Chapter 6

I do not owe anything from Gone With The Wind, just the idea of this story.

(A/N Hope you enjoy! Thanks for reviewing, please leave feedback it does help when writing a story. I have made some corrections, hope the chapter will be easier to read now, if not please let me know. I'm sorry but I'm not fluent in English)

People was mad from angst, more then once Scarlett had to speed the horse, because somebody reached for the reins, with intentions of stealing the horse and carriage. The city was burning and its citizens fleeing.

Scarlett was strangely calm, she knew they would be doomed if she panicked. Without thinking she just acted, she hadn't time to see if her passengers were fine or not and she hadn't really any thoughts for them. She had to keep her focus on getting out of Atlanta, if they should make it. Never before had she seen people acting out of raw fear, people, who was prepared to kill to survive and to be honest, Scarlett didn't know how far she would go to survive. Somehow, she had crossed a border with her actions yesterday and she was glad she had; if she hadn't she wouldn't have been able to flee Atlanta now. She just knew she would never be the same as before yesterday.

After what seemed like forever, they finally were out of Atlanta and the road was less travelled now.

Leaving the main road, Scarlett stopped the carriage and checked on her passengers. Melanie had passed out, Beau was sleeping and Prissy whining, Scarlett gave her no attention and took the reins again. Her intuition told her to stay off the main roads and fellow the small and less known paths; it would take longer to get to Tara but she felt it would be safer. Normally, Scarlett wasn't known to use her intuition, but today she listened and just trusted what she felt was right.

The day turned into night and rain started, making the travellers cold into their bones, no blanket was thick enough to keep the cold out and the horse was old and getting more and more tired for each step it took.

Scarlett stopped for a short break, Melanie was still unconscious. The baby was cold and freezing.

"Place the baby in Melanie's arms and cover them up real good Prissy. Place the baby in a way that Melanie so can't drop him"

"Miz Scarlett, I'm hungry and cold!"

"You will have to manage Prissy. I have no time for your whining behaviours. Be quiet or I'll leave you here".

Tiredly, Scarlett motivated the horse to move again, hoping it would make it to Tara.

She must have closed her eyes for a moment, because when she looked up again she was on the road to Tara. She was minutes away from her home.

"Mother! Pa! I'm home"

She almost shouted the words but then remembered herself and called the words in a more ladylike fashion. Getting closer, it was still too dark to see Tara and she felt scared of what she would find.

"Please, let there be a Tara. I can't live if it's gone! Please, let my Mother and pa be safe at Tara."

She speeded the horse but it was too tired to move any faster. Then in the light of a nearly full moon, she saw Tara and it was a beautiful sight, even if it didn't look as grand as it used to. Scarlett stopped the horse, jumped down from the carriage and ran to the door while yelling.

"Mother! Pa! I'm home. It's me Scarlett. Katie Scarlett! Mother!"

The door opened slowly and Pork's face was to be seen.

"Miz Scarlett, thank Heaven you're home"

He opened the door widely and now Mammy came into vision too.

"Pork! Mammy! it's so good to see you. Where are Mother and pa?"

Mammy hid her face in her hands but said nothing.

"Pork help miss Melanie and her baby inside and tell Prissy to take care of the baby."

Turning to Mammy she pulled mammy's hands away from her face.

"Where is Mother? Tell me at once Mammy"

But all Mammy could do was crying, Scarlett turned deathly white and turned to Pork, who was coming down the stairs.

"Pork, where are Mother and pa?"

"Oh! Miz Scarlett! first the Yankees came and use Tara as their headquarter and burning down the barn"

"Yankees at Tara?"

"Yes, Miz Scarlett and then Miz Ellen caught the typhus from tending to the 'em white trash the Slattery's and then Mizter Gerald took sick and then the girls. And- And oh! Miz Ellen died and soon after Mizter Gerald went too."

Now, Pork was crying. Tears were running down Scarlett's cheeks but she didn't notice "And my sisters Pork?"

"They are upstairs recovering."

Scarlett was heartbroken; she needed her Mother badly, but she had come home to late. As a sleepwalker Scarlett headed to her mother's office, stepping into the room she would have sworn she smelled her mother's perfume.

For a brief moment she felt safe and sixteen again. Turning her head to the chair, opposite the desk, she saw a busy Ellen looking over the numbers. But too soon the picture faded, for that was all it was, a memory from a time long gone. Abruptly, she was back in the present.

She was alone, her mother would not help her anymore and her father would not spoil her anymore. Her parents had let her down, when she needed them most. Scarlett's eyes widened in fear and her hand covered her mouth.

"I must not think ill of Mother, she is a saint and a real lady"

But she could not deny her feelings, and did she feel betrayed from the two people in the world, who were supposed to always be there for her. Her parents had not prepared her for this; nothing in her life had prepared her for this situation. A Southern belle was never raised to face hardships or wrongs, she was raised never to think or decide anything on her own. First her parents with her pa in front would guide her, then her husband. Now life had left Scarlett without neither a father nor a husband but a household to run without money or training to do so. Life, these days, seem to laugh at her, testing her to see what she was capable of.

"Was she, Scarlett O'Hara, a survivor or a weaker human being?"

Too tired and overwhelmed with life Scarlett took seat in the settee and closed her eyes, soon sleep took mercy on her and granted her peace, even if it was only for a brief moment.

That night her nightmare started.

She was cold, hungry, scared and alone, a deep fog covered her and her surroundings and she was looking for shelter. On her way she met loved ones; the first one was Ashley

"You killed me Scarlett"

His face covered with hate, Scarlett ran away from him as fast as she could, meeting her dear mother next.

"Mother, please help me!"

"You killed me. Why did you love me Scarlett?

Too scared to stay she ran the opposite way, just to meet her father.

"Look what you did to me, it was your love that killed me".

Scarlett was devastated and cried harder and harder. Where could she turn to?

It was then she saw the back of a person. It was a broad back of a strong person, but she couldn't see who is was and the person moved faster than she did and away from her. If only she would reach that person she would be safe, she just knew it.

Scarlett awoke covered in sweat and from her own screaming, her heart was beating wildly, she lighten the candle, too scared of the dark not to. She was amazed that her scream hadn't awoken anybody but her. She couldn't sleep anymore, she needed to get out of the house for some fresh air. Scarlett went to her favourite tree, the one she had climbed most often as a child. There she sat very still in the pouring rain, leaning against the tree. It was a big tree with branches close to the ground and all the way up. It was a tree a little girl could climb fast, if she needed to get away from trouble. But it took courage to climb the tree fore the branches might be close to the ground but not close enough to reach without efforts and some of the branches were far apart from the next branch.

But when you were familiar with the tree you could escape fast. The crown was big and thick enough to cover up a little girl not wanting to be seen, and the apples were red and juicy. Scarlett took some of the strength the tree offered and realised some of her sorrow to the tree in return; indeed Scarlett got her strength from Tara and its nature.

"Did I really kill my parents as I killed Ashley?"

Somehow she didn't believe she had, fore she had been far from Tara when they had died and hadn't done anything wrong, they had died before her time with Rhett.

"It's just to remind me I can't ever love a man again"

She assured herself.

Inside again, she was allowed into a deep sleep.