Fic: Home (chapter two)
Title: Home
Author: Miss Peg
Rating: T
Characters: Emily, Naomi, Gina and some random OCs
Summary: Emily finds herself on the streets with little more than the clothes on her back. When a kind stranger picks her up and takes her home she discovers that home isn't necessarily the place where your relatives live.
Disclaimer: Emily and Naomi have never been mine...I like to think I can claim some ownership over Gina because we know so little about her, but ultimately she doesn't belong to me either.
Notes: Thanks for reading the last chapter and especially to those who left a comment, I hope you enjoy this one too.
The car had travelled out of the city centre, along the main road before the large dual carriageway turned to a single road which halved again to a dirt track. Emily awoke as the car juddered and jerked along the bumps and holes in the road. She reached out for her bag and searched the small back seat. Her eyes darted back and forth. What was she doing there? The place was warm and dry; a coat had been laid across her body, the corner damp where she'd dribbled against it. Her cheeks turned crimson.
'Nearly there now,' said the woman driving the car, someone she had never met before. She swallowed a hard lump in her throat and fumbled with the wall of the car.
'It's okay love,' said the woman, turning briefly with the warmest smile on her face. Emily reached for the latch and tried to push the front passenger seat forwards.
'Don’t do that,' said the woman, her smile never faltering. 'It's broken on that side, wait ‘til we've stopped and you can climb out this way.'
Emily's heart thumped inside her chest, battling with her ribcage like someone might fight with the door on their first night in prison. She was being taken somewhere without her consent, however much she tried to justify what was happening the only thing she could think about was that nobody would ever know she'd been taken. Nobody knew where she was anyway, so why would they miss her?
'Where are you taking me?' she said, sitting back against the seat and watching them travel further down the dirt track. She didn’t recognise the road or the countryside surrounding them.
'It's alright,' said the woman, that smile was beginning to grate on Emily's nerves. For all she knew it was the face of a killer. 'I’m taking you to my home.'
To push her in the oven and bake her like Hansel and Gretel. She had heard the stories as a child, tucked up in bed ready for a fairytale only to be scared out of her skin at the thought of someone taking her away. She had had to sleep in Katie's bed for a week. Her sister wasn’t there to protect her now.
'Who the fuck are you?' she shouted. The car slowed to a stop and the woman climbed out without a response, she pulled on the seat latch but Emily didn’t move. She had some control over her destiny. If that was sitting in the back of the tiny car until she could figure out how to escape then so be it.
'Very well,' said the woman. 'I’ll be up in the main house when you want a feed.'
She then pushed the door closed behind her leaving Emily alone. She waited for her to lock her in, or worse still, drag her out kicking and screaming. Then when she disappeared through a door Emily expected her to come back with some big muscled man. When no one returned, Emily decided that maybe the woman wasn’t going to hurt her after all.
‘Hello?’ said Emily, knocking on the door and pushing it open. On the other side a cat sat on a staircase washing its paw and a younger woman pushed it out of the way to walk down to where Emily stood in the doorway.
‘She picked up another one then.’ The woman rolled her eyes and walked down the hallway. Emily tiptoed forwards following her cautiously. At the door the woman turned around and glanced at her. ‘Come on then.’
Emily pushed her shoes off her feet and rushed down the hallway towards the woman. The last thing she wanted to do was trail mud through the house. Through the doorway was the kitchen, a table sat in the middle with chairs surrounding it where the young woman sat. The older woman stirred three mugs and carried them carefully over to the table.
‘Finally,’ she said with that same smile back on her face. ‘I wondered how long it’d take you.’
‘Where am I?’ Emily asked, clutching the door. She didn’t think the woman was going to murder her anymore, but that wasn’t a reason not to be cautious.
‘The Farm.’
‘I can see it’s a fucking farm.’
‘No need to get angry.’ The woman placed the third mug in an empty spot at the table and signalled for Emily to sit down.
‘Can you blame me for being worried?’ She sat. ‘I don’t even know who you are.’
‘Mum! You didn’t tell her?’ said the young woman, glaring at her mother and rolling her eyes.
‘She was sleeping.’ The mother rolled her eyes in return and focused her attention on Emily. ‘I’m Gina, Gina Campbell and this is my darling daughter Naomi.’
Emily smiled up at them from the steaming hot drink which heated her quickly from the inside. She wrapped her hands around the porcelain mug and ate the biscuits she was offered hungrily. It suddenly occurred to her that as much as she didn’t know who they were, they didn’t know her either. She was reluctant to offer any information. They were still strangers after all.
‘Andy’s cooking up a feast in the Chop House; will you join us for some dinner?’ asked Gina. That smile was something Emily found herself warming to, had she met Gina under any other circumstance, she’d probably have considered her a lovely, warm person.
Emily creased her brow. ‘Who’s Andy?’
‘He lives here too,’ said Gina.
‘He’s one of Mum’s many waifs and strays,’ Naomi said with an eye roll.
‘Is there somewhere I could clean up?’ said Emily.
‘Of course there is,’ Gina said, a little shocked that she hadn’t thought to suggest it sooner. She stood up and cleared the mugs. ‘Naomi’ll show you to the bathroom. Would you like to take a shower? Naomi, get her a towel and some soap.’
‘Yes Ma’am.’ Naomi saluted to Gina with a smirk and left the room.
‘Get her some spare clothes too,’ Gina shouted as Emily closed the door behind her.
They walked up the stairs by the front door in silence. When they reached the top Naomi asked her to wait, so she stood in the middle of the landing with little more than doors to look at. The one Naomi had disappeared through stood ajar and Emily watched as Naomi moved across the room before emerging with a pile of clothes.
‘Wasn’t sure what you want to wear. I got you a couple of choices.’
Emily smiled her thanks and followed Naomi’s direction into the bathroom. The room had been nicely done up and far exceeded her expectations. The last bathroom she went into had left her confidence in tatters. She ran the shower as she undressed. Despite the door being locked and Gina and Naomi knowing she was in there, Emily still covered herself up as she stripped off. The water, once it was the right temperature, felt like a welcomed relief from the days she had spent caked in her own filth.
‘Dinner in fifteen,’ Gina said, knocking on the door.
The gentle stream of water had sent Emily off into her imagination where she dreamt of being on a desert island standing under a waterfall. The loud bang shook her back to reality, a reality she wasn’t quite sure she wanted to be returned to. She hurriedly washed her hair and borrowed a disposable razor sitting on the side of the bath. When she climbed out of the shower she stood in the towel for a few minutes trying to decide what to wear. Out of the skirt and jeans, she picked the jeans, simply because she hadn’t had time to shave her legs. Then she opted for a t-shirt of a pig which made her laugh. The clothes felt alien to her. She squeezed her hair until as much water as possible had been soaked into the towel before carrying her dirty clothes downstairs to the kitchen.
‘I’ll wash those for you, put them in the basket,’ said Gina, pointing to a wicker basket by the door. She dropped them in. ‘I’ll start a load and then we can get you some grub.’
Gina took the basket into a small utility room off the kitchen and set the machine going, then Naomi joined them and they left the main house. Across the courtyard only one window was lit up. Whilst she walked, Emily looked around her. She had only been on a couple of farms as a child. The one she had visited almost every year since her little brother’s birth had a small animal enclosure and they went to pet the animals for most of his birthdays. It also had a café and a farm shop. The second she had visited on a school trip in primary school, they went to learn about milk and eggs. Katie had slipped over and fallen into some cow poo making her cry. Emily smiled at the memory. All of the different images she had in her head of what a farm should look like, this definitely wasn’t it.
Gina stood on the other side of the courtyard holding the door to the building open. Above the door a small, hand carved sign read The Chop House. The very name filled Emily with images of dead animals she’d seen on a documentary about meat production. She stepped over the threshold and down into the building where she stared in shock. Nowhere in her line of sight could she see anything to link the room to dead animals. If anything, it looked more like a restaurant. On the left hand side was a small kitchen area where steam flew around the two men rushing between plates and pans. The rest of the room was filled with tables and chairs, of which most of them were filled.
‘I thought this was a farm,’ whispered Emily, but her query was drowned out by a bell ringing. Emily assumed it must mean the start of the meal.
A couple of people from each table stood up and walked across to a serving area where a tall man with long hair and piercings laid out plates, which were quickly snapped up. The food quickly disappeared from the counter and more appeared until there were only a handful of plates left.
‘Come sit down,’ said Gina, pushing her along the side of the room towards an empty table,
Naomi had already found a seat with a couple of people at another table. What was going on? Emily sat down beside Gina but couldn’t keep her eyes off the commotion of people wanting food. The long haired man carried a couple of plates over and rested them on the table in front of her and Gina.
‘New blood?’ he smiled at her, showing off a gold tooth which shone brightly.
‘Yes, I picked her up in town about an hour ago. This is,’ Gina started to speak but stopped suddenly, frowning at Emily. ‘I’m sorry, how rude of me, I haven’t even asked your name.’
‘It’s Emily,’ she said, taking a knife and fork from a wooden tub in the centre of the table.
‘I’m Todd, been ‘ere coming up three years. Enjoy yer meal and I’m sure I’ll see you ‘round.’
‘Thank you,’ said Gina, digging into her own meal.
The roast dinner on Emily’s plate looked and smelled like the most amazing meal she’d ever been given. The lack of food over the last few days had left her so hungry that just sitting there was making her dribble. When she forked the first bite into her mouth it was like the whole world disappeared and all that matter at that moment was that plate. She ate with desperation. After she’d emptied the plate Todd took it away and brought a bowl of fruit for Emily to choose from. Her stomach felt relatively full but she still took a banana and a small tree of grapes.
‘I should probably be going soon,’ said Emily as she swallowed a piece of banana. ‘Thanks for today.’
‘Do you have somewhere to go?’ asked Gina, raising her eyebrows at Emily.
As lovely as she was, Gina was making awfully large assumptions about her, albeit they were accurate, but Emily didn’t really want anyone feeling sorry for her. She placed the empty grape tree on the table and stared at Gina.
‘I’m sure I can find somewhere,’ she said, unable to look her in the eye as the lie slipped from her lips.
‘I’ve seen you every day this week,’ said Gina. ‘Wandering around the streets.’
‘So you assumed I was homeless.’
‘Yes.’
‘Maybe I just didn’t want to be at home.’
Gina considered her words carefully as though trying to decide what to say next. ‘I saw you curl up under some boxes in a back alley one evening before I went home.’
‘Oh.’ Emily’s heart sank and the wall she had attempted to build tumbled down around her. Her eyes filled with tears and her throat ached as she tried to keep them at bay.
‘I’m not judging you Emily; I don’t want you to tell me your whole life story unless you want to. I just want to help you.’
‘By letting me stay at your house with all these people?’ she asked, feeling a little ungrateful considering everything the woman had done for her.
‘The Farm isn’t just my house; it’s a community I created for people who need somewhere to stay. When I met Todd he’d been kicked out of home by his wife, he had no job, no money and he was going to kill himself. Giving him a home was the best thing I ever did. I won’t regret asking him to come here just like I won’t regret asking you either. I think you can bring something really wonderful to this community, in fact, I know you can.’
‘I’m an unemployed college dropout, what the fuck could I bring to somewhere like this?’
‘I don’t know yet.’ Gina stood up and took the leftover fruit items over to the bin. Emily followed her. ‘Maybe you don’t either, but I’m happy to let you try.’
They left the dining room via a different exit which led out into a small corridor with many doors. They continued walking until they had turned a corner and stopped by one of the doors.
‘These are the rooms. Stay tonight, it’s getting dark now and no one has plans to go back to Bristol. If you want the room for longer it’s yours, if you don’t I’ll get someone to drive you back into town in the morning.’
‘I can stay here?’ she asked, a little confused. She thought she was getting fed and sent back, she didn’t expect anything more. Considering she had expected to be murdered, everything else was just a bonus.
‘Do you want to stay here?’ asked Gina with that dashing smile.
‘Yes please,’ she whispered. ‘Maybe just for tonight.’
Taking a key out of her pocket Gina unlocked one of the doors and pushed it open, she flicked the light switch revealing a small room with a bed, a desk and a chair. It reminded Emily of the student accommodation booklets she had looked at with her parents for university. The room was simple and under any other circumstances Emily probably would have turned her nose up at just how basic it was. But her situation had changed. She couldn’t be picky and the bed looked like the most comfortable thing in the world. Gina handed her the key and wished her a goodnight. Once the door had closed behind her Emily walked over to the bed, pulled back the covers and lay down. She planned to take off the clothes Naomi had given her or use the bathroom, but when she closed her eyes she realised just how tired she really was and drifted off to sleep.
Author: Miss Peg
Rating: T
Characters: Emily, Naomi, Gina and some random OCs
Summary: Emily finds herself on the streets with little more than the clothes on her back. When a kind stranger picks her up and takes her home she discovers that home isn't necessarily the place where your relatives live.
Disclaimer: Emily and Naomi have never been mine...I like to think I can claim some ownership over Gina because we know so little about her, but ultimately she doesn't belong to me either.
Notes: Thanks for reading the last chapter and especially to those who left a comment, I hope you enjoy this one too.
The car had travelled out of the city centre, along the main road before the large dual carriageway turned to a single road which halved again to a dirt track. Emily awoke as the car juddered and jerked along the bumps and holes in the road. She reached out for her bag and searched the small back seat. Her eyes darted back and forth. What was she doing there? The place was warm and dry; a coat had been laid across her body, the corner damp where she'd dribbled against it. Her cheeks turned crimson.
'Nearly there now,' said the woman driving the car, someone she had never met before. She swallowed a hard lump in her throat and fumbled with the wall of the car.
'It's okay love,' said the woman, turning briefly with the warmest smile on her face. Emily reached for the latch and tried to push the front passenger seat forwards.
'Don’t do that,' said the woman, her smile never faltering. 'It's broken on that side, wait ‘til we've stopped and you can climb out this way.'
Emily's heart thumped inside her chest, battling with her ribcage like someone might fight with the door on their first night in prison. She was being taken somewhere without her consent, however much she tried to justify what was happening the only thing she could think about was that nobody would ever know she'd been taken. Nobody knew where she was anyway, so why would they miss her?
'Where are you taking me?' she said, sitting back against the seat and watching them travel further down the dirt track. She didn’t recognise the road or the countryside surrounding them.
'It's alright,' said the woman, that smile was beginning to grate on Emily's nerves. For all she knew it was the face of a killer. 'I’m taking you to my home.'
To push her in the oven and bake her like Hansel and Gretel. She had heard the stories as a child, tucked up in bed ready for a fairytale only to be scared out of her skin at the thought of someone taking her away. She had had to sleep in Katie's bed for a week. Her sister wasn’t there to protect her now.
'Who the fuck are you?' she shouted. The car slowed to a stop and the woman climbed out without a response, she pulled on the seat latch but Emily didn’t move. She had some control over her destiny. If that was sitting in the back of the tiny car until she could figure out how to escape then so be it.
'Very well,' said the woman. 'I’ll be up in the main house when you want a feed.'
She then pushed the door closed behind her leaving Emily alone. She waited for her to lock her in, or worse still, drag her out kicking and screaming. Then when she disappeared through a door Emily expected her to come back with some big muscled man. When no one returned, Emily decided that maybe the woman wasn’t going to hurt her after all.
‘Hello?’ said Emily, knocking on the door and pushing it open. On the other side a cat sat on a staircase washing its paw and a younger woman pushed it out of the way to walk down to where Emily stood in the doorway.
‘She picked up another one then.’ The woman rolled her eyes and walked down the hallway. Emily tiptoed forwards following her cautiously. At the door the woman turned around and glanced at her. ‘Come on then.’
Emily pushed her shoes off her feet and rushed down the hallway towards the woman. The last thing she wanted to do was trail mud through the house. Through the doorway was the kitchen, a table sat in the middle with chairs surrounding it where the young woman sat. The older woman stirred three mugs and carried them carefully over to the table.
‘Finally,’ she said with that same smile back on her face. ‘I wondered how long it’d take you.’
‘Where am I?’ Emily asked, clutching the door. She didn’t think the woman was going to murder her anymore, but that wasn’t a reason not to be cautious.
‘The Farm.’
‘I can see it’s a fucking farm.’
‘No need to get angry.’ The woman placed the third mug in an empty spot at the table and signalled for Emily to sit down.
‘Can you blame me for being worried?’ She sat. ‘I don’t even know who you are.’
‘Mum! You didn’t tell her?’ said the young woman, glaring at her mother and rolling her eyes.
‘She was sleeping.’ The mother rolled her eyes in return and focused her attention on Emily. ‘I’m Gina, Gina Campbell and this is my darling daughter Naomi.’
Emily smiled up at them from the steaming hot drink which heated her quickly from the inside. She wrapped her hands around the porcelain mug and ate the biscuits she was offered hungrily. It suddenly occurred to her that as much as she didn’t know who they were, they didn’t know her either. She was reluctant to offer any information. They were still strangers after all.
‘Andy’s cooking up a feast in the Chop House; will you join us for some dinner?’ asked Gina. That smile was something Emily found herself warming to, had she met Gina under any other circumstance, she’d probably have considered her a lovely, warm person.
Emily creased her brow. ‘Who’s Andy?’
‘He lives here too,’ said Gina.
‘He’s one of Mum’s many waifs and strays,’ Naomi said with an eye roll.
‘Is there somewhere I could clean up?’ said Emily.
‘Of course there is,’ Gina said, a little shocked that she hadn’t thought to suggest it sooner. She stood up and cleared the mugs. ‘Naomi’ll show you to the bathroom. Would you like to take a shower? Naomi, get her a towel and some soap.’
‘Yes Ma’am.’ Naomi saluted to Gina with a smirk and left the room.
‘Get her some spare clothes too,’ Gina shouted as Emily closed the door behind her.
They walked up the stairs by the front door in silence. When they reached the top Naomi asked her to wait, so she stood in the middle of the landing with little more than doors to look at. The one Naomi had disappeared through stood ajar and Emily watched as Naomi moved across the room before emerging with a pile of clothes.
‘Wasn’t sure what you want to wear. I got you a couple of choices.’
Emily smiled her thanks and followed Naomi’s direction into the bathroom. The room had been nicely done up and far exceeded her expectations. The last bathroom she went into had left her confidence in tatters. She ran the shower as she undressed. Despite the door being locked and Gina and Naomi knowing she was in there, Emily still covered herself up as she stripped off. The water, once it was the right temperature, felt like a welcomed relief from the days she had spent caked in her own filth.
‘Dinner in fifteen,’ Gina said, knocking on the door.
The gentle stream of water had sent Emily off into her imagination where she dreamt of being on a desert island standing under a waterfall. The loud bang shook her back to reality, a reality she wasn’t quite sure she wanted to be returned to. She hurriedly washed her hair and borrowed a disposable razor sitting on the side of the bath. When she climbed out of the shower she stood in the towel for a few minutes trying to decide what to wear. Out of the skirt and jeans, she picked the jeans, simply because she hadn’t had time to shave her legs. Then she opted for a t-shirt of a pig which made her laugh. The clothes felt alien to her. She squeezed her hair until as much water as possible had been soaked into the towel before carrying her dirty clothes downstairs to the kitchen.
‘I’ll wash those for you, put them in the basket,’ said Gina, pointing to a wicker basket by the door. She dropped them in. ‘I’ll start a load and then we can get you some grub.’
Gina took the basket into a small utility room off the kitchen and set the machine going, then Naomi joined them and they left the main house. Across the courtyard only one window was lit up. Whilst she walked, Emily looked around her. She had only been on a couple of farms as a child. The one she had visited almost every year since her little brother’s birth had a small animal enclosure and they went to pet the animals for most of his birthdays. It also had a café and a farm shop. The second she had visited on a school trip in primary school, they went to learn about milk and eggs. Katie had slipped over and fallen into some cow poo making her cry. Emily smiled at the memory. All of the different images she had in her head of what a farm should look like, this definitely wasn’t it.
Gina stood on the other side of the courtyard holding the door to the building open. Above the door a small, hand carved sign read The Chop House. The very name filled Emily with images of dead animals she’d seen on a documentary about meat production. She stepped over the threshold and down into the building where she stared in shock. Nowhere in her line of sight could she see anything to link the room to dead animals. If anything, it looked more like a restaurant. On the left hand side was a small kitchen area where steam flew around the two men rushing between plates and pans. The rest of the room was filled with tables and chairs, of which most of them were filled.
‘I thought this was a farm,’ whispered Emily, but her query was drowned out by a bell ringing. Emily assumed it must mean the start of the meal.
A couple of people from each table stood up and walked across to a serving area where a tall man with long hair and piercings laid out plates, which were quickly snapped up. The food quickly disappeared from the counter and more appeared until there were only a handful of plates left.
‘Come sit down,’ said Gina, pushing her along the side of the room towards an empty table,
Naomi had already found a seat with a couple of people at another table. What was going on? Emily sat down beside Gina but couldn’t keep her eyes off the commotion of people wanting food. The long haired man carried a couple of plates over and rested them on the table in front of her and Gina.
‘New blood?’ he smiled at her, showing off a gold tooth which shone brightly.
‘Yes, I picked her up in town about an hour ago. This is,’ Gina started to speak but stopped suddenly, frowning at Emily. ‘I’m sorry, how rude of me, I haven’t even asked your name.’
‘It’s Emily,’ she said, taking a knife and fork from a wooden tub in the centre of the table.
‘I’m Todd, been ‘ere coming up three years. Enjoy yer meal and I’m sure I’ll see you ‘round.’
‘Thank you,’ said Gina, digging into her own meal.
The roast dinner on Emily’s plate looked and smelled like the most amazing meal she’d ever been given. The lack of food over the last few days had left her so hungry that just sitting there was making her dribble. When she forked the first bite into her mouth it was like the whole world disappeared and all that matter at that moment was that plate. She ate with desperation. After she’d emptied the plate Todd took it away and brought a bowl of fruit for Emily to choose from. Her stomach felt relatively full but she still took a banana and a small tree of grapes.
‘I should probably be going soon,’ said Emily as she swallowed a piece of banana. ‘Thanks for today.’
‘Do you have somewhere to go?’ asked Gina, raising her eyebrows at Emily.
As lovely as she was, Gina was making awfully large assumptions about her, albeit they were accurate, but Emily didn’t really want anyone feeling sorry for her. She placed the empty grape tree on the table and stared at Gina.
‘I’m sure I can find somewhere,’ she said, unable to look her in the eye as the lie slipped from her lips.
‘I’ve seen you every day this week,’ said Gina. ‘Wandering around the streets.’
‘So you assumed I was homeless.’
‘Yes.’
‘Maybe I just didn’t want to be at home.’
Gina considered her words carefully as though trying to decide what to say next. ‘I saw you curl up under some boxes in a back alley one evening before I went home.’
‘Oh.’ Emily’s heart sank and the wall she had attempted to build tumbled down around her. Her eyes filled with tears and her throat ached as she tried to keep them at bay.
‘I’m not judging you Emily; I don’t want you to tell me your whole life story unless you want to. I just want to help you.’
‘By letting me stay at your house with all these people?’ she asked, feeling a little ungrateful considering everything the woman had done for her.
‘The Farm isn’t just my house; it’s a community I created for people who need somewhere to stay. When I met Todd he’d been kicked out of home by his wife, he had no job, no money and he was going to kill himself. Giving him a home was the best thing I ever did. I won’t regret asking him to come here just like I won’t regret asking you either. I think you can bring something really wonderful to this community, in fact, I know you can.’
‘I’m an unemployed college dropout, what the fuck could I bring to somewhere like this?’
‘I don’t know yet.’ Gina stood up and took the leftover fruit items over to the bin. Emily followed her. ‘Maybe you don’t either, but I’m happy to let you try.’
They left the dining room via a different exit which led out into a small corridor with many doors. They continued walking until they had turned a corner and stopped by one of the doors.
‘These are the rooms. Stay tonight, it’s getting dark now and no one has plans to go back to Bristol. If you want the room for longer it’s yours, if you don’t I’ll get someone to drive you back into town in the morning.’
‘I can stay here?’ she asked, a little confused. She thought she was getting fed and sent back, she didn’t expect anything more. Considering she had expected to be murdered, everything else was just a bonus.
‘Do you want to stay here?’ asked Gina with that dashing smile.
‘Yes please,’ she whispered. ‘Maybe just for tonight.’
Taking a key out of her pocket Gina unlocked one of the doors and pushed it open, she flicked the light switch revealing a small room with a bed, a desk and a chair. It reminded Emily of the student accommodation booklets she had looked at with her parents for university. The room was simple and under any other circumstances Emily probably would have turned her nose up at just how basic it was. But her situation had changed. She couldn’t be picky and the bed looked like the most comfortable thing in the world. Gina handed her the key and wished her a goodnight. Once the door had closed behind her Emily walked over to the bed, pulled back the covers and lay down. She planned to take off the clothes Naomi had given her or use the bathroom, but when she closed her eyes she realised just how tired she really was and drifted off to sleep.