Sup people, here's another chapter this one brought to you by Finals (which I hate, curse you college!) Mommy Issues (way less used than Daddy Issues) and my insomnia also the Jojo's Bizarre Adventure Soundtrack, also my cool editor she does wonders with my crap. Any way enjoy and what not.
They always said Sundays were supposed to be lazy and carefree days for most people; a time of the week to just sit back and relax before the doldrums of the weekday began, but Dawn Bellwether was having anything but a relaxing Sunday. As a matter of fact, her Sunday was going to hell in a handbasket rather quickly. Most of this was due to one particular ewe: her mother Elisabeth Bellwether, to Dawn the worst animal on the face of the earth.
Dawn and Leodore were a few miles from her mother's house and Leodore was trying to pry why exactly Dawn disliked her mother so much—to no success, of course, with each question being immediately shot down with either an indignant no or a death glare that could stop a charging rhino in its tracks. Finally, they reached Dawn's mother's house.
"Stay outside, I'll only need a minute," Dawn told Leo as she stepped out of the car and onto the street. She took a moment to take in the place where she was raised from birth; it had been twenty years since she last saw this house. She had been nineteen when she left her old home and went out on her own. It had the same roof, same front door, same perfectly manicured lawn—everything was as she left it twenty years ago.
Taking a deep breath, Dawn walked up to the door and gave a few tentative knocks. After a few seconds the door opened to reveal a ewe who looked strikingly similar to Dawn, but with the age of about fifty or so years to her.
"Ah, Dawn, good to see you. I'm glad you could make it. Come in," Elisabeth gestured inside as she welcomed Dawn into the house. The house's interior was much like the exterior: no different than when she left the place years ago. Same wallpaper, same white pastoral ceiling, and the one thing that haunted Dawn: a framed picture from when she was fourteen; it was a picture of her mother, her sister Liana, and their father Hal. Dawn quickly turned away from the picture, least the memories from those times rear their ugly head.
"So, Dawn, dear, do you want some refreshments? Tea, water," Elisabeth offered, though Dawn declined and simply took a seat in the living room, her mother doing the same.
"Alright, mother, what do you want?" Dawn asked outright, not even bothering with the pleasantries for her mother, much to the older ewe's annoyance.
"Dawn, my dear, can't a mother who hasn't seen her child in nearly twenty years sit down and talk to her like two civilized animals?" her mother replied with innocent defense, and Dawn narrowed her eyes.
"I know you have another motive to this, you wouldn't just call me out of the blue." Dawn glared at her mother like the older ewe had committed murder. Elisabeth rolled her eyes and answered.
"Dawn, I assure you that I have no ulterior motive, I just—" Dawn cut her off.
"That's crap and you know it. You had twenty years to reconcile, and now after I've been in prison for three years, suddenly you want to reconnect?!" Dawn shouted, rising from her seat and pointing an accusing finger at her mother, who was taken aback by her daughter's sudden outburst.
"Now listen here, you!" Elisabeth shrieked in outrage, rising from her seat as well.
"No, you listen. For seven years, you treated me like a pariah after dad and sis died."
"Don't you dare mention them!"
"Why not?" Dawn shot back. "They were my family too. If anything, I should have been with them when the crash happened. It would have saved the world and I a lot of trouble." She got up from her seat and headed for the door. "Never call me again, mother." She opened the door, not even bothering to spare her mother a final glance as she retreated from the house.
Outside, she could see that Leodore was still waiting for her patiently; he was playing on his phone.
"Let's go. I can't stand to be at this place another minute," Dawn growled, grabbing Leodore's attention and causing him to nearly drop his phone as she opened the passenger seat door.
"Dawn, are you . . . okay?" Leodore asked hesitantly as he entered the car after her.
"Do I look okay, Leo?" Leodore gave an admitting shake of his head. He was about to ask another question but Dawn had already beat him to it. "Just don't, Leo." She turned to stare out the window as the street slowly began to move and the house she hated so much transitioned into the next.
"Dawn, just know I'm here to talk if you need it1," Leodore assured her, giving his normal characteristic smile. Dawn hated and adored that smile.
"Leo, do you mind taking me to one last place?" she asked, and he smiled in answer.
"Not at all, Dawn." She directed him to a place all the way in the Meadowlands. The drive would be for at least an hour, not counting for Leo having to stop for gas. In that time, Leodore decided to ask Dawn why she held such distaste for her mother.
"So, Dawn, why don't you and your mother get along?" Leodore asked as he concentrated on the road. Dawn let out a groan; she hated bringing up this part of her past with anyone.
"It's a long, long, long story," Dawn sighed as she sank into the car seat.
"Well, we've got time," Leodore assured her, his eyes glued to the road ahead of him. She let out another sigh as she started where it all began.
"When I was fourteen, my father and sister were . . . killed," Dawn said quietly, remembering that day nearly twenty years ago, the one that changed her life. She and her sister had gotten into an argument over something really insignificant, she recalled.
"I didn't know you had a sister," Leodore mentioned, but Dawn didn't answer. Not for a few seconds, at least.
"Yeah. Her name was Liana. She was ten years older than me." Dawn remembered her sister's appearance; she had been a rarity for most sheep. Rather than snow white fleece like her father, mother, and Dawn, Liana had had charcoal black fleece.
"I thought she was the prettiest animal ever. She was my idol when I was younger," Dawn continued. "Most sheep thought she was weird. She had black fleece, but to me, she was just my sister." Memories of the fun she and her sister had had when they were younger began to flash through her mind. They were such happy times.
"I can see she meant a lot to you. I couldn't tell you what I would feel if I lost any of my sisters," Leodore said as he maneuvered the car around a turn. "So, what was your dad like?"
"He was a rather nice man. Much nicer than my mother was." The times she had spent with her father were few and far in-between, but they were still good memories. "They had both died in a car crash," Dawn finally concluded. "After they died, my mother seemed to blame me for it. She never got over it." Leodore nodded.
"You know, sometimes I wish I had been in the car with them. Maybe then I wouldn't be in such a sorry state," Dawn said softly, resting her head on the dashboard. "No more pain, no more torment." She closed her eyes. "No more little sheep that cause so much pain to the world." She was startled when Leodore suddenly stopped the car. Dawn glanced at him and he had such a look of shock on his face.
"Dawn?" He reached for the ewe and placed his paw gingerly on her shoulder.
"Leodore, I've done things that no mammal should be forgiven for. I ruined lives . . . I almost killed some animals because of my prejudice." The memory of when she almost ended Judy Hopp's life in the museum surfaced.
"All because of something that happened when I was fourteen," Dawn choked out as tears streaked through her fur. She felt a finger wipe a tear from her face.
"Dawn, I know nothing I say or do will ever change the past, but know this: I forgive you," Leodore said with conviction as his frown turned into a smile. "And you have to learn to forgive yourself." He started the car back up and continued driving to the Meadowlands. The rest of the drive was filled with silence until finally they arrived at their destination: a graveyard named "St. Andrew's Cemetery".
"Well, here we are. I take it you want to be alone again?" Leodore asked and Dawn nodded. "I'll be waiting here. Take as long as you need." Dawn stepped out of the car and entered the graveyard. They were still there after all this time, Dawn thought as she found the two headstones she was looking for. The first read: "Here lies Liana Bellwether. Taken from us too soon". The second read: "Here lies Henry Victor Bellwether. Loving father and husband". Dawn took a deep breath and placed her paws on both headstones.
"Hey dad, hey sis," she began as she felt tears well up in her eyes again. "Sorry I haven't been here in a while. I've had it rough since you two went. Mom hasn't made things any easier—" She began to pour her heart out to the gravestones of her deceased father and sister; her insecurities, her guilt, her wish to simply be gone. When she finally returned to the car, she felt like she had cried for an eternity.
The drive back was in silence; Leodore felt like Dawn needed as much. Upon reaching her apartment, Leodore glanced at the ewe. Her eyes were red from all the crying she'd done that day.
"Dawn? You okay?" Leodore asked cautiously as he watched Dawn brood for a few moments. She turned her heads towards him.
"I'm a broken ewe, Leo," she told him, and he placed his paw on her cheek and gave her one of his signature warm smiles.
"I know, Dawn. And when you're ready, I'll be here to help you pick up the pieces."
Well that's Chapter Five for you guys, hit a little close to home while writing, but whatever I hope you guys liked it and know that in the upcoming chapters it should get a little less heavy.