The Queen

It wasn’t the first time I’d walked through these forests and it sure as hell wouldn’t be the last. After my shift at Denny's I always enjoyed a calming walk on the outskirts of the forest. I didn’t dare enter it at night for my fear of bugs would make me go insane, but tonight I needed to clear my head and think.     I wasn’t getting any younger and my life was going nowhere. I planned on going to college and living a normal life as a vet, but then I noticed that not only was I not getting any younger, I wasn’t getting any older either.      My family barely noticed what had happened to me. My body had become that of a woman at the young age of 13, and I could pass off as an adult by that time. But at the age of 16 when the curves came in, nothing remotely natural came out. I still had my cycles like any girl, but I didn’t get wrinkles, my skin was smooth, my freckles faded away, and I hated it.      I loved feeling and being beautiful, but I hated what other people made me feel as a result of that. The stares older men gave me, the glares of envy a few of my peers gave me. I loved myself but I couldn’t help but hate that other people judged me because of that.     A sigh left my lips to form a small cloud in the cool December air. My baggy clothes were all I wore to try and keep my body from showing so the cold didn’t bother me. Then again with all the raw minerals coursing through my system, no type of weather would bother me now or forever.      “Laura, you’ve been out for 10 already, shift’s in 5"! I took a quick glance at my boss, Lenny, for the past 2 months and made my way back inside. I hadn’t gone in too deep but I felt a pair of eyes on me as I strolled back inside. Although I was currently paranoid due to the insects trying to survive through the cold month, I didn’t doubt my gut that something or someone was watching me. I still continued my way inside without a look behind me.    houh  hou gyihui