Chapter Text
The cold air washed over Constance’s face.
Her therapist had suggested taking walks every other day - something about “getting your mind off of things” and “getting your body moving” - so, she was.
There were bits and pieces of dead, orange leaves sticking to her leg warmers. Oddly enough, no birds chirping. It was just wind and the crunching of leaves under her feet.
She followed the path she always did with her mom when she was six. Until eventually her mom had triplets and Constance wasn’t the one getting her attention anymore.
Don’t get her wrong, Constance loved her siblings and loved her mom even more, but she did miss the times where it was just her and her parents against the world. Or, I guess, against Uranium. Which slowly started to feel like Uranium against her.
This walk wasn’t helping her get her mind off of things at all, was it?
Her eyes focused back onto the path in front of her.
She had walked much farther than any time she’d traveled this path before. Looking around, it still looked the same as it did at any point in the path. Trees, leaves, sticks and logs.
She examined the area before turning around, which she was lucky she did, because there was someone far in the distance, staring at her. Someone who she had never seen before, which was odd for a small town. She hadn’t walked that far, had she?
Oh, dear, it wasn’t a serial killer, was it?
I mean she knew she wanted to leave Uranium somehow but she certainly didn’t want it to be because of that ! ..Did she?
No! Stop! Why on earth would you even think like that?
She put her head down between her hands and rubbed her temples - even though she had no idea what it did and picked up the trait from various tv shows.
When she brought her head back up and opened her eyes, the person was closer. Staring even harder.
Constance tried to muffle her shaky breathing with her turtleneck. Even closer, she knew that she did not know this person.
They certainly weren’t from Uranium. From what she could see through the trees, this person looked sickly. Messy hair, torn up clothes, tired eyes, almost standing on all fours.
She tried to slowly step back away. Her vision was blurred with tears. How can you blame her, this was terrifying.
Not looking where she was going, she accidentally stepped on a twig.
She froze. Squeezed her eyes tight. She could hear that person quickly rustling through the leaves.
Through one slightly opened eye, she could see that they were running away from her, not at her. She took this as an opportunity to book it as fast as she could back to her house.
She was panting at the front doorstep, planning to excuse her red face and shaky limbs on the cold.
Even though Constance didn’t want to see that person ever again, she was going to find out who they were.