Petal's POV

That morning, I woke up at 4 am, unable to sleep. Tear ducts were still present on my cheeks, clueing me in on the fact that I must've relived the nightmare again. As I stumbled my way down the stairs blearily, I wondered why my mind was so focused on that night from so long ago. Even now that I was away from the monster it kept replaying like a broken record. I wish it'd just stop.

Trying to forget all thoughts of a rainy night and a shattered past, I got to work, taking out a pan. This was what I was good at, just as long as I did this and didn't think, everything would be ok.

2 hours later, I'd cleaned the whole of the bottom floor and made both breakfast and lunch, a new personal record. I didn't know when the people in this house liked waking up so I didn't want to risk being late. If I got told off for the food being cold, that'd always be better than getting hit for there being no food at all.

I didn't want to sit around and wait for them to come and scream at me though, so grabbing the smallest slice of bread I could, I left the house, making my way towards the forest. I always enjoyed spending time with nature. The large trees drowned out the humdrum of the road and civilisation, allowing me to just be surrounding by the buzz that nature created. In this forest everything was so alive. Back in the park where I used to go to clear my head, there weren't that many trees, just a lot of screaming kids, which I, for obvious reasons, didn't appreciate. Here however, all I could hear for miles around were chirping birds and the rustling of leaves. Of course, there was also the crunching of the frost under my beaten up converse, but I chose to ignore that.

Humans were bad. That's why I hid away in the forest. Here there was no one to judge, and certainly no one to destroy the imperfect silence.

I was going to return, don't get me wrong, but I just wanted to forget for a few hours that my destination was in the opposite direction, rather the one I was going in. And for a while, I could. That all changed though when the sun started climbing over the tips of the trees, and shouting started to be heard in the distance.

"Maisee? Maisee where are you? We won't hurt you, we promise! We just want to help! Maisee? Maisee?" It continued like that for a while. Knowing I wouldn't be able to keep running from my problem for any longer, I sat myself down with my back against a tree. Bark dug into my back but I didn't mind. With my senses tuned into the tree and the shouting completely forgotten, I could relax once more.

"Guys, I found her! Maisee, what are you even doing?" Opening my eyes drowsily, I forced myself to step away from the relaxing nature and back towards the horrible civilisation.

"I was just going for a walk." I tried to say it as innocently as possible so the beating would be kept to a minimum, but I could see Gray's jaw clenching. Why did he, out of the rest of the family, have to be the one to find me? If it were anyone else I would've been able to disconnect again so that they wouldn't be able to hurt me as much. But with him, it was like he rooted me to the real world, not allowing me to escape even when I was begging for it.

"For 4 hours?!" He looked really mad. This was the effect I had on people, I caused them grief and anger until the point where all they wanted was to put their hands around my neck and squeeze. Slowly drain the life out of me, enjoying every second of it. The monster had described that feeling to me on more than a couple of occasions.

"I lost track of time."

"Don't you have a watch? Or a phone? Or anything? Maisee you really scared us, we thought you ran away." The only way I'd had to tell the time back home was to look at the old beaten up alarm clock on the floor by my bed.

"I don't have anything, no. I'm sorry." He still appeared to be angry at me, so I got up and away from the tree. I didn't dare look him in the eye, the monster said that was disrespectful, and slowly I went on my knees. "I'm really sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Oh god please don't hurt me I'm so sorry." By the end of it I was crying. I thought that I'd ruined everything last night, but it seemed they'd let me stay. Now I had to go ahead and screw everything up again as if they hadn't already been charitable enough. I was such a mess, I didn't deserve to belong to this perfect family.

"Wait, what are you doing?" Keeping my head down still, I begged one last time.

"I didn't mean to go away for so long. I'm sorry. So sorry."

"Maisee, I'm not mad, I was just worried. I mean, I saw how scared you are of us and I feared you'd run away. After how you almost died escaping the first time I didn't want that to happen to you again." Then, he reached out a hand, putting it right in front of me so it was in my line of vision. "Please get up, I promise mom and dad won't be mad either. None of us will be."

"I… Ok." I was close to saying 'I don't trust you', but that would've gotten me killed in the monster's house so I decided not to risk it. I didn't take his hand though, I didn't want to touch any males any time soon. Not until the monster's filth had been permanently washed off of me. Sometimes I saw my hands streaked with mud and grime and wiped as hard as I could, yet it didn't come off. What he'd done to me, all the scars he'd left, it'd never come off.

"Come on, the house is this way." He didn't seem offended by my choice, something for which I was glad. I didn't want to have to get beaten for something I had no control over.

He had a good sense of direction, being able to take me all the way back to the house without a stumble in his step or a doubt about the way we were going. I was happy for that too, that way I could enjoy my last minutes with nature without having to focus all my energy on finding my way back. I was hopeless with directions, so I couldn't even imagine how bad it'd be if I had to make my way through this dense forest alone.

That's not to say that I was glad for his company though, I'd much rather get lost than have someone taint the forest. Even if I'd ruined it, at least I went to appreciate it, Gray was making such a racket that any birds near us had all already flown away.

When I started sensing we were getting close to the house, I'd finally had enough.

"C-can you please be quieter?"

"Huh?" He spun around to look at me in confusion, causing another flock of birds to swarm off. I wish he'd just stop, I loved hearing the small sounds of nature, but now all I could hear were his loud footsteps as he crunched nature under the souls of his shoes.

"I like listen to nature and…" This was such a horrible idea. Why had I spoken up? I hadn't done that in so long, I'd been able to bite my tongue and be a good girl. But now, why now?

"Keep going." He was encouraging me. He was telling me to give him an order despite being too much of a lowly human being. Why? I… I didn't understand.

"No i-it's nothing. Just- Nothing."

"But I want to know what you were going to tell me. It sounded interesting." I had a lot to lose in this situation. If I said no, refusing could get me hurting. If I said yes and I sounded too demanding in my choice of words, that could equally get me hurt. I had to pick between two evils, but there wasn't a lesser. Deciding that I might as well voice my opinion, I pointed at the tips of the trees which could be seen through the undergrowth.

"Look. Now that we're quiet and still, the birds are coming back." I was silent for a couple of seconds as I chose my next words carefully. "Listen. When you're not talking you can hear the birds chirping and the leaves rustling and the…" I stopped as something caught my attention. Quickly closing I leaned towards my left. When I spoke up again, my voice was practically not there. "And the soft tapping of paws against the frost of the ground. I think it's a fox." I kept my eyes closed, afraid that I'd spoken too much and he was angry now. Yet I couldn't force myself to un-tune myself. Once I started hearing, I couldn't stop.

"How can you do that?" When I heard his voice, it was like a spell being shattered, at the same time a greater one being cast. My eyes flew open, and there with hair being ruffled by the wind and gaze furtive in wonder, was Gray. I'd never seen a human being look more entrancing than he did then, with his eyes alight. Leaves and soft snowflakes were billowing around him as he stood there in shock. He looked like he saw. Like he understood all that I'd given him.

"I- I don't know." It took a couple of tries to find my voice again. I never would've thought that I'd want another person with me whilst in the forest. Now that Gray saw what I did, I couldn't help but be bewitched by him.

"No, it's not just that. It isn't that you see, it's that you made me see." He was coming closer. And with how gorgeous he was, I couldn't force myself to step away. I shouldn't be doing this, I needed to snap out of it. It was like he'd put me under a spell of some sort. All I could see was him.

"Well, I explained, that's all." Would he be angry? I thought he liked the new outlook I'd provided, but now he seemed bewildered, rather than overjoyed. Had I messed up again?

"I've never seen anything like it. I mean I've had other people try to explain nature to me before but this was…" He'd started pacing when suddenly he just stopped, pinning me down with his gorgeous brown eyes. I shouldn't be thinking of him this way, yet… It was like nature, once I started, I couldn't stop. "It was like a gift."

Hi :)

Longest chapter yet! I'm also really excited about this chapter cause it gives the first insight into Petal's gift *hint* *hint* *nudge* *nudge*

I don't have much to say, just that I'm still really thankful to all of you who are reviewing and favouriting, I love you all lots and lots :) So I hope you all like this chapter too :)

Bye bye