Rosemary Bakshi's Arc

Chapter 4 of 7

After school, Rosemary went outside to play in the yard. The grass was cool. She was pulling up clover when a flash of pink caught her eye at the edge of the woods. Her mouse. Her mouse was lying under a tall pine, pink dress bright against the dark needles. Rosemary ran. She stopped a few feet away, breathing hard. The mouse lay on its side by the trunk of the big dark pine. Rosemary reached out. Before her fingers touched it, the mouse sat up. It stood on its small grey feet. It turned, and it walked into the trees. "Wait," Rosemary whispered. She stepped past the pine. The yard was behind her now. She knew she should turn back. But the mouse with the cross-stitched eyes was walking away, its little pink dress swaying, and it was hers. She followed. The woods grew darker. The trees grew closer. A blue flame floated up between the trunks, soft and cold, lighting the path the mouse was taking. Dark coils of fog twisted low along the ground, curling around her shoes. Rosemary's chest went tight. She thought of Clove. Clove would not stop. Clove would be brave. She kept walking. The mouse stopped in a small clearing and sat down. Rosemary knelt and picked it up. It was cold. It did not move again. But when she looked up, the blue flame was gone, the fog had closed behind her, and she could not see the way home.