All The Colors In One | FILLIE

seven - black and white

song - Darlin' Don't by Stephen Fretwell 

~"I wanna walk through the morning
And I've not seen the night
I wanna hold on to you baby
And make you feel alright"~

As he span around in the darkness, he could start to understand what it was like for her every single day to be alone, with no sense of where she was. As he ran through the woods searching for her blindly, he could not work out which way was the entrance and what was the exit. He was trapped in the darkness, unable to find what he was looking for and it was nearly impossible to remember which way he had come from. Every inch of the darkness looked the same, the trees sticking out like dark figures watching over him, and he felt helpless. His heart was pounding with fright as he called out her name, pleading with her to stop toying with him and to let him apologize for upsetting her. He wasn't sure if she had meant to scare him and show him what it was like to be so helpless, or if she just wanted to escape from the barriers that were surrounding her. Whatever her intention was, he could feel exactly how terrified she must have been everyday, not showing how trapped she felt in her own body. The thought of being left alone in the darkness with no sense of where he was, it sent a chill through his bones.

Millie had been stumbling around in the woods for a while, pushing herself to keep going as her hands held onto trees for guides. She was alone with nobody to help her, her small hands the only guide available to try and work out where she was. The woods felt never-ending and she swallowed the fear within her, convincing herself that she could handle being on her own instead of admitting that she was way out of her depth. 

Her parents found her after a few hours, mumbling curses under their breaths. Her mother held her tightly, mumbling her name gently every few seconds as if to convince herself that the girl in her arms was real, that she was safe. By the time they reached her she was shivering, her clothes damp from the coldness of the air as she tried to push them off. The entire time she fought them off, muttering that she was fine on her own and that she would have found her way back home, but her parents didn't want to hear it. When they finally got back home they forced her to shower, her mother helping her get dressed no matter how many times she pleaded with her to leave. Millie wanted to feel independent for a moment, to prove that she didn't need someone to walk her around, but she had brought herself back to square one. 

"This clearly isn't going to work anymore, I would like for you to leave."

Millie frowned at the voices, walking slowly down the stairs. Her parents went quiet but they didn't need to speak, she already knew that Finn was there with them. His hands were in his pockets, shaking still from the cold and she could guess that his hair was messed up from running around looking for her. He glanced at her warily, hating how he couldn't be angry at her for what she had done. 

"Please, M-Mrs Brown-"

The woman interrupted. "Finn, you are a smart boy. You are nothing but polite and kind, but we gave you a duty of care when we agreed to this. We trusted you with our daughter and now she is going to get sick, confused and upset from being lost in the woods-"

Finn's eyes turned desperate. "I-I-"

"She could have been hurt or worse, Finn. We know that you didn't mean for anything to happen but we can't let this continue after this...Millie will have to use her stick from now on or we will find someone else to help. But we can't trust that this won't happen again, she needs to be looked after, with her eyesight anything could-"

"It wasn't his fault."

Millie's mumble came reluctantly and she crossed her arms to try and hide away, despite knowing that they were all looking at her. Finn looked down at the floor, not willing to argue with her when he knew that it was her decision to speak up. When her parents had asked what had happened, he didn't know what to say and he suddenly found himself allowing them to spit words at him, believing that he let her wander off alone. Millie could not hear the shake in his voice any longer, knowing that his face was probably distraught from the idea of letting them down on purpose, when they both knew she was the one that had tricked him.