Fairy

He showed up just after sunset. Maria and Antonia had been busy cleaning and making it their new home. It took longer then they had thought to clean the place up. They didn’t have much furniture and it wasn’t very homely after they were done. There clothing was away and any books that Maria had packed had found a place to be. They were left with an empty kitchen and living room. Then he showed up with a couple of bags for them. They had canned food, one pan, one pot, a couple of yards of rope, and tools. He didn’t have much else with him. Still, Maria didn’t know that she would ever be so happy to see so little.

“I heard that this place wasn’t stocked and you are new to living like this” Was the first words out of his mouth. He never introduced himself to them. Antonia didn’t like him much after first meeting him. Maria just nodded and followed his instructions. Antonia took to searching around the house. He watched and taught them how to catch food, wash clothing, how to make new clothing, and how to make traps. Soon Antonia didn’t mind him being there teaching them. She loved learning more than anything in the world. She would take everything that he had to give and make it better. He had shown her how to climb and hide in the trees around them. Soon they started playing a game called hide and seek. Maria didn’t know how to feel about this game that they played. It was beyond that of normal hide and seek. She could see Antonia becoming better at sneaking around. Some of the books she had taken where advanced programming that Howard had wanted her to read over the summer. Time seemed to be passing so fast it was unreal. Still, the smile on her face gave Maria the courage to never go back.

Before she knew it a year had passed and they were teaching Antonia how to read and write more words. It didn’t take her long to realize that her daughter was smart. She could spell and read better than most her age. She had taken the place of the teacher and tried to be strict about it. She had to up the difficulty each day to see where her daughter was in education. Antonia got work that she had to finish each day before going out and playing.

They learned to cook together and they burned a few things before they got anything good. Every time they burned something it was sad because all their hard work to catch the thing whether it was a bird or fish was wasted. They wanted nothing more than to eat at the end of the day. Then they have to go and work to either get another one or go to bed hungry. After the first two times going to bed hungry, Antonia started helping her mother catch things. 

he, of course, noticed her when she started going after pray, but he didn’t say anything about it. So Antonia let it go and continued to try on her own. She would watch the training that her mother went through and then try it on her own. She would focus on the man to see if she could beat him. She wanted to beat him so that her mom didn’t have to worry about catching food anymore. She wanted more responsibility then she had.

He would smirk at her when she fell when she attacked a bird. She would have been mad if it wasn’t for the fact that the bird wanted revenge. She ran all the way back to her mom who was able to subdue it. That was the first night that they had a good meal and they couldn’t have been happier.

“Hey, little fairy!” It was the first time he called them anything other than mam or girl. When Maria turned around she saw her daughter holding up a dead bird. It was the first bird that she had ever caught. She couldn’t have been prouder after seeing the smile on her daughter’s face. He had patted her on the head and started talking about how she was a bit clumsy when catching it. Maria was so surprised about how her daughter had taken his lessons and turned them into something better. Now if only she could get her to stop reading the programming books.

Soon his nickname for Antonia stuck and he kept calling her Fairy. Maria watched as her daughter became better at fighting, catching food, and hiding from them. She was so proud and also so angry that her daughter had to learn these things. Then she thinks about how life for her daughter would have been before they left. How her daughter would have been treated by her father.

“Hey, why do you call me a fairy?” Antonia asked one day while looking him in the eyes. Maria stopped in the doorway wanting to know the answer to that as well. They had never been out of earshot or eyesight. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust him so much as she didn’t like how much time he spent teaching her daughter. There was something off about it that didn’t sit quite right.

“Because when you’re moving around in the trees you look like your flying,” He said. Maria peeked out to see where he was looking and it wasn’t at her daughter but the trees. Like he was seeing something that they couldn’t see. Then he looked at her daughter as Antonia turned to look at the trees too. She decided that she was done training and that this place had outlived its use. She would leave Peggy a note but nothing else. That night started the planning. She wouldn’t leave a paper trail to let him know what she was planning.

A couple of days later after Antonia’s fifth birthday, they left. Maria drugged his drink and food. She knew that it was a toxic amount but to make a spy pass out she needs more than the usual amount. It worked and she and Antonia made a run for the house. They grabbed everything. Having slowly started packing their bags as the day passes they were ready. They gave the house a once over checking everything. They didn’t The house was once again empty. Using his phone to message the only number that was on it. Knowing that it was Peggy she simply wrote ‘flw th nst’ and then threw the phone’s battery in the water taking the sim card and throwing that into the fire. Maria wasn’t heartless she made sure that he was going to be safe until he works up but nothing more. They ran through the trees being as quick as they could know how to hide their tracts. The lucky part was that a lot of the woods where charted by them. They knew every part of the woods. Maria only had an idea of where to go but no clear goal.

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Elsewhere Peggy received the message and smiled. He trained them well but couldn’t make them feel safe with him. He had failed and they had won. She was proud of Maria for not just letting another man take her husband's place. Now that she didn’t know where they where no one would know. She could do nothing more for them but erase their records. It was the only way to keep them safe. The search for them had ended and no one was surprised by Howard’s lack of appearances since they disappeared. He was just found going on a date. After they found out who he was with they asked her for an interview. She said yes and answered any questions she could.

“It was the first date since his wife disappeared,” She said soon adding “I just think that he was lonely in that big house and wanted to get out”

Peggy didn’t know whether she was happy or sad about that. She hated hurting her friend but she couldn’t let him destroy his child. Hopefully, he would forgive her later in life. If he didn’t then that was fine too. She would never regret anything that she has done because at the time of each decision she made the best choice with what she knew. She couldn’t go back and try to change anything if she wouldn’t know that information at that moment. There was only one path really. That path is forward.