Challenge #03a: Midnight Vigil
Written for a challenge at writerverse
Title: Midnight Vigil
Word Count 994
Rating: PG
Original/Fandom: Original
Pairings (if any) none
Warnings (Non-Con/Dub-Con/RPF etc): none
Summary: Sequel to Safe and Cookies. Svea has finally decided that tonight is the night she sneaks away from her Uncle and Aunt's house. Her mother is sick but she doesn't think that should keep her away.
Moonlight streamed in through the window, highlighting the walls of Sanne's room. She should have been asleep hours ago but Svea found that there were too many pictures in her head. Too many ideas. Too many worries. She wanted nothing more than to be home with Mumma and Papa in her own room with the prettier wallpaper than this and a pillow that was soft and not lumpy like this one.
Really, she could have been much worse off. Instead of staying in Sanne's room, she could have been relegated to the nursery with the Littles. She much preferred her older cousin to the triplets who didn't know what sit down or be quiet meant. It was unlikely that sleep was possible in the nursery. Not that she would sleep there, either, but it was much easier to perfect her plans in this complete silence.
It was those plans that caused the pictures to run through her mind, like strange dreams that were based on reality but weren't really anything that had ever happened. Not yet. She knew what she wanted to happen but had yet to decide which plan of action would get her to the desired outcome. They kept saying she was too young, that she didn't understand what was happening. Her Mumma was sick. What more was there to understand?
She kept overhearing snatches of conversation, brief bits that led her to believe that they were all watching her to see what she would do next. Uncle Cam was convinced she was content to be here with his girls and would soon find a suitable way to spend her days. Right now, she sat at the window overlooking the garden, content to plan and scheme in silence. He kept hoping to change her solemn expression, plying her with offers that would have sent his daughters into spasms of glee.
Auntie Becca was convinced her niece would act soon, showing her hand and failing because she was a child. When she stopped by the alcove to talk, the woman asked questions geared to determine what Svea was thinking instead of what she was feeling, the answers causing her eyes to narrow and her lips to thin. Even so, she would gather the girl up in her arms in an embrace that was somewhat like her Mumma's own hugs.
Mrs. Hoskins baked every goodie she could think of to entice the girl away from her daytime window. Donovan brought her books and drawing paper, trying to give her something to do that would seem more childish... and more normal.
Tonight would be the night she left. There was plenty of moonlight to guide her down the road and still enough night to keep her movements hidden until it was too late. She only needed two hours and she could be at her home where it would just be her and Mumma and Papa. No cousins always trying to get her to play games. No adults thinking they knew what was best for her.
"They're watching the doors, you know."
Svea stiffened, keeping as still as possible as she tried to decide if the voice had been inside her head or had come from the other bed. She had assumed that the lengthening breaths had meant that Sanne was asleep, never once doubting that her midnight vigil was shared with someone else. "What?"
"I heard Donovan talking with the security detail today. They've started tightening the nightly sweeps. There's no way you can go out through a door." Sanne propped herself up, leaning her head against her hand as she gazed at her cousin. "I didn't know if you had another plan or not."
"I'd just figured to walk out the front." Svea hated how soft and unsure her voice sounded but this was like a hard punch to the gut. All the air had been knocked out of her lungs as she realized just how little credit she had given them. Of course Donovan would increase security. That was his job, after all. To keep the people safe from the people outside. Auntie Becca still had stalkers, people who thought they should be allowed to be a part of her life just because they admired her.
Up until tonight, there had been two minutes when the front door was unguarded. That had been her window of opportunity.
"Why don't you like it here?" Sanne asked, rolling onto her back once again.
In the darkness, Svea let a single tear slip out of her eye and down the side of her face to lodge, cold and wet, in her ear. "They think that, because I'm little, I can't help. That I'll be too sad to watch Mumma being sick. They forget that I've watched her being sick all of my life. What makes me sad is that they won't let me be with her. She needs me. Papa needs me." She looked at the moonlight flowing into the room, blue against the black of the shadows. "I'm their light. Their hope. They told me so."
There was a rustling of bedclothes and then Sanne was standing beside the bed, her hand held out. "There's one spot they never check. Come on. I'll show you."
"You would help me?"
"When the Littles were born, I was sent away. Aunt Suze and Uncle Fabian took me to Canne. I hated it there. The entire time, I wanted to be back here and I cried. Aunt Suze told me that I wouldn't have been much help to them if I was going to fall apart under that little bit of pressure. She was right, of course." She shrugged her thin shoulders. "You've never cried. Not once. You haven't fallen apart because of this pressure. So I'm going to help you."
Svea took her cousin's hand, more grateful than any words she could think of to express her feelings at the moment. Tonight, she was going to get her wish. She was going home.
Title: Midnight Vigil
Word Count 994
Rating: PG
Original/Fandom: Original
Pairings (if any) none
Warnings (Non-Con/Dub-Con/RPF etc): none
Summary: Sequel to Safe and Cookies. Svea has finally decided that tonight is the night she sneaks away from her Uncle and Aunt's house. Her mother is sick but she doesn't think that should keep her away.
Moonlight streamed in through the window, highlighting the walls of Sanne's room. She should have been asleep hours ago but Svea found that there were too many pictures in her head. Too many ideas. Too many worries. She wanted nothing more than to be home with Mumma and Papa in her own room with the prettier wallpaper than this and a pillow that was soft and not lumpy like this one.
Really, she could have been much worse off. Instead of staying in Sanne's room, she could have been relegated to the nursery with the Littles. She much preferred her older cousin to the triplets who didn't know what sit down or be quiet meant. It was unlikely that sleep was possible in the nursery. Not that she would sleep there, either, but it was much easier to perfect her plans in this complete silence.
It was those plans that caused the pictures to run through her mind, like strange dreams that were based on reality but weren't really anything that had ever happened. Not yet. She knew what she wanted to happen but had yet to decide which plan of action would get her to the desired outcome. They kept saying she was too young, that she didn't understand what was happening. Her Mumma was sick. What more was there to understand?
She kept overhearing snatches of conversation, brief bits that led her to believe that they were all watching her to see what she would do next. Uncle Cam was convinced she was content to be here with his girls and would soon find a suitable way to spend her days. Right now, she sat at the window overlooking the garden, content to plan and scheme in silence. He kept hoping to change her solemn expression, plying her with offers that would have sent his daughters into spasms of glee.
Auntie Becca was convinced her niece would act soon, showing her hand and failing because she was a child. When she stopped by the alcove to talk, the woman asked questions geared to determine what Svea was thinking instead of what she was feeling, the answers causing her eyes to narrow and her lips to thin. Even so, she would gather the girl up in her arms in an embrace that was somewhat like her Mumma's own hugs.
Mrs. Hoskins baked every goodie she could think of to entice the girl away from her daytime window. Donovan brought her books and drawing paper, trying to give her something to do that would seem more childish... and more normal.
Tonight would be the night she left. There was plenty of moonlight to guide her down the road and still enough night to keep her movements hidden until it was too late. She only needed two hours and she could be at her home where it would just be her and Mumma and Papa. No cousins always trying to get her to play games. No adults thinking they knew what was best for her.
"They're watching the doors, you know."
Svea stiffened, keeping as still as possible as she tried to decide if the voice had been inside her head or had come from the other bed. She had assumed that the lengthening breaths had meant that Sanne was asleep, never once doubting that her midnight vigil was shared with someone else. "What?"
"I heard Donovan talking with the security detail today. They've started tightening the nightly sweeps. There's no way you can go out through a door." Sanne propped herself up, leaning her head against her hand as she gazed at her cousin. "I didn't know if you had another plan or not."
"I'd just figured to walk out the front." Svea hated how soft and unsure her voice sounded but this was like a hard punch to the gut. All the air had been knocked out of her lungs as she realized just how little credit she had given them. Of course Donovan would increase security. That was his job, after all. To keep the people safe from the people outside. Auntie Becca still had stalkers, people who thought they should be allowed to be a part of her life just because they admired her.
Up until tonight, there had been two minutes when the front door was unguarded. That had been her window of opportunity.
"Why don't you like it here?" Sanne asked, rolling onto her back once again.
In the darkness, Svea let a single tear slip out of her eye and down the side of her face to lodge, cold and wet, in her ear. "They think that, because I'm little, I can't help. That I'll be too sad to watch Mumma being sick. They forget that I've watched her being sick all of my life. What makes me sad is that they won't let me be with her. She needs me. Papa needs me." She looked at the moonlight flowing into the room, blue against the black of the shadows. "I'm their light. Their hope. They told me so."
There was a rustling of bedclothes and then Sanne was standing beside the bed, her hand held out. "There's one spot they never check. Come on. I'll show you."
"You would help me?"
"When the Littles were born, I was sent away. Aunt Suze and Uncle Fabian took me to Canne. I hated it there. The entire time, I wanted to be back here and I cried. Aunt Suze told me that I wouldn't have been much help to them if I was going to fall apart under that little bit of pressure. She was right, of course." She shrugged her thin shoulders. "You've never cried. Not once. You haven't fallen apart because of this pressure. So I'm going to help you."
Svea took her cousin's hand, more grateful than any words she could think of to express her feelings at the moment. Tonight, she was going to get her wish. She was going home.