The Girl In Chains (Artemis Fowl x Female Reader)

Chapter 26: Home

I start to develop a new idea: I want to go back to my childhood home in the forest. I want to go back and look though everything. 

When i first thought of it, i tried to dismiss it, but then i started wondering if it's a good idea. Hopefully, if no one has raided the house, my parent's magick book might be there, and i could descover more about my people and maybe even learn fae magick.

The little snowball idea started rolling bigger and bigger, until i finally packed a little duffel bag and set off to return to the forest.

Before i leave, i hear my notification bell again:

Artemis: How are you?

I try to push aside the thorn stabbed in my heart and turn off my phone, stuffing it into my pocket.

~*~

I rent a motorcycle today instead of getting a taxi, i don't want anyone to be with me while i go there. As i ride, i realize that the forest is actually quite close of Artemis's house, which makes sense, since his house is in semi-wilderness.

My stomach is a bundle of nerves when i finally pull up outside the towering trees, it's quite a clear line marking where the forest starts. 

I take off my helmet and place it on the motorcycle mirror, i'm sure no one will steal it all the way out here.

I start the walk into the forest. 

At first, i'm confused as to where i am, since anything has grown and changed a little during my absence, but soon i start to recognize trees and rivers, and the forest starts to feel more like home. I walk for a few minutes before i break into a sprint, leaping over streams and breathing in the grassy air, i run pass a few squirrels and deer, and even stop to gaze into the river me and my family used to fish from. It's both painful and beautiful to be reunited with it. 

I finally reach my old house.

It looks how i remember it, except now, there are vines growing over the window panes and climbing their way up the wood to the stone chimney above. The walls of the house look worn and weak, holes appear where termites have drilled into it.

But even with it's broken exterior, it's still perfect to me.

The thought of me and Artemis living here together pops into my head, but i dismiss it.

I make my way to the front door and peer in.

The living room greats me, the carpet is sill stained with my parent's blood, but their bodies were buried by me and my brothers behind the house. Everything is as it was.

I force myself from the doorway and start looking through the shelves for the book. I can't find it. However, i do find an album that once held the family pictures, now they're all faded so much that i can't make sense of them.

I move on to my parent's room, hoping that they would be in there.

I see the house through the eyes of my 5-year-old-self, seeing ghosts of me and Andy and Casper running through the hall. Tears tease at my eyes.

After what feels like eternity, i open the door to my parent's room.

A double bed takes up most of the floor space. A study desk sits in the corner, though i doubt my parents ever used it.  I slowly walk around the room, finally sitting down on the musty and decaying bed sheets. I try to remember my parents, but my memory fails me and their faces are unclear in my head.

After sitting there for a while, thinking up childhood memories, i stand up and get to work, rifling through all their drawers.

I find it.