Finding My Nightingale [UNDER CONSTRUCTION]

Prologue

"The girl must stay here."

"We can't just leave her!" Cried the little girls mother.

"Caroline is right." Her father exclaimed. "She's only six. Still a child."

"We cannot afford her to come." The voice says.

"David, we can't leave without Elena. She wouldn't make it without us."

"Maybe she would, Caroline. She's a smart girl. We can have the housekeeper to look after her." Her father explained.

"Dear! She needs her mother and father!"

"Mommy? Daddy? What's wrong?" The little girl walks in. She's in her tiny night gown rubbing her eyes. Her father picks her up and explains, "Elena dear, we're going away for a while and--"

"David!" Elena's mother cries softly.

"Why daddy?" The girl asks.

"Merely business, sweetie."

"But do both of you have to go?"

"Yes dear." Tears were sliding down her mother's face and in the moonlight her father was silently crying as well.

"Promise you'll come back." The little girl cries.

"We promise." They exclaim.

"Pinky promise." They pinky promised and as her father put her down he walked her back to bed to be with a glass of water. He made her promise she'd be good for the housekeeper and not to give her trouble.

"Okay, daddy."

"Pinky promise." He smiles sadly.

"I pinky promise." And the intertwined their pinkies.

"Don't cry daddy I still be here when you come back!"

"I hope so baby." He kisses her forehead and as she drift off to sleep her mother sobs and hugs her tightly. "I love you so much sweetie and I'm going to miss you so much."

****

~Six Weeks later~

"Rosemarie?" little Elena came into Rosemarie's room in the middle of the night rubbing her eyes. Rosemarie shot up quickly at the sound of the little girl's voice and her heart cried out for the little girl. "I had a bad dream. Can I sleep with you?"

"Sure, sweetie, come over here." Rosemarie helped Elena into bed and she held her tight. "What's wrong?" She asked.

"I had a dream that mommy and daddy were never coming back. Is that true?"

"Oh, now, don't worry yourself to death over that, sweetie. I'm sure they'll come back any day now." Rosemarie didn't believe that but she couldn't bear to see the little girl's heart break at such a young age until she was old enough to understand why they left in the first place. "Lay your pretty head and close your eyes." She began to sing her lullaby. "Listen to the sound of the birds, let them take you away."

It was the same song rosemarie's mother would sing to her when she had a nightmare and it would calm her down. She sang sweetly and softly until Elena was drifting off farther into a new land of comfort.

~One year later~

"Rosemarie! A-are you okay?" Elena ran into her room with worry written all over her face. "You didn't wake me this morning for breakfast, are you not feeling well?"

Rosemarie laid in her bed, her face a shade of red and she started to sweat but she was under thousands of blankets. She coughed hard and she noticed small splatters of blood on her hand. She quickly wiped it away and gave Elena a small smile. "I'm fine dear, it's a small cold, I'll get over it with a goods night rest."

"Please, let me make you some soup." Elena says and runs into the kitchen to the cuboards to find nothing but spiders and cobwebs. Fear struck fast and quick as Elena realized that there was nothing to get Rosemarie.

"is everything all right?" Rosemarie called.

"I-- um everything's fine but I need to get a few suppplies first! I'll be right back." elena quickly responds and runs out of the house. She was mumbling and worrying about how she was to get some food for Rosemarie when she felt something hit her in the back and she fell down into the mud.

"Are you okay?" A small voice says from behind. Elena looks up to see a young boy a couple of years older looking down her. "Let me help you." He pulls her out of the mud. "I'm really sorry about that, William sucks at kickball. I'm Aiden, he's cousin."

"I'm Elena and I'm fine."

"How old are you?" He asks.

"I'm twelve."

"I'm fourteen, are going into town alone? Where are your parents?" He asked and somehow that simple question that unlocked an emotion Elena tried so hard for six years to lock up and bury. The tears fell hard and quickly and before Aiden could respond Elena was running into the opposite direction. She came across an old shop with smells that were Heaven on Earth, she wiped her eyes and saw that she had ran to the bakery. She followed the perfect aroma inside and it was empty.

"Hello? Anyone here?" She yelled out but no one answered. She looked around the shop and her eyes stopped on the product of the Heavenly scent. A huge basket of sweet bread. "Hello?" She tried once more but there was not answer still. It couldn't hurt to try one tiny piece, she thought. Her stomach growled and tumbled. She was starving and her temptation was as strong as the scent, they must have been freshly baked. They're probably still piping hot. Her stomach growled at her, making up her final descison her little hand reached up and grabbed on and she quickly took a bite and sighed heavily. It was exactly as she would have imagine. The sweet taste making her mouth water for more, so she put a couple in her dress pocket and ate the one she already bit off of.

"Hey! Theif!" Voice boomed from behind her and she spun around to see a tall heavy man coming up from behind the counter. Panicked, she didn't know what to do except run. "Stop!" The man cried and followed her out the door. "Stop that theif!" He cried out but Elena was already out of sight and running home.

"Elena? Is that you?" Rosemarie called as Elena slammed the door and slide to the ground trying to catch her breath.

"Yeah, it's me, Rosemarie. I brought you something." Elena pulled  the sweet bread out of her pocket and handed it to Rosemarie.

"Where did you get this?!"

"Bakery." Elena said, that was sort of the truth, she told herself.

"You didn't?!" Rosemarie gasped. "Promise me you didn't Elena." Elena said nothing and looked down at the quilt.

"Promise me you wont do it again."

"I promise." Elena says softly.