asked when she slowly approached him, wrapping her fur coat tighter around her to stay warm. 

"When is the next in-land flight with a free spot leaving?", she asked, slightly raising her low voice so he was able to understand her over all the noise. 

He seemed pretty confused by that question but told her to wait for minute. 
"Take-off is in an hour", he answered her question when he came back. 

"I would like to buy a ticket then", she replied, taking her wallet and passport out of her purse. 

"Uhm- you don't want to know where it's going?", by now he really seemed utterly confused and just scratched his nearly bold head.  

"I don't care. It can only be better than this city."
This perhaps was far away from the truth. She loved New York, even if it was busy and loud, and she knew from the news that here were much worse places to live.

He took her money and handed her the flight ticket, the paper was still warm between her fingers and she could smell the black ink. She read through the information on it. As it appeared to be, Nevada was her next stop and the start of a new beginning. 

The first thing she did when her plane landed was to lease a car. Originally the plan was to stay wherever the plane would take her but as soon as she stepped outside the airport and found herself in the middle of Nevada, it dawned to her, that she probably would not get the possibility of exploring this side of the country without any restriction again. Until she ran out of money, of course. But that wouldn't be too soon. 
Was it reckless to travel solo as a woman in 1947? Absolutely, but she could not care less. She was ready for whatever she had to face.

At first, she had used a map to see in which direction the west coast was, but shortly after had thrown it into the next garbage can that crossed her way. From now on she was just driving wherever fate would bring her. There was no point in using a map without having a destination. 

If she ended up in that small village in Southern California by fate or chance did not matter, but it appeared to be an unfortunate moment to have arrive. Everyone was going bonkers about the priest slaughter that just got admitted into the local asylum, to make sure he was sane enough for death penalty.
Carol did not expect to stay for a longer period of time, she was longing for a calm place.
But she also did not expect to run into that redhead woman that immediately caught her interest.

For some reason she stayed.

She stayed for her, even though she did not even know her name yet.