Chapter Text
Saturday, November 17th, 2007,
Piedmont, California,
9:00 AM,
The soothing light of the sun’s rays filtered just the right amount through the clouds filling up the sky above the small city and above other houses that lay there in small residential areas that contrasted the not so far away city. From there the sunlight somehow hit just right where it pierced through the fabric of the curtains in Winter's room. The small girl stirred from her position in her comfy bed under the thick layer of her comforter as she naturally started to wake up as if her body knew it was now later in the morning then she would usually wake up.
From her new position now, sitting up on the bed, she slowly blinked her eyes open, in a way where you could tell she wasn't in a rush to get out of her comfy bed that hit her away from the outside chill of mid November. Her nimble fingers slowly brushed away her dark bangs that were almost long enough to cover her line of vision. Her half-lidded eyes gazing down at her pant legs while her brain tried to start up and realize it was time to wake up. After her brain caught on, she slowly started to uncover herself from under the comforter to face the natural light from the sun blessing her room with a light yellow to off white hue.
Winter turned her head so she could look at the time that definitely read an hour later than when she usually got up. She was honestly lucky it wasn't a school day for her otherwise she'd be pretty late if that was the case. She let out a quiet whine of disappointment because she woke up when she didn't even need to. Her body somehow felt like she was sleeping in a bit too much and just wanted to get her up. Winter rubbed her eyes again as she mindlessly kicked the rest of the comforter off of her legs then dragging them off of the edge of the bed with a huff, her hands then reached to cling and hold onto the edge of the bed while she blinked away slowly to get the drowsiness out of her body.
Winter's lazy eyes then scanned around the familiar bedroom that belonged to her, it was a nice light shade of pink for the walls that was kinda hard to see with the only source of light at the moment being the sunlight from her curtained windows. The room had many shelves that bore many different plushies she loved so dearly on them with some of them even having their own jewelry hanging on them like bracelets and necklaces. She only sometimes took those off to wear though, Winter considered the jewelry they wore to be the plushies, even if she knew they weren't alive they still felt like her own personal friends. They were always there to listen to her even if they couldn't verbally talk or have any train of thought. In her room she also had a small, white wooden desk with a pink wooden chair and matching white drawers. Winter had kept her papers in a nice little pile. Right next to the pile of papers was a medium sized cup with writing utensils in it. It had pens, pencils, scissors, highlighters, etc. Meanwhile the white cup had flowers scribbled on it that she drew on there so it would look pretty. There were other things in the drawers like hair supplies and kiddie smelling perfume like the ones you'd see with princesses on them. She even had a mirror on the wall that was delicately placed to be aligned with the desk. Besides that though, her room was pretty simple besides a rainbow carpet and toys buried in a corner so it wasn’t in her way, it didn’t have many other things besides what she mentally noted.
Winter snapped out of it once her ears picked up on the distant sound of voices, she couldn’t make out any of the syllables from up in her room but she assumed it was her parents. They usually talked to each other or on the phone when a, what they called, a client called them. Winter rested her chin on the palm of her hand while she thought about it. They were always busy, she never understood why, couldn’t they just take a break? Her parents tried to explain to her before what they did was very important which is why she couldn’t interrupt them. Winter didn’t understand enough to respect their words though, she wanted them to have fun with her! I mean, it wouldn’t be bad if they just spent a few minutes together as a family right?
Winter got up from the bed and strolled over to her desk and gave herself a look of determination as she posed by putting her hands on her hips like she was some sort of superhero. She couldn't keep up the silly charade for long before bursting into short giggles and grabbing a handle of a drawer to pull it out and grab the first thing she saw; her hairbrush and a light yellow hair bow. She took the brush in her hands and set the bow down for now and brushed out her dark hair, it was pretty tangled from lacking cohesion during nighttime, she winced when she got to a bad knot in her hair as she tried to brush it out with immense effort on her part. She eventually got the stubborn tangle out with a small whine, she decided to just brush the ends of her hair out first since it was easier and less painful for her to do. Her hair was pretty short, it only went down to where her neck started since it wasn't long after its recent cut. Winter felt like having long hair was too much to handle on top of having thick hair, so she usually didn't keep it too long most of the time.She worked her way up her hair and to her bangs, slowly brushing them out until her hair was layered to look like her bangs again. Winter set the brush down and reached for the yellow bow and tied her hair up with it in a very short but thick ponytail before letting go of her hair and looking at herself in the mirror, her own light blue eyes peered back at her through the reflection, she looked quite tired still with the light brush of a purple to almost dark brown under her eyes with just under that the freckles that covered both her cheeks and a part of the bridge of her nose. She was pretty freckly to the point where it was almost like she was born with them since she had so many on her face and other parts through her body like on her shoulders.
Winter gave herself a crooked yet tired smile before getting up and going downstairs, she didn't bother changing out of her pajamas in the moment because she didn't plan on leaving the house anytime soon, her pajama shirt matched with her pants with a pattern that consisted of a light red checkered pattern, it was kinda oversized on her due to it being something her mom gave Winter when her order for these pajamas came in the wrong size as a smaller set. The sound of Winter's small feet made small thumps that carried down the stairwell, her parents seemed too invested in what they were talking about to even notice the echo of them even though it was spacious enough to carry the sound. Winter looked over into the desolate foyer that had one small cabinet where they kept shoes, keys, and other miscellaneous items. Down on the wooden floor was a boring off-white carpet that she followed straight into another hallway, ahead led straight into a living room where she heard the voices of her parents more clearer than before. She didn't really understand what they were saying still, they were in work mode which meant they were speaking in jargon which was like listening to them speak in secret code for Winter. She never understood certain things they said while talking to a client like what did, she often wondered what “affidavit” meant or “amicus curiae” or whatever weird wording her parents said that made it sound like they were casting a spell.
She smiled though regardless of advanced words and skipped inside as she rocked back and forth on her heels as her eyes brightened up.
“Good morning mom and dad!” Winter spoke up with a chipper tone of voice, her mom, who turned to look at her with tired eyes and raised eyebrows at her young daughter from where she sat.
“Uhm, happy new day to you too child, do you need something?” Winter's mom questioned with a tone that tasted too sweet to anyone who wasn't as naive as Winter was. Her mom had a headset in one ear which she had muted for now, she hoped that Winter just wanted to say hi to them, then be on her way so she could get back to working. “Don't you have school today? Shouldn't you have already got going?”
“Mom, you're so silly! It's the weekend, why would I go to school?” Winter quizzed with a head tilt and an innocent smile. “I thought you, me, and Dad could hang out for a while since I'm home and I don't know what else to really do right now.” Winter's mom’s face morphed into a cringe-like expression while she processed Winter’s words.
“But Winter, me and your dad are very, very, busy people! We don't have time to play silly games right now,” Winter's mom reasoned while continuing on with her lecture. “This is why we taught you how to do things for yourself, so you wouldn't bother us as much, c'mon child, you know that you shouldn't be bothering us.”
“But-but you're always working! You're always too busy to play and you're always talking to someone on your dumb ear accessories!” Winter stated with her voice raising slightly at her mom, she threw up her arms in exasperation while she let out a soft scoff, earning a small glare from her mom. Her mom opened her mouth to speak but Winter’s dad was getting annoyed at this conversation.
“Winter, your mom already reminded you that what we do is important, it gives you a roof over your head, food to eat, drink to swallow, don’t you understand that?” Her dad stated firmly as he stared down at his daughter, the frown on Winter's face grew and her brows furrowed together as she looked at the ground. She then walked away from them, turning her back to them as her footsteps were heavier than usual as the thud of her small feet sounded bigger than last time. Trailing back to the foyer and up the stairs and walked to her room again.
10:00 AM
She looked around her room before walking over to her bed to get down on her knees and then down fully on the floor to reach an arm under her bed. Her hand patted the floor as she trusted her sense of touch to feel what she was looking for, her hand wiggled and moved around until it felt the cold wood on the inside of her hand. Her hand wrapped around the top of the object to pull it out to reveal her acoustic guitar peaking out from under the bed before she pulled it all the way into view and looked down at it, she loved her guitar, she was just learning how to play it it might've been difficult but she was determined to master it at some point. That really didn't matter to her at the moment however, she wanted to show her parents how to have fun and stop being so...monotonous all the time, maybe she could show them her hobbies and get them to join in somehow! Seeming like a good enough plan, Winter got back up on her feet, holding the acoustic guitar in one hand and the other hand grabbed her soccer ball on the way out. She had gained back her determination, she couldn't just be pouty and let them send her away again! Winter needed to stick through their words and reasoning, she had to, she wanted to.
Before she knew it, she reached the living room again, she set the soccer ball down for now and put the strap of her guitar around her body. Winter cleared her throat as both of her mom and her dad turned their heads to look at her. Raising their eyebrows at their child almost in sync.
“Mom, Dad, you should jam out with me as a break! It's fun!” Winter exclaimed as she strummed a tune, it then sounded off tune which made her look down at the guitar and played with the tuning pegs and strumming as she did it. “Wait…..hold on…” Winter muttered while she finally managed to get the right tune out of the guitar. “There we go!!” Winter beamed and played an instrumental song, but her parents just exchanged a glance and her dad rolled his eyes. Winter's dad then strolled over and yanked the guitar from over her head, lifting it up to get the strap off of Winter. Winter instinctively reached out for her instrument and her smile turned upside down.
“Hey- what, why did you take my guitar!?” Winter cried as her eyebrows scrunched up together and she gave her dad a glare to which he scoffed at her.
“It's disruptive, and highly irritating just like you are being a young lady. Why must your raison d'être is bothersome when me and your mother clearly stated before that it's fundamental you stay out of our space and go do your own thing!” Winter flinched as her dad’s tone got increasingly higher and his expression twisted into something more condescending while looking down at her.
“Well…uhm…okay maybe not guitar then? What about soccer?? Or catch and throw??? Anything??” Winter asked unconvincingly and in a more resigned way. Winter picked up the soccer ball by her feet and tossed it into the air to show her dad. She tried to be positive, she really did but with him looking like she was about to get grounded just for being here it wasn't helping her mood. Her mom then looked over at her from her desk with an unimpressed look and a small scoff. At that exact moment, her mom's reaction was enough to make Winter stop tossing the ball in the air and instead to hold it with both her hands in front of her chest.
“Child, your dad is telling you simple, basique, facts. We provide the necessary care for you by doing this, we're busy all the time because we….we-....love you Winter, and we want to be able to provide for you,” Winter's mother elucidated for her child, but the way she added ‘love’ was almost like it left a bitter taste in her mouth that was hard to swallow. Winter believed her though, she always believed her mom.
“Oh-oh okay, can I just ask for one thing then?” Winter surrendered finally, giving in to what they wanted, both of her parents almost seemed relieved and suddenly her mother had a more kind expression on her face, maybe it was because Winter gave up or because they were finally going to be able to go back to work, who knows.
“Sure mon petit chou, what is it that you want to request?” Hearing the French endearing term, Winter remembered it meant ‘my little cabbage’ and it made her smile come back even if it was a small one, she never knew why her mom called her that but she didn't care of the reason Winter thought it was nice and was a sign her mother wasn't insanely mad at her. The somberness in her though still overpowered that second of brightness of the endearment term and her mouth slowly shaped a pout again.
“Uhm, can I go walk around town for a bit, I promise I won't be gone long?” Winter requested with a raised eyebrow as she looked up at her mom with her big blue eyes and an unsure pout. Her mother seemed to contemplate it, her dad had already stopped listening to the conversation and went back to work after putting Winter's guitar down on the couch and was currently talking to someone over his headset about a case it seemed. In her mother's mind if she just let her daughter out for a harmless walk around the city it would get Winter out of her hair for at least an hour, I mean it wasn't like Piedmont was extremely unsafe or anything so she figured her daughter would be perfectly fine.
“Hmmm, I suppose so just don't be gone for too long now alright child?” Winter's mother negotiated, she crossed her arms and tilted her head at her daughter as she waited for a response. Winter nodded yes promptly to her terms while her smile remerged.
“Yes! I agree, I'll leave you guys alone now bye Mom and Dad!!” Winter waved bye to them, she only took the soccer ball she had in hand and left her guitar on the couch as rushed back up to her room again, she tossed the soccer ball down somewhere and she walked over to her closet to get something to wear.
11:00 AM
Winter thought she had picked a pretty good outfit after shifting through her wardrobe, it was just a light brown sweater with a black skirt and leggings that would help to keep her warm since it was quite chilly in Piedmont this time of year. The yellow bow that held up her hair in a short ponytail sure didn’t match with the rest of her outfit but she didn't care, it was her favorite bow so Winter wore it still anyways. After checking her outfit in the mirror she grabbed her school backpack, which was a cute light pink and it had small white details on it to match the pink tone. She dumped out all her school supplies and put some stuff she thought she would need inside to replace the items; a flashlight in case it got dark before she made it home, a small notepad and pen to maybe take notes about potential findings, a small pack of leftover bandaids that were just sitting around in her room, a hoodie in case it got colder out, and her water bottle. Winter didn't really think she needed any more items since she wouldn't be gone for that long anyway, so she stuck with those chosen objects and zipped up the backpack and slung it onto her back.
With a smile on her face, she said goodbye to her plushies and promised them to be back soon and took one last glance at her room before closing the door behind her, she went back down the stairs, into the foyer and instead of going around the corner and to the hallway from the bottom of the stairwell, she went straight ahead to the front door and opened it, she could hear her parents voices from there but she decided not to bother them to say goodbye and just closed the door behind her. The cool breeze of mid-November almost immediately hit her face. It honestly felt nice to just be out of the house and not face her parents' scrutiny just for wanting to talk or play with them. Winter skipped down the stairs of the porch and walked down the sidewalk of her neighborhood for a while. It mostly contained bigger houses, the ones you'd pass by and feel a weird sense of jealousy because you can't help but realize you don't live in one of them. Winter wasn't exactly interested in the infrastructure, she saw it all the time and knew it almost as well as the back of her hand. So she looked at the foliage just across the street, checked for any potential cars coming, and ran across and into the patch of forest.
She walked around for a bit, saw some cool little bugs and flowers and took note of it in her notepad. This was until she heard a small ‘yip’ sound, at first Winter though she was hearing things until she heard tiny thumps on the ground that seemed like they were getting closer and closer until a fox…well…fox looking animal came out, Winter would've dubbed it a normal fox in her head if it just wasn't for one key feature; it looked like it was made out of the galaxy itself, the animal was a shade of dark blue with stars on the fur that made it look like the night sky, to add on though it looked like the dark blue fur went upward in small waves of smoke that just didn't stop. Winter didn't even say anything for a good minute, her eyes only widened as she stared in awe at the fox’s beauty. She let out a small ‘woah’ while she continued to stare at the creature until she decided to try to get closer to it, the fox looking creature seemed to just give Winter mischievous smile as it started to saunter away from her before it looked back at Winter at let out another ‘yip’ sound. Winter didn't know how to respond for a second before she pointed to herself and then to the fox to try to silently ask if it wanted her to come with it, as if the fox understood it let out another 'yip' noise and started to wander off again. Winter barely processed anything and before she knew it she was following the creature to wherever the creature led her.
Surprisingly, the fox led her far from where she was before, she must've been a good amount of feet away from her neighborhood, she hoped her parents wouldn't mind being this far gone in the woods away from their house. The thought didn't last long though once she heard the ‘yip’ of the creature again, this snapped her out of her train of thought and caused her to look down but she didn't expect the sight that was almost at her feet. It looked like a portal or some kind of rift that emanated darker colors that blended together and it seemed to be glitching out of reality like an optical illusion. Winter's eyebrows raised in shock, it was almost incomprehensible to the little girl. The fox tilted its head towards her and nudged at her ankle and dragged one of its front paws closer to the rift. Winter was still looking down into the rift, she saw faint stars and very tiny circles of color that she didn't exactly know what they were. In time, she looked at the fox's paw and opened and closed her mouth while thinking of something to say.
“Do you…do you want me to go in??” Winter questioned and pointed to the rift, the dark creature made a soft agreeing sound while Winter took in a gulp of spit that gathered up in her throat. She was nervous, she didn't know where this thing led or if it was safe…but maybe it would be a missed opportunity if she just ignored it and moved on with her life, and pretended to have never met the fox and just went back to exploring on her own. Maybe she should follow the fox down there, I mean it didn't seem like a bad idea right? Winter didn't really want to go back to where her parents were ignoring her and were probably happy to be left alone. Happy….
Winter came back to reality when she saw the portal starting to close, she felt her hands getting clammy from the pure nervousness of a decision that could change her life forever, the dark fox made an ‘eep’ sound, it had to go back inside that rift which Winter wasn't aware that the fox jumped down into it which made Winter gasp and reached down as if she could grab the creature back which wasn't possible from on the surface. Winter thought more as the portal glitched out of reality even more, this was it…she made her decision. Clutching a strap of her backpack she walked closer to the edge of the rift, feeling the balance of her feet beginning to be uneven as her body weight shifted to be more leaning towards the entrance of the rift. Winter closed her eyes tightly and took a deep breath of courage.
“Goodbye mom and dad…” She muttered under her breath in a strained tone, she stepped forward once and before she knew it she felt gravity take her weight and-!
✓#!:?& APM???
.
.
.
.
It was strange, it felt like she was floating, she opened her eyes to see a dark abyss all around her and the fuzzy dark fox that almost blended into the background sat on her stomach curled up like she was a bed. Winter looked all around her while she was basically laying down in the position she was in, she saw nothing close besides the faint dark colors she saw from above the rift.
Winter didn't scream,
Winter didn't panic,
She might not know where she was,
Or what was going on,
But maybe this could be her new home,
Maybe her parents would finally be permanently happy,
Without her.