As she hurried about the barn, stacking the hay and putting back the fallen bundles in its place, her mind kept going back to the night of her mother's disappearance. Although the whole village believed Meredith to be dead, Eve did not. She was the only one who had witnessed the events of that dreadful night, and until she found her mother's body, she wasn't willing to believe.
When she told everyone about the strange people, no one believed her. They had laughed it off, even though they seemed to have believed the made-up story about the wailing ghost in the forest. But she knew that she saw. She had kept quiet about the wolf on the other hand since she knew it could be dangerous.
Even if those strange people didn't come back for her hearing the rumors, her father would beat her until she was dead for something like that. Her mother had a good reason to hide it from him. Eve's efforts at tracking the animal down also went in vain. There was no trace of even a single wolf in the entire forest.
Eve hoped that it was dead by now. That damned animal was the reason behind her mother's death, she thought grudgingly as she put down the last bundle of hay.
With her skirt pinned up and her sleeves rolled till her elbows, the bruises on her skin were very much visible. Most of them were purple- still fresh from the frustration her drunk dad took out on her the previous night. As her eyes fell on them, Eve's chest tightened. How much longer was she to keep this fight up? She was getting tired of her life.
It was the same tiring routine every day. Ever since her father remarried, she had to work all day slaving away under the stepmother and her stepsisters. Her only escape was in the evenings when the mother would go to the Tarletons to work and the sisters would be busy sneaking out of the house, only to drool over the young lords Cavanough and Tarleton who were frequent visitors at the shepherd's lake.
Her father who only returned home drunk at night knew nothing that went on at home. Not that she minded. Rather, she was happy for the time alone that she got to spend in the forest. Over time she had learned much about the herbs that grew deep inside the forest and experimented on the occasional wounded animal she'd find.
But the real reason that she went there was not to collect herbs. Eve believed that if she waited enough, her mother would show up one day, or at least, the animal who caused her death would. From the sound of it, it seems like the time had finally come. Her hands trembled in anger as she straightened her clothes.
"I will not spare you this time." She murmured, narrowing her teary eyes at the window. "Murderer."
Suddenly something flashed past the window, making her jump back in shock. Eve's eyes widened. Was that...She rushed forward in a hurry.
"Stop!" She shouted, leaning out the window.
It was black. It definitely looked like black fur, she thought excitedly. But that was when it hit her- the scent of Lillies. Her heart dropped. No one in their village smelled so pleasant except for...She stepped back, her mind filling with the image of a laughing Meredith.
"EVE!" A sharp familiar voice cut through the air, pulling her out of her thoughts.
"Coming!" Eve shouted back, quickly wiping the tears off of her cheeks.
What was she even imagining? Her mother must be around forty even if she was alive now. How could she run that fast? Maybe it was all in her mind. Maybe it was a bird or a stray animal, Eve told herself, trying to ground her straying mind. She increased her pace, walking out of the barn with her hands tugging her worn-out dress up to help her move faster.
Even then, the sliver of hope in her heart refused to surrender. Eve took one last look at the backyard, before slipping into the house through the kitchen door. Her mind refused to yield to her reasoning. Hope was slowly raising its head, coming out of the shadows that it had been stashed to all these years.
As soon as she entered the tiny hall that they called the dining room, her mood took a turn for the worse. Her father was sitting at the table, stooped over a bowl of hangover soup as her stepmother gently rubbed his back.
The man did not bother to look at her nor acknowledge her presence. He only did so when he was drunk and out of his mind- only when he wanted to raise his hands on someone. Her skin was still burning from last night's beatings. It was good that she knew at least a little about medicinal herbs, or else by now, her skin would have been scarred beyond repair.
It was surprising how out of all four women in the house, he only had the mind to beat her up, she thought, grudgingly glaring at the aging man's bent back. Her stepmother leaned back, smugly smiling at her as if she could read her mind.
"Anything to see here?" Dodie asked, raising her chin with an evil look in her eyes.
Eve shook her head, looking away from her stepmother grudgingly. "No ma'am." She replied with her head down.
"EVE!!!!" Viola's shrill voice rang through the house once again, this time much more angrily.
Eve cursed inside her mind, turning her back to her father and the woman as she rushed upstairs. The attic that she had once lived in was now a much larger space, thanks to Dodie convincing her father to tear it down and expand. To her right and left were two rooms, much more lavishly prepared than her own worn-down shoddy space in the barn, both occupied by her stepsisters.
Her mind was wrapped in the past days so much that when she entered the room to her right, she didn't immediately register the raging angry blonde standing beside the door. Eve let out a pained cry as her face made contact with her sister's palm.