ONLY ANGEL | JJ MAYBANK

THREE... girl discovered

CHAPTER THREE

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Agatha was a real piece of work.

It'd been a long restless night in the Jacobson household during her reign of terror, most of it was spent trying to keep themselves busy. It was hard to fall asleep to the constant shaking of the four walls surrounding them and the beating of the rain against their window pane. Collins and Charlie had also heard a couple of crashes from the trees losing their battle to Agatha's strong winds.

So to pass the time, Charlie had taken to their old guitar which was the nicest thing their dad had ever left them and had fixated on learning the chords to a new song, filling the room with something a little more light and melodic than just the storm. And since all of her books had been soaked through her bag from the rain, Collins had spent a good while slipping paper towels between the pages and sitting something heavy on each book before she let them dry. She hoped that they'd be fine in the morning, but until then, she had to find something else to keep her occupied. Therefore, Collins had resorted to drawing while she listened to Charlie play his little tunes.

They hadn't kept track of time, but Collins would say that it was around 7 pm when they lost power. The lamps sitting in the corners of the house flickered before it went completely black.

"Guess that's Agatha telling us to go the fuck to bed." Charlie sighed before Collins heard the switch of his lighter and the dim glow of its flame held in front of his face. He picked up the candles from under their side table and lit the wick of each one, handing a cup to Collins for her to take to her room.

"Goodnight, Charlie." Collins voiced as she carefully stepped through the house with her belongings in hand. Charlie relayed the same message back to her before she retreated to her room and closed the door behind her softly,

Setting her things on her nightstand, Collins used the candlelight to see, pulling the covers over her bed back so she could settle under them snuggly. Once she had gotten comfortable, Collins turned up to the candle still alight before she extinguished it with one quick blow, leaving her in nothing but darkness.

Collins didn't remember falling asleep; all she knew is that she'd been awake for a good while trying to block out the sound of the storm which made her restless, but before knew it, she'd fell into a deep slumber. Despite the raging winds and pounding rainfall against her window pane, she hadn't stirred one bit during the night. Her sleep had been peaceful, like her room was her own bubble and nothing could disrupt its calm. And when she woke, havoc had finally stopped wreaking over the Outer Banks.

There had already been a noticeable contrast in the weather that was blantant the moment Collins opened her eyes. She'd had to squint from the sunlight peeking through her curtains and onto her face, which was still groggy with sleep. It'd taken quite a bit of effort just to get out of bed, but after Collins had peeled off the sheets which were stuck to her skin with the perspiration that had ensued from the summer heat making its reappearance, only then was she able to take a glimpse out of her window.

Their yard had never been a pretty sight. The cut wasn't exactly the kind of place where people used their lawns to show off how much better they were to their neighbors, and Charlie and Collins had never really cared to fix it up anyways. That was the sort of thing they'd do if Charlie wasn't working 12 hours or more a day and it wouldn't just get trashed anyways from their neighborhood's psycho kids who terrorized whatever ground they walked upon.

The point was that their small yard had always looked rough and that was just how it was on its own, but after Agatha hit, they suddenly had an excuse as to why it didn't sparkle with lush greenery and as if it actually got watered every day. The storm had blown tree limbs askew and remnants of various plastics, that were now resting on the dirt patches on the lawn. It was going to be a job in itself to clear it all away.