Little Women vs. Werewolves

Chapter 9. Amy's Turn of Age

Her heart had panicked when she did not see Amy in her room or the missing book that suddenly vanished. She thinks that Amy ran off with it and read it over a cup of chamomile tea elsewhere. She couldn't find out whom she could have gone to. Beth was trying to open her eyes allowing a helpful Meg to shake her until she was coming back. Jo knocks sharply on Marmee's bedroom door and runs inside the room to her baffled mother, who was lying in bed reading a book, and tells her the terrible news. Hasting, she raced down the stairs and to a half sleeping Beth and worried Meg.

"Beth, you have to tell us. What happened when we left? Where's Amy?" Jo questioned.

Beth shook her head, confused. Her eyes were feeling weak, and her head was shaking and throbbing like an open cut on the tip of her finger. She couldn't concentrate on looking at her sisters or at Marmee. Laurie sat down in a chair provided by Marmee. 

"All I remember is that Amy was studying her French and she finished up to five lessons, and I told her she can have the rest of the night off. She told me that she was going to be upstairs. I had not left the room for one second and I saw the strangest thing that I found. As I walked into the kitchen, there was a cup of tea waiting at the table. I thought it was Amy's or she made tea for me and didn't say anything. So, I drank the tea and when it was only one drink and I had started to feel tired, and I slept. That was all I can remember, honest."

"Marmee, was there anything you heard?" Meg asked.

She shook her head. She couldn't control her breathing and feels her spirit is brought down into turmoil. "I pray that she is fine and wish she comes through that door, skin is clear, her hair straightened and even her health is gold," she cried.

Marmee was sitting at the table with her hands together, praying to have strength into finding her daughter. Laurie and his grandfather had heard the news about Amy's disappearance and had volunteered to help them. Although Laurie was dreadfully tired, it didn't stop him for having to help Jo find her sister. 

The look in her eyes was entirely grieving and the worry in her voice speaks out. Beth stays with the grieving stricken Marmee while the three went out to find her. They walked outside of the house and called for her name. There was no answer to her name. She wasn't close by or if she had probably sleepwalked her way out of the house.

"She couldn't have gone far. She must be walking in her sleep. You remember when we had to awake from a deep sleep in the dark of the night and we followed Father along to find her? It takes only a mile to get to where she was at," Meg reminisced.

"But she could be anywhere. She could be in the fields or who else where she could be," Jo whined.

"Someone must have seen her or she could have gone to the neighbor's house or something. We must not panic too much, Jo. This has happened before and it's happening again," Meg assured. It was the altruistic Meg coming out to her aid.

Jo had started in the direction to the back of their house. The small empty land had nothing but of collected fire logs and the wooden fence that surrounded them. She was quivering at the sight of the dark wooded tree that pointed up towards the sky. It didn't make her wonder at why she had to live so close to the woods. The darkness frightens her and she had spent years of fighting the fear. It was the painful memories that she was facing in front of her that stopped her tracks.

"Jo, come quick!" Meg shouted.

You found her, she thought. Her breath of solace leaves her body in the deadly night flying. She ran back to the front to see a clueless Meg and Laurie gazing on the dirt. She looks behind both of them to see what they were puzzled by. And then she saw it.