Philophobia: A GerIta Story (Rewritten)

Chapter Three (Ludwig)

I look at the grocery store from my car, taking a deep breath before finally unbuckling my seatbelt and opening the driver's side door to get out in order to get this done as quickly as possible so I could return to the safety of home. I open the back door and grab Alaric's vest from the floor, first hooking the handsfree leash around my waist before slipping his vest on and clipping the leash on him.

"Okay let's go."

He jumps out of the car, shaking a bit before he looks up at me as I shut the door, double checking that I lock the car doors and putting my keys in my pocket when I'm confident they are locked.

My eyes scan the parking lot closely, looking for any form of a threat.

There are a few people walking around the parking lot, their baskets full of bags or talking on the phone as they walk inside the store.

I grip my own phone tightly, reminding myself that help was just a call away if anything happens.

'It didn't help you last time.'

I cringe away, even if the thought came from my own mind.

Hopefully my groceries are ready, it's only been two minutes and I'm ready to crawl back inside my house and watch Disney movies again with my dogs and peace and no people around me.

Alaric and I walk into the store and I grip his pull strap a little tighter at all the people walking around, but Alaric gives me a little nudge in a way to tell me everything was going to be okay.

The woman who is working at the pick-up window looks harmless. Maybe seventeen years old, smiling at the older woman at the front of the line and nodding at whatever the woman had said.

I get into the line behind the older woman, tapping out a rhythm on my leg with my fingers to distract myself, looking behind me every few moments. Alaric sits next to me, touching my leg with his body to remind me that he is there.

I step up to the counter once the older woman leaves, and the woman, who's nametag reads 'Mei' I notice, turns her smile to me.

"I-I'm here to...to pick up gro...groceries?" I stutter out, sounding more like a question than a statement, but her expression doesn't change if she noticed.

"What's the name?" She asks, and I lightly scratch my arm, looking to the counter instead of her.

"Beilschmidt," I tell her, and she nods pressing a few buttons on the computer before smiling at me brightly when she's done and looks up.

"Thank you, Mr. Beilschmidt," she butchers my surname a bit, but I don't move to correct her, far too used to it by this point, "your order isn't quite ready yet, so you can look around for a bit until it's done, it shouldn't be too long I'm sure. We can call you over the speakers if you would like?"

I quickly shake my head, "n-no I'll just...I can just come back up? In around...around maybe...around maybe ten minutes?"

She nods, her smile turning a bit confused and sad, "they should be ready by then."

I nod, "thank you."

Alaric walks me to the bakery area so we could look at the cakes and pastries, it's the only part of the store I actually enjoy being in since I love baking so much.

It's a way I escape the world; baking, Disney, reading, writing, and my dogs, the things in life that can always make me happy.

Once upon a time I would run and work out to calm down, but no matter how hard I tried, after Him I couldn't find the ability to do much of anything physically active.