Where our Characters finally reach their destination

Song Inspiration:

Out of the Woods - Taylor Swift

Ghost Town - Adam Lambert

Brave - Sara Bareilles

**********************************

Chapter 2

It took all day to walk to Anathime and Kelly wasn't sure this place was what she and Sammy had hoped it would be.

The Welcome board looked like it used to be cheery. It was a wood carving where the word welcome was painted a bright sky blue and the word Anathime was painted in a gaudy yellow. There were carvings of animals running up the post legs and side of the sign that ran into wild vines carved into the top.

It would have been magnificent except now it was in a state of disrepair. It had lost a leg and now lay on a diagonal, the yellow paint of the word Anathime had begun to chip and peel and it was covered in a thick layer of dust.

The town looming a head of them was grey and bleak. Half shrouded in a heavy fog she could see many buildings but only two had lights on. It was surrounded by the forest like a town on the border of nature, almost on the verge of being swallowed up by the trees. She and Sammy walked side by side down the dirt road each hesitant about where they were going.

Sammy reached up for Kelly's hand, squeezing tightly with his little fingers. "Kelly, it's scary," he whispered.

Kelly squeezed his hand in return. It felt like a scene from a horror movie, where the stupid main characters walked right into the haunted house without a care in the world only to be hacked to bits.

Normally she'd stay clear of a place like this but there was no way they could walk back to the train station now and the forest looked as creepy as the town they were facing so sleeping in it was out of the question.

"Don't worry," she said with the biggest, warmest smile she could fake. "It's not that bad, besides, I'm here and I won't let anything happen to you."

They had reached the town by then, walking through the desolate streets together. The sun had sunk behind the trees leaving the town and its stores completely shadowed.

The first house she found with a light was a tall mansion, there was no sign around and she was forced to conclude that it wasn't the bed and breakfast she was looking for. As they were walking past Kelly could sense movement and when she looked up to the only window with a light, she saw a figure staring down at them she could feel his hot eyes on her.

She paused only for a second to look back, she could have swore she saw red sparkles illuminating the shadowed figure. Sammy tugged on her arm and she kept on walking until they reached the second light on in this town. She found a small sign by the stairs leading up to the door of a small looking two-story cottage. It read:

Granny's Bed and Breakfast.

She pulled the card the blonde lady had given her, the faint shine of the black glitter still on the card. She checked that it was the same name on it and found there was a note on the back that she had never noticed before. Ask for Elouise.

Kelly took a deep breath before she pulled Sammy up the steps towards the door and confidently pushed it open. Little bells tinkled above them as they walked over the threshold and Kelly was momentarily blinded by even more sparkles then she had seen in her life—which included her trip to the museum.

It was a typical Granny's cottage, it was bigger on the inside then it looked outside. There were at least four rooms on the main floor, one a dining room, one a reading room and one that they couldn't see into. The last room was the waiting room, a staircase led to the second floor and to the right a large wooden counter. Everything was covered in lace doilies and taxidermy animals and china collections were on the wall and on almost every surface.

Kelly couldn't see anyone but suddenly a croaking voice called out to them. "Why, hello deary."

Kelly jumped and finally noticed the little only lady sitting at the desk. She was a plump looking old lady, she had golden brown eyes behind wide gold rimmed glasses and her grey hair was up in one of those classic grandmother buns. She even had the flora pattern shawl around her shoulders.

"Oh," she said quickly, smiling to them. "I didn't mean to startle you."

"Uh, I'm looking Elouise," Kelly told her clearing her throat to make herself seem more adult and unafraid.

The old lady fidgeted with her glasses, repositioning them on her face before saying: "That's me."

Kelly stepped up to the desk and put the card out towards Elouise. "This lady told me to come here if I wanted a job and a place to stay. She said I should talk to you."

It wasn't a full lie. The woman had said nothing about a job but Kelly figured if she couldn't pay she might as well offer a work to stay trade. Most places were okay with that, she'd just have to hope that this place was too.

Elouise looked almost sad to have the card in her hands. Was it because this lady was often sending waifs like them to this bed and breakfast?

"I don't have any money right now, but I can do all sorts of jobs to pay off my tab. Anything you need really," Kelly assured her.

Elouise's pained look faded and a flashy smile donned her lips Kelly could have sworn she saw fangs. Sammy stood up on his tippy toes, both hands firmly on the desk top pulling himself up so he could peer over the edge of the tabletop.

"And I can help too! I'm big and strong because I eat my vegetables."

She chuckled at him, ruffling his hair before stepping out from behind the desk. "Don't worry dear, payment is of no concern right now. Shall I show you to your room?" she asked.

Kelly nodded and Elouise handed her a key. It was a simple brass key but hanging from it was a hand carved wooden wolf. She then led them up the stairs to the second floor.

"So, what brings you all the way out here?" Kelly looked away from her. She hated having to answer that question. Nice people always asked her that and she hated having to lie to them. After a considerable pause Elouise merely sighed. "I see you don't want to talk about it so I won't press the subject."

She led them to the last room at the end of the hallway, she unlocked the door with the master key before ushering them in. "It's a small room, but it has two beds, ample space for clothes and its own bath. There's even a small table in the corner," she told them.

It was the biggest room Kelly had seen in a long time. There were pastel colors on the wall, and doilies on the cabinets. As she said there were two beds in the room, a narrow strip in between them that had a night table with a single lamp. Sammy was immediately happy, running towards the bed by the window.

"I get this one!" he cried jumping on to it.

"Take your shoes off first!" Kelly chided before she turned back to Elouise. "Thank you so much for all of your help. My name is Kelly... uh... Kelly Jones. You won't regret this."

Elouise shook the offered hand with a surprisingly strong grip. "Elouise Barker, you'll meet my son tomorrow. Why don't you give me that second set of clothes you have? I'll wash them for you so you can look presentable when you go out to town to look for a job."

Kelly paused. How had Elouise known that she had a second set of clothes? Regardless she wasn't a bout to turn up free laundry service so she slid her backpack off and began to rummage through it, pulling out her second set of clothes and Sammy's. She handed to Elouise slightly embarrassed about the state that they were in but Elouise said nothing.

She folded the clothes neatly and looked Kelly and Sammy over. Sammy was busy fiddling with the large box TV excited to finally have something watch his kid's shows on. "You two look starving, shall I send up some food? Grilled Cheeses maybe?"

Sammy immediately perked up, she didn't have to turn around to know that he had his eager pleading look on his face. "That would be nice, if it's not too much trouble that is," Kelly said.

Elouise waved it off. "Think nothing of it. Two grilled cheeses and two glasses of milk," she said before shutting the door behind her.

Kelly immediately dropped her guard and turned a weary smile to Sammy. The two linked eyes and then squealed with delight and threw themselves onto their respective beds. Kelly kicked her shoes off, she hadn't had a bed this nice since they had left.

"Isn't this great Kelly?" Sammy asked her, climbing on to her bed. "Can we stay here?"

Kelly shook her head. "We can only stay here for a little while. You and I both know that we need to get moving again soon."

Sammy groaned and flopped down beside her, his head by her hips. "But I like it here. We have real bed, and good food and a TV!"

Kelly glanced to the bathroom and forced her tired body to get up and check it out. She flicked on the light in the small room and smiled at the bathtub.

"They have a bathtub," she said to Sammy.

Sammy sat up ridged with worry, his eyes turned her, a grimace on his face. "But if we're leaving soon we don't need to get clean."

Kelly was already filling the tub with water. "You're having a bath tonight, Sammy. We both are cause we stink."

Sammy slid off the bed and trudged towards her. "This was the one thing I haven't missed," he said to her with a pout on his face.

Kelly merely chuckled and ruffled his hair. She set up the bath for him, making sure to put all the bubblebath required in it. It had been a pricy buy, but Sammy loved bubble baths so she tried her best to always have one for him. Even if that meant filling up the sink and putting bubble bath in that instead.

Once the bath was drawn, she shut the door behind him letting him have the privacy he had grown to desire over their six-month voyage. It seemed silly but she had learnt to give it to him when she could. She lay down on the bed and sighed, he was right about one thing though. This was the best place they had been to by far.

[-----]

Elouise had returned when Kelly was in the shower washing off two weeks or more of dirt. When she came out of the bathroom, with only her towel on, she found Sammy sitting at the small table chewing on a grilled cheese with a big ketchup smile on his cheeks. She couldn't help but giggle at him.

"It's so good Kelly!" he cried wiping his mouth with the towel he had used to dry himself off.

Kelly pulled the hairbrush out of her backpack with a sigh. "I told you to brush your hair," she chided.

She turned to him, fully intending to brush his hair for him. He was drinking from his glass of what she could was supposed to be milk but it was a purple color and was giving off a purple sparkle as well.

Kelly dropped the brush quickly and jumped up. She rushed to him and slapped the glass away from his lips, the purple liquid splattering to the floor startling Sammy.

"Kelly!" he cried. "What did you do that for?"

"Why were you drinking purple milk?" she shot back.

Sammy stared at her like she was crazy. "Purple?" he echoed. "It was regular milk Kelly. You know, white and milky?"

Kelly folded her arms over her chest and frowned down at him. "How could you not see that the milk was purple?" she asked him. She pointed to the spillage on the floor "See look at it, it's purple."

Sammy looked down and then back at her. "Are you going crazy? Bad mom said that you were crazy and I didn't believe her, so you can't go crazy now." he said plainly. "You can't be my new mom if you're crazy."

Kelly frowned at him realizing that like the sparkles, only she could see it. She faked a smile at him. "You know what, maybe I was just tired. I must have been seeing things," she said sitting down across from him and taking a bite from her own grilled cheese. Sammy had been happy with her answer and had immediately gone back to eating. Kelly, however, was still on edge. She eyed the grilled cheese on her plate like it might contain a vicious poison.

Instead of eating she did her best to towel up the mess she had made. Only then did her hunger take over and she decided well... the grilled cheese wasn't sparkling so that had to be safe, right?

Both of them were in their towels as they ate, she was happy she had kept Sammy's clothes somewhere he wouldn't find them. They were filthy and she didn't want to have him put them on until they were clean again. The problem was that she had nothing for them to wear to bed, well except their towels but they were damp and not suitable as nightwear.

She was deciding whether or not she was going to finish her meal, leaning more towards eating as she was just as hungry as Sammy was, when suddenly the door banged open. Kelly yelped pulling her towel tighter around herself as she jumped to her feet, ready to protect Sammy who was closest to the door.

"Don't worry deary, it's just me," Elouise said dropping a pile of folded clothes on the bed. "I figured I'd bring you two a pair of nightshirts. I can see that you two don't have much so feel free to keep them and there are extra toiletries in the bathroom drawers if you need those as well."

Kelly nodded stiffly. "Thank-you ever so much for your kindness," she said primly. She wanted to sound polite as they were living off of her charity but after that stunt with the milk she no longer trusted Elouise.

The old lady seemed to have sensed this as her smile cracked just a little, becoming pointer. Kelly suddenly became aware of the sparkles that were around her as well. What was going on in this town?

"Well you two have a good rest. Breakfast tomorrow is at eight am sharp," she warned them. "You don't want to fall sleep through it, it's the most important meal of the day after all."

Elouise left shutting the door behind her and Kelly went to the nightshirts to inspect them more carefully. Sammy sighed happily at her. "See Kelly, she's just a regular old lady. Nothing to be worried about."

Kelly shook her head and then threw a nightshirt at him. "Put this on and then go to bed. You heard her, if we want breakfast we have to be up early."

Sammy sighed and got up, stripping his towel off shamelessly to put the nightshirt on. He was still a child that didn't quite understand but Kelly had been teaching him to be a little bit more carefully about where he was and who he was with while he was changing. This wouldn't have been a problem if she had them somewhere safe to live, but when you're living in homeless shelters and in hobo camps, it wasn't safe to run around naked and changing in front of any old person. But he was six and he didn't understand that... yet. And she didn't want him to learn it the hard way either.

As she pulled her own nightshirt on, she found herself worrying more and more about Elouise and the purple milk, not to mention all the sparkles she kept seeing.

"Sammy, I need you to promise me something," she said quickly. Sammy nodded and Kelly continued. "Please don't eat or drink anything I don't approve of, don't even take anything else from these people, okay? Not until I say it's safe."

She could tell from the look in Sammy's eyes that he didn't want to, but he knew her, and he knew better than to deny her this. "Okay... but can I watch one show?" he asked.

Kelly smiled to her little brother. "Of course, but only one show and then its lights out."

Sammy whooped loudly and went to the TV, turning it on and quickly flicking through the channels looking for something good to watch. Kelly got in her bed, her weary body molding into the comfortably soft sheets. Tomorrow they'd check the village, see if there were any jobs open that she could apply for and then she'd decide if they were staying or leaving.