Edith Hood stares at her reflection in her spoon, turning it over in her pale hand. Her blue eyes stare back at her as she studies her blonde hair, black eyelashes, and lips as red as blood.
Blood. That reminds her instantly of the execution yesterday. Oh, how brutal it was, watching as they tied up the poor old woman. She remembered Mrs. Sweet, she lived by her last name until she got the Disease, and then she turned Savage, thirsty for what they spilled yesterday. Her stomach churns as the sickening snap she had heard from the guillotine bounces through her head.
She places down the spoon finding herself unable to eat her soup. This catches her mother’s attention and causes her to go full Mama Bear.
“Why aren’t you eating? Are you sick? Do you have a…” She looks around and pauses but Edith already knows what she’s going to say. “Thirst for blood?”
“Mother.” She says, looking up at her with her head in her hand. “I’m fine, just not hungry.”
“Is it because of what happened yesterday? It’s fine dear, she lived a long life. Just kinda wished she went peacefully in her sleep and didn’t catch the… the…”
Some people are so scared of the illness that they wouldn’t even dare to say it. Unfortunately, her mom was one of those people. She wasn’t always though, not until her father got it and then ate her husband before getting caught and beheaded himself. She guesses the word still brings up those terrible memories for her mother. That incident had caused her to be overprotective too, noticeably avoiding people on the streets and not talking to people unless she needs to.
“I’m fine.” She repeats and she meant it. She was fine even though she may not be better than that it was enough. Her mother’s lips form a tight line but she nods anyway.
“Oh, Edith Deary. I forgot to tell you but I got a letter from Nana. She needs you to come to her little cottage. Apparently she hurt her back and can’t take care of herself. She may have also hit her head because she kept writing about a crow going for a swim…”
Edith swallows hard. A crow going for a swim, the code she and her grandmother had come up with for if she ever were to go Savage. She wanted her to come and save her from this Disease… that also meant she had to kill her. She was so sure that her grandmother would never get it from where she is which is the middle of the woods but it seems she was wrong.
She nods. “Yes, mother. When shall I leave?” She pulls at her red cloak, a nervous habit. The cloak had been from Nana and it was her favorite, not to mention soft and made out of silk. Despite not being very thick it kept her warm.
“Could you leave right away? I want you to get there before dark so you have a smaller chance of running into wolves.”
She nods again and stands up to clear the table. She pours her uneaten soup into the dog’s bowl. She wasn’t entirely sure he could eat it but she also didn’t want to waste it. In her room, she grabs the necessities for the trip and packs them into a woven picnic basket. Once she had placed her change of clothes, medicine, a dagger she had named Kindness, and some food her mother gave for the journey she flicks on her hood to keep her hair in place, which wasn’t working well, and bids her mother goodbye then makes her ways towards the woods.
With the basket in one hand and the other laying limply at her side she takes a deep breath and takes her first step into the woods.239Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwu9jBmqIj8
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