𝐒𝐖𝐄𝐄𝐓 𝐒𝐄𝐃𝐔𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 | 𝑭𝒊𝒏𝒏𝒊𝒄𝒌 𝑶𝒅𝒂𝒊𝒓

𝐓𝐖𝐎.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐌𝐢𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐚𝐮𝐫'𝐬 𝐋𝐚𝐢𝐫.

Just like always, Rosie's immediate thoughts hardly contained her or her well-being. She worried about her cousin, and how he would survive. She worried about her Uncle, because no matter how useless he was, she knew deep down he was the same good man she once knew. She didn't worry about herself because Rosie had realised she was going to die, so there was no point stressing. She needed to accept.

The musty room she was put in was piled high with junk, all covered in an inch of dust. Books that hadn't been opened in years lined the bookshelf that was in the midst of a slow collapse, a steel bucket beginning to rust was propped underneath a leak in the roof - it hadn't rained in months, so Rosie didn't entirely know why no one bothered to move it. Her eyes clung to every knick-knack, onto all the old, worse-for-wear furniture, the water-damaged roof, they looked for anything to take her mind off her situation.

The door that kept her in her first of many prisons rattled, and then it swung open. Rosie was nearly thrown off her feet when her little cousin attacked her, wrapping his thin arms around her hips and putting his tear-stained face against her stomach, pinching his eyes shut. He was doing what Rosie taught him to do when the world seemed like too much, he closed his eyes and imagined he was somewhere else. Her eyes caught her Uncle's face, he looked pale and like in the last hour, he'd aged a decade. His brown eyes held hurt and were full of anxiety at what was going to unfold. She didn't focus on the man, she turned down to the boy who'd begun sobbing again, his little fingers gripping the fabric of the dress. Rosie didn't want to think of having to pry him off and say a final goodbye.

Grabbing his chin she tipped his face up to look at her, his cheeks were wet and flushed, his eyebrows pulled together. He looked utterly heartbroken. Using her thumbs she gently wiped away the tears.

"Don't cry, little man, you're gonna be okay," She tried to soothe him, but it only seemed to make matters worse.

"I c- I can't be without you, Rosie." The little boy genuinely couldn't imagine a life where his cousin wasn't dragging him out of bed, giving him her meals when he was hungry, dropping him off at school and picking him up, teaching him how to differentiate between poisonous plants and nutritious ones. It was all he'd known, he hardly remembered when his father was truly present, and he only had a vague idea of what his mother sounded like. But he always had Rosie. He had her as his stability, she was kind and patient, and she made him feel loved. "Please don't go."

She tipped her chin up and squeezed her eyes shut for a moment to collect herself, pulling him away for a second she dropped down to her knees. "I don't have a choice, if I did I would never leave you. But your Dad is gonna do everything I did, you just need to tell him the way I did things and he'll do that-"

"You need to win. I know you can, you're strong. You can use your traps, the ones you use to catch animals. Just trap them and come home," he begged.

"Little man, I can't make any pro-"

"No! You can, you always tell me if I want something bad enough I can do it, don't you want to come home badly?" He snapped, bringing up the words she repeated to him so often.

She looked at him, the pure desperation and utter heartbreak was palpable. Rosie hated making promises she didn't know for certain that she could keep, she didn't want to lie to the people she loved. "I do want to come home badly. I'll use my traps, I'll trap them all and I'll come back, okay?" Her stomach clenched at the shake of uncertainty in her voice, she just hoped the seven-year-old wouldn't piece it together.

He flashed her a sad smile, wiping his tears with his arm. "Promise me," his voice cracked as he stuck out his pinky.

Lifting her own pinky finger she hooked it with his. "I promise. Now, I gotta talk to your Dad, he's in charge now. You need to do what he says. Can you promise me that?"