Chapter 14
Symphony was settling in nicely in the Village, Pawfoot. She had been there almost a week and had made quite a few friends in that short amount of time. She knew she should keep moving but everyone had been so nice, and she had been helping out the owner of the inn in exchange for board and food.
She was reading to the children in the park when she felt the hair on the back of her neck stand up and felt like someone was watching her. As she looked around, she didn’t see anyone out of the ordinary, so she brushed it off. She finished reading to the children a little while later and she still couldn’t shake the feeling that she had gotten earlier. She picked up her pace as she headed towards the inn.
She was greeted by the other employees and the owner. She asked if she was need as she suddenly felt ill. The owner told her that it was ok if she took the rest of the day and rested. She thanked her and headed up to her room.
When she got to her room, she noticed her door was somewhat open but couldn’t hear anyone inside. She slowly opened the door and saw no one there. She breathed out a sigh of relief. She noticed nothing out of order, so she went to the bathroom to take a nice hot bath to help relax her mind.
She knew she was safe and nothing weird had happened since she had arrived here. She wanted to be able to call this place home, but she knew she would have to leave. She didn’t want to be found by Alexander or his guards. While in the tub she heard a commotion outside of her room door. She quickly got out and dried off.
As she finished dressing, she opened the door to see what was going on. To her horror she saw Alexanders guards surrounding her room. She knew it was over.
“Symphony we are glad we found you” the one guard said.
“We have talked with Alexander, and he wanted us to bring you home” another said
“I am not going anywhere with you or anywhere near him” Symphony spat.
“He said he just wanted to talk and told us to tell you that if you still wanted to leave after you were more than welcome too” the first guard said.
“Please, just come talk to him. At least let him know you are ok. He has had us looking for you for a week and he hasn’t slept” the guards pleaded, all nodding their heads in agreement with what was said.
Symphony sighed she knew this was one battle she wouldn’t be able to fight out of. She told them to give her a moment to collect her things and she would go with them. She really didn’t want to go but if Alexander was willing to let her go after they talked, she didn’t feel like she had anything to lose.
She said goodbye to everyone, and they all wanted to know when she was coming back. She wasn’t sure if she was going to come back there but she told them she would see them soon. The children were the hardest to say goodbye to as they gave her a hug, some crying that they didn’t want her to leave. It broke her heart to say goodbye to them.
She took one more look around at all the faces that she had become familiar with the past week. She then turned and followed the guards to where they had parked their vehicle. A least she didn’t have to walk back, she thought to herself.
She was on edge the further they drove away from Pawfoot. She didn’t know what was going to happen once she got back and came face to face with Alexander. Would he be mad would he hurt her would he lock her up so she could never leave again, all these thoughts ran through her head and Starlett was no help. Starlett couldn’t wait to see Alexander again and Symphony couldn’t figure out why. She had been just as furious with Alexander when she found out what he had done to Symphony, so the way she was acting made no sense.
Symphony had tried to get Starlett under control before they got back to the house but gave up as they started up the driveway. As the guards stopped the car Symphony looked around at the home she had left. In her opinion it looked gloomy like the light that had once shown on it had disappeared.
She slowly got out of the car and made her way to the door. She wasn’t sure if she should just walk in or knock. She didn’t have a chance to decide when the door opened in front of her. She was shocked to see Alexander standing there looking like he hadn’t slept in days.
He just stood there and looked Symphony over making sure she wasn’t hurt. Once he was satisfied, he moved out of the way to let her come in. As she walked past him, she saw Gavin standing in the hall, he looked almost as bad as Alexander did, she lowered her head feeling slightly bad knowing that the way they looked was because of her.
She jumped when she felt a hand on her shoulder but calmed down when she realized it was Gavin. She briefly met his eyes, before he crushed her in a bear hug.
“Don’t you ever do that to me again little one” Gavin said, “You had me so worried that someone had taken you.”
Symphony was shocked, she always thought of Gavin as a statue showing no emotion and here, he was wrapping her up in a hug
“I promise not to runaway again.” She said “and I am sorry for making you worry about me, but I took care of myself well. As you can see not even a scratch.”
Gavin chuckled and set her down. Alexander cleared his throat behind them, causing both to jump a little bit.
“I was told that you wanted to talk to me” Symphony said as she squared her shoulders.
“Yes, I did, or I do” Alexander said back stumbling over his words.
“Please can we talk in my office.”
Symphony nodded and followed him with Gavin in tow.
When they got to his office Alexander took a seat in one of the two couches that were there. Symphony sat on the other couch with Gavin in the chair between them. She wasn’t sure what to expect or even if she really wanted to hear what Alexander had to say but she was here now so she might as well get it over with.