Days Between the Tomorrows

Doll in the Red Dress: Part I

The wind howled outside, sounding like children screaming, shaking the old, small, worn down wooden house.

Rain pelted the cracked glass of the only window in the house, a water droplet seeped through the cracks, dropping on the cold, packed-dirt floor.

plip

plip

A woman wearing a tattered dress, stained and worn, sat on the floor next to the fireplace, needle in hand, mending clothing.

The small flame, barely bigger than a candle's, flickered and grew only slightly, shrinking as suddenly as it grew, faultering.

CRASH

A crash of thunder rattled the entire house.

"Ah!" The woman flinched. She looked out the window, lightning casting a moment of haunting light across the outside world.

She looked down and saw that she had poked herself with the needle, a single drop of blood fell on the hard dirt floor.

drip

A door creaked behind her.

She whizzed around.

"Child, what are you doing down here? I told you to stay in the attic with your sisters." The woman spoke softly, but sternly, in a voice that seemed weary, as if she had seen something awful and it had taken away the light in her eyes and the spring in her step.

"I-I woke up be-because of da thunder, it was dark and scarwy and I knew you were downstairs so I came here because I wanted to-to make sure you were okay and safe." A little girl said, clutching a doll in a little white dress, still stained with dirt from the first night.

"No, no, no, dear. I'm fine. It was just a bit of thunder, now head back upstairs to bed." The woman ushered the child towards the door behind the curtains, watching as she walked up the narrow stairs, up to the hidden room.

The woman sighed, her eyes had seen to much.

As she sat down next to the fireplace, putting another stick in, mending clothing again.

The wind howled and it seemed as if it was carrying the burden of a thousand souls.

Another flash of lightning illuminated the dark sky.