Obscure Occurrences |C. BAREBONE|

☛ Four ☚

• November, 1925 •

"Where have you been Young lady!" Mrs. Glover exclaimed as she quickly pulled Genevieve into the house. After all, she had been gone for longer than she had promised.

"You wouldn't believe what happened, there was this woman and magic and this boy-"

"Boy!" Mrs. Glover jumped to reply, her fat, dimpled cheeks tinting red in the process.

"Yes... He was so pretty and those eyes of his" Genevieve nearly swooned at the memory. Even with his hunched posture and quiet voice, her whole recollection of him was vivid and persistent.

"Genevieve-" Mrs. Glover began with a sigh,
"- if your Father heard you now, you would surely get a good shoutin' at".

"But you don't understand Penny",

"I do Genevieve and it doesn't all end as a fairytale".

With that, Mrs. Glover pulled at Genevieve's coat and folded it over her arm before ultimately, leaving the young Miss to herself.

☛✹☚

Hours had passed and Genevieve couldn't find much to drag her mind from the boy. In the odd moment, his memory would drift into the music filtering down the streets or the distant melody Penny sang. He wasn't always there but he still lingered. That's why Genevieve pressed the crisp leaflet into the back of her diary and placed it carefully under her pillow. (She silently hoped this would cause dreams of magic and adventure into her slumber).

Meanwhile, in the coldest room of the Second Salem church, Credence closed his eyes and recalled the rally that had happened earlier that day. He could remember Genevieve's soft hand and the gentleness of her voice. He had never seen her before but then he remembered. The fire raged in his mind and against it stood the angel of honey-brown hair and grey pools in her eyes.

It couldn't have been a coincidence that both were thinking of each other. That both laid in the foetal position above their bedsheets, wondering in fleeting bliss what the other was doing.

Never had Credence seen a woman such as her.

All his life, since he was a young child, Mary Lou had told him of such pleasures of the flesh. She dragged on about the sin of premarital sex and how desiring a woman in such a way was not to be shined upon let alone brought into existence. But how could he help it? The girl was too beautiful against the grey, concrete jungle they lived amongst.

☛✹☚

Victor Burnett arrived just after seven o'clock, right when his daughter would be safely tucked into bed with no danger to threaten her life. After the death of his wife, his beautiful Hannah, Victor couldn't bare to lose his only child. Prompting him to already arrange a meeting with Henry Shaw, his boss at Shaw News. He knew that his son would protect Genevieve and give her a good living. That's why he worked so hard, so after he left, Genevieve wouldn't be alone and defenceless.

Nobody knew how hard it was. Nobody understood why he locked his daughter away. But he didn't need them to know why, Victor knew what he was doing.

Victor could remember him and Hannah fighting that night. That was the reason she left him in such a way. He couldn't protect her from the horror's of the world, he couldn't keep Hannah from the monsters. However, Genevieve was a different story.

"Oh!" Mrs. Glover exclaimed with a hand over her chest. "You're back Mr. Burnett".

"Yes, is Genevieve asleep?" He questioned.

"Out like a light Mr. Burnett. It's best not to disturb her" and with that, Mrs. Glover wrapped a scarf around her neck and pulled on her coat, coloured with a dull grey.

Once she had left the premises, Victor allowed a deep breath to escape his lips before he proceeded to his study. In there, he would assess the stories provided. Each one held promise, held a meaning. Yet, only few could obtain a column in the paper.

"Father..." he suddenly heard from his desk. The soft voice could only belong to his sweet daughter.

"What is it sweetie?",

"I couldn't sleep" she mumbled.

"You can sit here with me..."
Safe with me.

However, Victor Burnett didn't know that Credence Barebone was the thing keeping his innocent, little princess awake. He didn't know it was all about a boy.