Railway Mouse

A/N: Hello! So glad you're reading my story! Well, this is my latest project, Railway Mouse, and it's the first thing I've actually posted. I hope you like it! Constructive criticism is loved.

High up in the tree, the leaf fluttered in the breeze, only holding onto the branch by the thinnest stalk. As the season drew on, it yellowed with age, until finally it was blown down towards the ground below.

It passed the other leaves, waving as it floated back and forth on its gentle descent, until it landed softly in the girl's outstretched hands.

She stares at it. It seems only yesterday that the trees were covered in the fresh green leaves which marked the coming of spring. That was the day they woke up to a world filled with colour, after the endless greys of winter.

That was the day the soldiers had come.

The beautiful day had been ruined by their coming. They had demanded that every able man on their farm had left with them. They had left her alone here without a care, not even seeing her hidden away in the hollow beneath the tree. Her father had tried his best to tell them, but they had not listened to him, passing it off as a desperate lie to stay. They had carried him away, just as they had taken her brothers and the three workmen only minutes before. No one saw the mouse hiding in the hole under the tree.

Leaf clenched in her hand, she pushed the memories back. She was 11 summers old now, her birthday passing as just another lonely day a month ago. No one had celebrated with her; there had been no presents when she had woken. But she did not need birthdays, or brightly wrapped presents, or loving embraces anymore. The world was devoid of all those things and more now, they had faded into the past, their depth lost through time. She had forgotten them, and so she did not miss them. But still, she felt something was missing.

As she wandered the fields, fragments of memories flowed through her mind. Visions of times so long ago, when every day men tended the fields, and horses pulled the heavy plough through the rich soil while her brothers sowed the seed for the crops. The bright colours of wildflowers growing on the hillside, along with the bright white spots of the sheep grazing, signs of spring that all too soon turned to the brown of summer.

For half a year, they had been gone. It had been a year since she had observed all these things. Now, the sky had been turned grey by the heavy clouds, and it was time for the crops to be sown, ready for the long cold season ahead, when it would rain and nurture the plants in time for spring. But even though it was time for him to return, her father still was not here. He must come home soon, to plant the crops that determined how well they were fed and clothed the next year.

From over the hill and to the right, she could see the haze of smoke coming from the train’s engine, and realised she was late. Fast as she could, she scampered up the hill, stumbling over the stones and roots hidden by the brown grass and fallen leaves. By the time she reached the top, her dress was rumpled and smudged with dirt, but she only took a moment to straighten it out before she raced down to the bottom, where the station stood.

No one was there to see the small, dirty mouse-girl who sat in the corner of the shelter swinging her legs as she waited for the train to pull in. Even the station-master took no notice of her as he came to meet the train. She was here every day as the train came in, yet no one had ever come to meet her. He had approached her once before, worried that she was all alone, but she had simply disappeared into the forest, towards the abandoned farm over the hill. When he had mentioned her to his wife that night, whilst sitting in front of the warm cheery fire in his house, she had insisted it was nothing more than the spirit of one of the poor souls who had died there. After all, the farm was said to be haunted.