The Mafia's Bride and Groom's (fxmxmxm)

Flashback: Bad Apples

Here's how Nya made her, not so daring, escape from the hell hounds of Macy Helgrim. 

The wall that separated the compost was made of tiles and stone and was at least ten feet tall. Ten feet off from the stone of the main house, which meant that between the wall and the mansion, there was a massive pile of old compost. 

Yesterday was garden tending day, and by coincidence, the gardeners had left much of their supplies out in front of the wall, including barrels of new mulch, and a small tractor they planned to uproot one of the trees with.

When Nya was running she had two options. Attempt to get in through the first floor's windows, which would have included a jump and a climb up the side of the stone mansion. Or, a jump from the tractor to the mulch barrels, back on top of the tractor, and finally, the compost wall. 

Apparently the wall was the safer choice, but at the time, Nya saw her short, terrifying, and painful life flash before her eyes. She didn't think she was going to make it, and with the barking dogs almost on top of her, she really thought this was the end. What a short and terrible existence to have. 

She was ashamed to admit that as soon as she got on top of the wall, after catching her breath and making sure she wouldn't slip into the open maw of the bloodhounds or the ever waiting pile of old food, she started balling her eyes out. 

What a way to go. Ripped apart by three dark dogs, a day before her birthday, in a home where she wasn't even really a welcome guest. 

She clung to the stone wall till her fingers ached, and hunched her back as she let out great heaving sobs. 

The dogs barked loudly bellow. Occasionally jumping on and off the tractor, but never making it to the mulch barrel or the tractor hood, but they waited anyways, in hopes of their prey falling miserably off the wall. Into open mouths.

"Off, get off, ya fuckers," a man's voice said. One of the groundskeepers, the grumpy, old, creepy guy who lived in a shed on the property, appeared and started whistling at the dogs. They continued to bark, but slowly they pulled away and started circling the groundskeeper instead. "Ya best got off a there," he yelled at Nya as he hit one of the dogs with the end of a shotgun. The man continued, not really looking at her at all as the dogs circled him, "Helgrim sees ya fucking around and she'll rip ya nails off, " he said to her. He laughed as he led the dogs away. 

Nya began to calm down. She stopped crying, closed her eyes, and tried to slow the awful spinning feeling in her head. By the time she opened her eyes again, the man was farther away, lazily stumbling as he took a sip of brandy from his flask. 

Slowly, Nya began her descent off the wall. It was clumsy, hard to watch, as she scrapped her hands on the tractor hood, her knees on the mulch barrel. By the time she hit the ground she was covered in dirt, debris, and a fresh set of tears as red started to bloom around the holes in her clothes. 

The garden that had been a hell scape just moments ago was suddenly humming with life. Nya felt out of place, amongst the beautiful flowers, the hummingbirds, the sun. 

This was not a place for her, for a dark stain amongst new beauty. 

Time to go back inside. 

***

She'd been living in the mansion for a week now, but it was so old and mystic, that every time she tried to find her room she got lost. It was like the walls moved. Like the mansion was taking breaths and rearranging itself into a more confusing layout time and time again. 

Nya was lost. Tired, dirty, confused, and everything started to come down on her as she realized she'd escaped death yet again. Today was not a good day.