Hell hound

Chapter 15

That next day, it rained hellishly like the day before, and under the shelter of a rickety wooden hut, with the warmth of her red scarf and a few other pieces of blankets the two teenagers had salvaged, Enu, had birthed four healthy, chubby pups.

Yaris didn't expect to cry at this revelation, squatted in front of the female dog's crate beside Daniel, who was talking down to the dog and her babies gleefully. Through the rain washing down on her, her tears were quite well camouflaged. She didn't understand it one bit, this clenching in her chest, the sudden struggle to breath. Small things, made her eyes well. She was an overflowing dam, seconds away from wailing ghoulishly.

Yes, it was as though she was struck by something odd, a gust of wind as such, of realisation. 

What did she realise? The fact that, life was oddly . . . . . . lonely.

It took her a while of course, but whose to say.

No one here shared her experiences. She doesn't have real caring family in this life, she was rather, alone. She had these friends of course, but like anything, when you sit in an empty house with nothing but your own thoughts to keep you company, you understand that you really, don't have someone solely for you. She had no purpose, nor did she have a direction. Leave? Then what? Stay around and help these idiotic men fix their play fights? Then what?

She missed her past family. A single sister, a boy like a brother. A mother, and hazy memories of a long dead father.

How dare she die, and escape here when her family endured hell, depended on her? survived because of her?

She was aware that her body suppressed these emotions, and lately, these odd memories floated around her, leaping up through her bursts of joy and reminding her of all her past responsibilities.

But, in this moment, though she knew there would be no complications, she just couldn't stop warm, hot tears from spilling down her cheeks in pure joy as she stared down at the four golden puppies suckling on their mother's teats, eyes still shut and still covered in birth juices. 


A mixture of her anguish, and this wonderful show in front of her, of life's triumphs, these four beautiful babies. She didn't know what hit her harder, wonder, sadness, loneliness, joy-

Yes, joy for life, a triumph indeed. 

When Daniel looked over to see the girl's muffled sniffles, puffy eyes, red nose and quivering lips as she stared down at the babies, his panicked calls were cut off as she looked over to him with a wide tearful smile, and for the second time, drenched to the bone, rain still pouring down on their heads, she dove forward from where she knelt, onto him, tackling him into another tight, happy embrace, as the boy, though heavily flustered, returns the favour, the both of them lying there shamelessly on the muddied alleyway floor, racing hearts, and a soul temporarily relieved of it's wounds.

~~~

The next day

"*Sniff* Damn . . . ."

The girl mutters to herself, stretching slowly, wincing at the healing wound on her side with a low groan. Her eyes drooping as she leans back on her seat with a shiver.

Maybe crying all night, skipping my job, and lingering around Enu even after small Daniel was forced to leave to work was not that much of a good idea . . . .