Once upon a story

Chapter Eleven

A beeping sound brought me out of my deep sleep. It was so refreshing to have not dreamt. I opened my eyes slowly as I was blinded by the piercing white light of the room I was laying in. I felt pressure on my hand and looked down to see it gripped in another’s hold as they slept in the chair beside the bed.  It seemed as if I was in some sort of hospital room, the bleeping sound came from a heart rate monitor but another sleeping body was attached to it not I. My eyes returned to the sleeping form beside me and I tried to think of why there was a blonde haired male holding my hand like the world depended on it. He began to stir in his sleep and soon enough I was faced with a sleepy blinking pair of green eyes, it took me all of ten seconds to realise that it was Toff beside me.

“You’re all right!” he said grinning at me, I nodded in reply but the action caused pain to build up in my neck. I reached up to touch it with my other hand and winced.

“What happened?” I ask him closing my eyes once more. He doesn’t reply straight away and I hear him intake a deep nervous breath.

“What is the last thing you remember?” he asks quietly, his words make me open my eyes and I stare into his with my brow creased in thought. What was the last thing I remembered? Suddenly the whole night came back to me, in forest, making biscuits, the dream, the picture, being taken, being broken, carried away. I intake a deep breath and look away from him

“I fell asleep being carried away” I say, my voice barely a whisper. I watched Toff’s lips starts to form words but someone else entered the room before he was able to spill them. The woman who walked in was the same one who searched into my eyes while I was crumpled against the floor, now I saw again I could see that she was truly beautiful. Her long blonde, almost white, hair was plaited and flowed across her shoulder and she walked with elegance and pride. She came to the bed in which I was resting and took my hand in hers.

“You are well rested young one. The pain you are experiencing from the attack will pass as your body heals you but it may take longer than usual. Now go to your new bedroom and rest there, I trust it shall be much more comfortable.” Again her voice calmed me and I nodded unable to create words, she walked from the room with a small smile at Toff and shut the door quietly behind her. I pulled the bed covers from me and noticed how I was still in the clothes I had worn yesterday, they were muddied and ripped with blood stains but the jumper was hanging from the end of the bed. Slowly Toff helped me stand and supported me each time I tripped or wobbled.

When we had walked a few paces I reached for the jumper pulled in on, although it was stained it smelled of home and comforted me. I played with the now frayed edge in my hand recognised that it was the plain red hoodie that I brought Jack for his birthday last year. I smile down before beginning to walk again. Toff pushed open the door and made sure I was able to walk easily, every muscle I had ached and I could still feel some of my body correcting its self but I was so much better than I had been before.

We had walked into a long corridor and I could hear the footsteps and voices of an unusually large amount of people.  

"How about a tour of your home for the short future of your stay?" Toff asked smiling down at me, his bright green eyes laughing; they distracted me so all I could do was nod. His hand took mine once more as he began pointing out various doors around us.

"It’s a bit confusing but you can pretty much go into any of the rooms on the ground floor, which is this one, apart from the offices round the back but those are locked any way. On the next floor up you can pretty much go into all of those but that’s really a small kids floor with play areas and such. From then on it’s all bedrooms. I need to show you your room but I can’t remember which one on the fourth floor it is." He dragged me carefully on and into a huge kitchen and when I say huge I mean HUGE. You could easily feed an army from what I could see inside the opened cabinets. Toff left me admiring the amount of food until he quickly returned with a short yet friendly looking woman. She had a light smile on her face as she walked in but strangely it grew when she saw me.

"Hello! I'm Susie, Toff mum and I'm guess you are Faith" She said, pulling me into a perfume scented hug.

"Yes, that me" I replied meekly beginning to feel out of place and trying to not react at how she was hurting me with the pressure of her arms.

"Don't look so scared" Suzie joked kindly laughing at me "Toff just wanted to know where your room was and I wanted to see who he talks about so often these days" The confusion I felt must have shown in my face for she giggled once more

"Gosh you are cute aren’t you" Suzie said, receiving a 'shut up and stop embarrassing me' look from Toff which caused me to smile brightly at her before he grabbed my arm once more and pulled me away from his mother which just caused her to laugh once again. We walked in comfortable silence until we reached the first set of stairs.

"I'm sorry about her" He whisper looking down at me with big green eyes

"Don't worry about it; are you taking me to my room or what?" I teased stepping up one step, although even with the added height he was still taller.

“yeah, sorry" he said blushing. I looked at him for a few seconds before reacting which may have not been a good idea as his blush just deepened, I grabbed his hand and pulled him along after me, skipping up the stairs like and excited child. When we reached the top of those we turned left and went up another set, then another, then another. It took a while for us reach the floor my room was on due to me having to pause on each floor and either ask directions from Toff or catch my breath to calm my aches. Even then we had to go through a maze of corridors so I was completely lost when we reached it. This room was bigger than my one at home but due to it’s lacking of decoration and therefore homeliness I felt uncomfortable in it. The room was fitted a desk, single bed and large closet. A large window in front of the desk caught my attention so I walked towards it and looked out into the forest which I had begun to love over the past few weeks. The sky was clouded and grey so everything outside looked unhappy but I knew that as soon as the sun broke through it would be beautiful.

“What do you think?” Toff asked from where he had positioned himself leaning against one of the walls.

“It’s nice and everything but it’s just so, plainly decorated.” I say with a smile before settling down on bed. As there were no bed covers on it I gained no comfort so I just pushed myself up against the wall it was beside.

“I’ve got a plan for that” Toff replied and I saw the excitement blossom in his eyes before he ran from the room. When I was alone again I decided to check out the room in more detail. I noticed how all of the furniture was a slick oak wood so it all matched without over doing it. The carpet looked as if it had seen better days but it worked perfectly well. I walked across to the desk and looked through the draws, most were empty but a few contained writing utensils and thankfully the nice sketching paper that feels almost soft. Next I opened the wardrobe and saw that there were draws inside for small clothes and jewellery as well as space for things hung up. It was completely empty but nothing was dusty or dirty at all. Next I walked towards the door and peered outside; I saw that there was a lock on the door and an empty wooden name tag. The doors down the corridor all looked used and some even decorated, one three doors away opened suddenly and I saw a girl about my age appear. She had dark eye makeup but her clothes contrasted to this in their brightness. She smiled at me before walking away, her satchel bag swinging at her side.  I disappeared back into the room and sat on the desk to look out of the window. I realise I could have just sat on the chair but it was a better view from the table. I looked outside and got completely absorbed by the swaying of the trees and the adventures that could happen within them.