Guided by secrets

Forests and rivers

Sorry this is a kind of 'off' chapter, as it goes back to the very first chapter of the story. So if you reach this chapter, it may be a good idea to go back and read the first two chapters, just so you know what's going on! Anyways, thanks for 75 views, can we get it to 100 until I write the next chapter? Thanks for all the support though!!

I  climbed down the rope carefully. I had gotten pretty good at this thing over the past few years. There, I reached the ground. I was in our garden, a huge place full of scents and colours. The best thing about it though, was that it was so big, you could easily hide somewhere and not be discovered for days. That's why I loved it so much.

Passing through some clementines, I started running for no reason. I guess it was just the afternoon heat and atmosphere. I just felt so free. Soon, I approached the end of our garden, where it bordered with Ashton Forest. I had never crossed that big, spiky piece of metal before, and I didn't intend to either. Until today.

I guess something inside me had changed. I felt brave. I felt fearless. My vision was almost blurred by the overwhelming happiness that conquered me. "I have to do this," I thought, 'cause if I don't do it now, then when will I?

I should have noticed the uneasy knot in my stomach, telling me that something was wrong. "Naughty, you shouldn't have run out on the new maid like that," my conscience said. "Well, why should I care?" I answered in my head. "People should care for themselves, not have other people care about them!" This was another one of my mottos .
I still believe it's true. It's never proven me wrong.

I looked around worryingly, hesitating just slightly, as I didn't want to be caught. Mother once said that the Ashton Forest was full of bad people and huge beasts, and since then, I never ever even got close to thinking of crossing that fence. Now I know better than to believe Mum's little lies. Bad people: probably beggars. Huge beasts: wild heirs that mind their own business.

I stepped back to gain more energy and counted to four so I would run and jump over the fence. One...two...three...fo... "Cleo come quick, it's your dad!" I turned back and saw a figure shouting at me. She was quite blurred for some reason, I couldn't recognise her. I knew it, I knew it, I knew it, I kept thinking all over again whilst I ran up to my parents' room. No, nothing bad has happened...has it? I burst in the room.

Dad was on the bed, looking very pale, almost dead. "Dad, are you okay? I'm here now!" I exclaimed, shocked. 'Are you okay?' What a lame thing to say, especially when you can see that that person is dying! "Cleo, my dear..." Dad whispered. I had never seen him so fragile.  "Treat others like you would...want...to be...treated..." he said, "remember...I...love you." It was the first time he'd said it out loud, just like that. And probably the last. "Me too dad. Me too," I answered truthfully. And just like that. He closed his eyes.

I looked at Mum for reassurance. She was silently crying, looking away from my Dad. I couldn't stand to be there then. I sprinted out of the bedroom and went back to the garden. I ran back to the fence.

I leaped, and that was it. I was over the fence. Just like that. I was out of my private, safe house. I was out in the wild.
I ran. I ran and ran until my heart was beating at its fastest pace, and I was out of breath. I ran until the tears in my eyes spilt out, like a bucket being filled up with water slowly until it's overloaded and spills. I sat on a nearby rock then and cried, like it was the first time.

It actually was though. The first time I cried and my mum didn't give me a packet of tissues. The first time I cried and I didn't have one of the maids stroking my hair. The first time I cried without someone waiting outside my door for me to stop crying so they can come in and apologise. The first time I cried, without nobody by my side. The first time I cried alone. 

Without anybody in this world to comfort me except the singing of the birds and the flow of water in the running streams.

I sat there and cried.