Call of the Horses

Chapter 15

"Darcy wake up!" a voice screams. No not again I say to myself. I sit up, lightning fast screaming so hard my throat hurts. I realise  I'm crying and beads of sweat have reappeared on my forhead.

Someone sits on my bed next to me and wraps me in a cocoon made of their arms. I cry into the person's shoulder.  I take a deep breath in through my nose and smell hay and horse, its Daniel.

"Get away from me!" I scream at him, running into the corner on the other side of the room. "Darcy what are you talking about?" he asks me a hint of confusion in his voice. I hug my knees to my chest and let the tears fall onto my knees and down my legs.

I hear footsteps and he's by my side again. I go to stand up but Daniel pulls me straight back down. "Darcy it was a bad dream, nothing more. You're ok" he says wrapping me in another embrace.

"But you're going to hand me over to the police" I sob. "What, I'd never do that even if I didn't like you. I heard you screaming so I ran down here to see what was wrong" he replies.

I mull things over in my head. If the previous events were in fact a dream, no, nightmare, then that means that what Daniel is saying is the truth. But the nightmare felt so real, is it a wake up call? No, I want believe it, I'm safe here with Daniel and Scoot and all the other horses.

"Ok" I mumble so soft that even I can barely hear myself. Daniel gets up, then turns to me and helps me to my feet.

I give him a weak smile. "Come on its your first day at school sweety" he's says in an annoying mum voice. "What am I going to where?" I ask trying not to burst into tears again. "Well, my older sister's over seas but she left some of her clothes behind. Let me check" Daniel answered and with that he rushed out of the room.

He came back with a pile of clothes that looked around my size. He dropped them on the bed and walked out to give me some privacy. I walked over to the pile and looked through it.

There was two pairs of jeans, one white and another denim, there were some midrift tops, a tiger stripped one, a sky blue one and a lime green one. I also found a pair of short denim overalls and two pairs of highwaisted shorts. There were also items of underclothes that, thank god, fit me.

I chucked on the green midfrift top and chucked on the overalls over the top. I found my own green converse next to the bed. I slip some socks on that belonged to Daniel's sister. I then pulled my shoes on and tied the laces in a neat bow.

I grab my brush out of my bag and find a mirror on the back of the door leading into the corridor. I continued to brush my hair until it was nott free. I look at my reflection and noticed how pale I looked, almost ghost like.

I turned around to see if there was any make up on the chest of drawers. No luck, so I slump down on the bed and just happen to spot a make up bag on top of the pile of clothes. Daniel really does look out for me.

I do my make up and briad my waist length hair to the side, down my torso. I take a final look at my reflection, I don't look half bad. I open the door and skip down the stairs.

Daniel's in the kitchen making bacon and eggs. "I'm sorry about before" I say sitting down at the breakfast bar.  I must of scared him because he jumped before he turned around to face me.

"I'm just glad you're ok" he said. He started to blush at what he just said so he turned around again. I didn't think that what he said was stupid, it was nice to see that someone's looking out for me.

Not wanting to have an awkward moment between us I say "That smells great". As soon as the words came out if my mouth I was completly embarrassed.  Daniel grabbed out two plates and devided the food evenly.

When we finished eating Daniel says "Oh, I nearly forgot about the horses and your dog". "Crap, Fly!" I agree slapping my hand against my forhead. We run outside and make our way to the barn.

When we get there, horsey heads poked out of their stalls whinnying as if saying "Come, you should have been here ages ago". We chuckle to ourselves and run into the feed room.

The feed room is a bit smaller than the tack but can still contain large amounts or products including hay bales, barrels containing food pellets, medicine cabinets etc.

We feed all the horses and I then feed Fly. We make sure that all the doors at the back of eaxh stall.is open so the horses can access the little area of grass behind their stalls. We run back to the house and grab our bags, mine is the one I took from home. We run out of the house over to Daniel's ute, we're late by this stage.  Daniel opens my door and helps me into the passenger seat like a true gentlemen. I thanks him and he hops in around the drivers side.

He starts up the metal beast and we drive down the long driveway away the horses and toward a new adventure.