The fox
Behind the playgrounds, away from all the noise and other children, was a little pond by the edge of a great forest. It was miles away from the noise of the orphanage it terms of harmony. This quiet place had always been Dahlia’s favourite. She closed her eyes and let herself be completely engulfed by the sound of wind rushing through the grass. The birds were chirping, and aside from the occasional splash from the pond, there were no disturbances. Dahlia stretched out her arm and welcomed a small bird. It chirped as it looked up at Dahlia, bobbing its head slightly.
“Hey there, little guy. You hungry?” Dahlia asked as she reached into her pocket for some bread she had stolen last night at dinner, and ripped a small piece off to give to the bird. This was what home felt like, nothing like Miss Bethany’s shouting and the rest of the orphan children’s bickering. She made sure to always get behind the orphanage where the other children wouldn’t notice her. She had made the mistake of talking to the birds while the other children had been looking once, which had resulted in an awful lot of screaming.
“Freak! Ew! Talking to the birds? You’re so weird!” Surprisingly, the other children’s nagging hadn’t really faced Dahlia, she didn’t like them much either way. Objectively speaking, Dahlia should feel lonely, as she didn’t have any friends, but strangely enough she wasn’t all that troubled by it. She supposed she had gotten used to it by now; letting the birds and other small animals act as her true friends instead. Dahlia looked back at the small bird who had now eaten all the breadcrumbs. It chirped happily as if to say thanks and flew off again. Dahlia couldn’t remember anything from her past but the orphanage and Miss Bethany hadn’t been of much help.
“You were dumped here when you were old to enough to be supposed to remember who dumped you. I suppose you must’ve been around 5. It was such a bother to have to take you in!” she had told her. This was as far as Dahlia’s knowledge of her past reached. A bother, that’s what she had been described as, always. It was quite perplexing that Miss Bethany was so horrible towards children like her. After all, it was her job to take care of orphans, but for some reason, she had only gotten more and more bitter over the years. Sometimes, when Dahlia was bored, she’d make up stories about Miss Bethany. Like how when she was young she wanted to be an astronaut, a scientist, an artist; the list went on. The thought of a young Miss Bethany with all sorts of dreams was both awfully entertaining, but also kind of sad. She might’ve dreamed of having a big family, but ended up running an orphanage to replace her lack of children. Alas, all sense of newly found pity for Miss Bethany was quickly disposed of when the sound of her snapping voice pierced through the air.
“Children! Food! Now!” the unmistakable voice roared as she hit the old spoon against the pot. It was the same sound every day, the same old spoon and the same old pot. With a sigh, Dahlia left the peaceful little spot by the forest and lake and went back into the chaos of the orphanage. The other children had already greedily started to push around to get in front in the line for what Dahlia could only guess would be potato soup.
“Now, kids! Nicely now! Line up!” miss Bethany commanded. She wasn’t one for speaking in full sentences normally. Her commands fell on deaf ears, and Dahlia supposed it wasn’t so strange she had gotten as bitter as she had. The other children were extremely chaotic and always argued about who should eat first. Dahlia never bothered with them, and amid all their arguing, she always managed to slip through to get a bowl of soup and a piece of bread. They were too distracted calling each other names to even notice her. Her bowl of soup in one hand, and the bread in the other, she made her way to the long bench and sat down to eat. The quicker she finished it, the quicker she could get away again.
After dinner, Dahlia snuck off again. Miss Bethany was, naturally, too busy trying to calm down the other children to notice her being gone. When she reached the small lake, she noticed a fox sitting between the trees towards the forest. It was sitting completely still, staring directly at her. Dahlia stood up and stared back at the fox, but when she tried to approach it, it walked back into the forest. It wasn’t long before it stopped again, as to wait for her, and Dahlia followed. “Come,” she heard a voice whisper in her head. ”I’m waiting for you, Dahlia”, the voice said. The fox picked up the pace, and so did Dahlia. She chased it into the forest, which was slowly getting denser and denser. The leaves were brushing against her face and the branches on the forest floor were cracking underneath her feet.
“Come back! What are you trying to show me?” She yelled out to the fox but got no reply. She was so focused on the fox, that she didn't even notice just how dense the forest had gotten. It wasn't supposed to get dark before a while, but the forest had already blocked out most of the light. Strangely enough, Dahlia didn’t have any trouble seeing, but then again, she was only focused on the fox, who seemed to be radiating a sort of light amidst the dark forest.
"Please, would you stop for a second!" Dahlia yelled out to the fox, but the fox didn't stop. Quite the contrary, it started running and so did Dahlia. It felt as if the leaves that had been so soft moments before, had turned into whips, hitting against her face and cutting into her cheeks - but she didn't stop. The glistening fox was all she saw or cared about. Suddenly, she felt the ground disappear beneath her feet. She looked up and saw the fox staring down at her as she kept falling. She fell and fell until even the fox disappeared from sight, and everything went pitch black.
