It was times between dusk and dawn that refuge was sought and in those times often in one's soul cause then nobody else would listen. To Laura, it was her worst nightmare. Every night was a torture and the house to her had become a dungeon. It was an hour to midnight and she sat on the floor by the lamp table. She stared at it for so long a time that all she could see were stars. And then that night. The night of betrayal. The night when her innocence was infected with rage.
She closed her eyes and clenched her fist. It was her first night alone. Without bedtime stories and movie nights after dinner. She stood up and headed to the window.
She drew out the curtains as she observed the sky. There were no stars. The moon had descended into the clouds. It looked calm and she realized that she was the only one shaken by her parents death. She wondered if her pack knew that her parents had died. That there Luna and Alpha were killed by their very own. She couldn't help but feel forgotten. She looked around the room whose bright colours did not manage to cheer her up. They only made her more sad.
She looked back outside. There were a lot activities outside. She could see people rushing up and down from a room to another. She wondered what they were preparing for. She observed the ground and next to one of her windows was a tree. An avocado tree. Suddenly a thought rushed into her.
She had not changed her clothes and Arthur shutting her in the room was a grave mistake to her. He didn't tell Arthur anything but as soon as she was convinced to eat the breakfast, she only found that she had fallen asleep in the next hours. She didn't know what he was trying to do but whatever he was doing did not please her at all.
She put the boots she wore when she was trying to escape back on. She went next to the window and approximated the distance. She had never climbed trees but her anger gave her the courage.
The branch next to the window was weak but she thought she was weak too. She had no weight to herself so she grabbed the side of the window as she climbed on to stretch to the branch but missed it. She looked down at the tree and there was no one near it.
She tried again and figured how she'll try to balance it so she could go to the other strong branch that lay quite low from where she was. She had no powers. It would take years for her to get her wolf but she could not think of it. They were locking him up which only fueled her anger to get back at those who dared go against her parents.
She stretched again at the branch and held it tightly. She had to jump quickly to reach the other branch before the one she was holding broke so she held it tightly as she let go of the window and jumped into the tree sliding down to the branch that was strong just at the other broke. She held on to it tightly though for fear that someone will hear it fall down. The rustle of sounds was so loud she hoped they would not have heard it.
After about five minutes of staying quiet and watchful on the tree, nobody had come. It was a cue for her so she alternated her legs between the branches and tried as much as possible not to fall down.
She reached down at the base of the stem and realized how tall the tree was. She sat by the tree for a while her thoughts hitting tock bottom. She had nowhere to go even though she successfully escaped from the house. She had been so ungrateful to Arthur not thanking him for saving her though she felt the need not to. He had risked his life just for her and yet he was locking him up. She found no explainable reason.
Although he had not tied her up in some corner or forced her do anything, she knew that she maybe held captive sooner or later. She looked down at the tree and fear trickled into her nerves. She was caught between suffering and death. Going back meant she would be locked up her entire life. She wanted revenge for her parent's death and her living in seclusion her entire life would not be of any help.
She had to try. It was the least of the choices she had to make for herself and she knew it was the best. She closed her eyes taking in the breath of air around her. In the middle of the night, she could smell the young soil. It was past midnight and it dawned on her that morning was not far. It was as if the morning dew had decided to crown her escape.
She could smell its radiance and for a moment she felt free. She felt her body temperature run low not from the cold but from the fear. The fear that she would not make it down however much she tried to console herself.
She held on two branches as she decided to take her body lower so she could have a stronger impact on the ground while landing. She stretched her two feet to hold on to the tree but she was too tiny. She cursed herself for being so small a person. She failed to interlock her legs behind the tree.
She looked at the ground her hands shaking. She could not hold onto it anymore. The wind was getting stronger and she could swear that every moment she stayed on the tree made her body even weaker. She could not stand the cold a second longer. She stared hard at the ground as if asking it to open and looked around for the path to follow when she would land. She closed her eyes, took in her breath and decided to do the unthinkable.