The Orphan rogue

Blackouts

Emily's POV

I have been living in the woods for six months now and some strange things have been happening. It all started five months ago. That is also the day I found out I'm not alone out here. There are a lot of homeless people roaming around in these woods. And not the nice kind either. They smell really bad and look a bit crazy. Everytime one comes close, I blackout. That never happend before in the orphanage, so I really don't know why it is happening to me. When I wake up, I'm still standing at the same place and the guy is gone. It is just strange, but not as strange as that first time.

I don't remember what day it was exactly, but it was a school day. I had watched as the girl left for school. They looked fine, so I left to go back to the hollow tree. I had to change out my leaf bed because it was starting to smell. After I did that I decided to go and look for some food. After 30 minutes or so, I found an bush with a lot of wild berries. I started to collect them in a bowl when I heard some noise behind me. When I looked behind me I didn't really see anything. I just figured it was some sort of animal and ignored it. I filled the entire bowl and was about to leave when I heard the noice again. This time however it came from the other side. When I turned around I saw a men standing there. He was atleast 6 foot tall and had long grey matted hair. His clothes where dirty and had holes in them. He had wounds all over his body and he smelled terrible. His teeth where yellow and he had a crazy look in his eyes. I felt really uncomfortable, but at the same time I felt sad for this men. I could hardly judge him, I was living in the woods to. He looked hungry so I offered him some of my berries. I had more then enough and could pick more if I needed to. He smiled at me in a strange way. I backed up a bit. He looked me up and down and laughed. It is a long time since I saw a pretty little thing like you he said. You and I are going to have some fun times. I felt my heart beat in my throat and the voice in my head kept screaming I had to run. However I felt like I was frozen to the ground. My time with Everly and Bill wasn't perfect, but I was never really scared. Atleast, not as scared as I'm now. Suddely I felt an excrusiating pain. It started in my hands, but was soon al over my body. I dropped on the floor and screamed in pain. I heard the man chuckle. Well well, the little girl is shifting for the first time I see, this could be fun. I didn't understand wat he was talking about or how he was doing this to me. He wasn't even touching me and the pain was enormous. All I could do was lay there and scream. Suddenly, all the pain was gone. Everything is black after that.

Next thing I know I'm waking up next to the stream of water where I wash myself in the morning. I was completly naked without any memory of how I got here and where the scary man went. I had a scratch on my hip and my arm. I had blood on my hand, face and feet, but it didn't seem to be my blood. My muscles hurt and I felt exhausted. I got in the water to clean myself and to relax for a little bit. I tried to figure out wat happend, but I couldn't remember anything. I went back to the hollow tree and put on my other set of clothes. I didn't see where the set went that I was wearing this morning. I would have to try to talk to the girls to see if they could get an extra pair of clothes for me. One wasn't going to be enough. When I washed one set it had to dry for atleast a day. During that time I would wear the other set. Now I was down to just one set. I wouldn't be able to wash my clothes this way.

I looked up at the sky and saw that it was almost time to go back to the road. I left to start my hour walk. When I arrived at the road, I was still a bit early. I sat down against a tree and thought hard about wat happend in the past few hours. I still couldn't figure it out. Nothing I tought about made really sense. One thing I was certain of, I would never go back there. Hopefully he was the only one out there and I would be safe from now on. But no matter what, I would be more alert next time. I heard the voices of the girls coming down the road. I waited further up the road this time. Normally I wait closer to the house to make sure that Everly sees me and that she knows I'm still there. This time however I need to talk to the girls and I can't do that if Everly sees me. I quickly walk up to the girls. They are happy to see me and I give them all a hug. I would love to know how they are al doing, but Whe can't talk to long. Everly is waiting at the house and she will know if they are late. I explain them what happened and ask them if there is any way they could get some extra clothes to me. They promise me to try. I make them promise not to take to much risk. If they can't do it without Everly seeing them, they shouldn't do it at all. After that I let them go home. I follow them from a distance until I'm sure Everly saw me. She looks at me for a moment and then goes into the house.

After that first blackout, it happend a few more times. Turns out that first men wasn't the only one out there. Lucky enough they don't work together. The moment I get scared, I seem to blackout. The pain never came back, witch I am really grateful for. I never want to feel pain like that again. Every time I wake up afterwards, the men is either gone, or backing away from me. The way they look at me reminds me of the way Everly looked at me that one time. I'm curious to wat they are seeing that scares them so much. But for now I'm just grateful that I'm safe.

The girls where able to get me two new sets of clothes. They figured that I would need an extra pair of spares. They also made sure I had a new bowl, since I lost the last one when that men showed up. They always leave the stuff about 3 miles away next to a tree. That way they don't risk being seen with me by anyone. If they need anything from me, they just leave a note, the same way I leave a note if I need something from them. It is working pretty well for now.

At the same time I'm also still making sure that Everly knows I'm still around. I go to the road opposite of the orphanage every morning and afternoon. I show her that I am still there and that I won't let her hurt one of my girls. The moment she touches one of the girls again, I will physically hurt her or Bill. I'm not scared of her anymore. She needs to know that her actions do have consequences and if grown men are scared of me, so will she. 

Tomorrow I'm going to take a shower. I found this lake about 15 minutes from my usual stream. It has a little waterfall I can use as a shower. The girls where able to get me some shampoo by pretending it was empty. It is just enough for one time. I just hope I can relax a bit and no one is going to show up.