ORPHAN aka Violet Haired Girl

I FELT warmth. Closure. This was it. Finally. I'm here. Home. I pulled up my suitcases after paying the cab driver and wishing him a safe trip home. The bags were heavy, containing most of my assets I had to bring back with me. Us college students were sent home because of COVID and I was pretty glad because I missed my grandmother dearly. The cobblestone steps were covered in footprints which meant grandmum was not too long outside. I smiled and knocked the old oak door, waiting impatiently for the woman who raised me to open the door. The door opened with a click and there stood a smiling face, golden skin and white-haired old woman. "Ohh, Violet!" She smiled and embraced me into a hug. Everyone called me Violet, but my birth name is Remi. The first person to call me Violet was my grandmother after my parents were killed from murder. They locked me in a sandbox, so my grandmother said. A wolf found me and carried me to her cottage, which is now my home. And the only home I've ever remembered. I've never met my parents, but from stories I've heard from my past grandfather, they seemed to be involved in very wicked things. Some months after I was taken into my grandparents home, they noticed my hair was turning violet and so they carried me to a 'special doctor', so they said. I was different, said I could connect with animals involved in my past. I still don't know what that meant but my grandparents sure did and kept it secret. A night, when I was about nine years, my grandfather set out to the woods for some business and never came back. Some days later, a tapping was heard on the back, glass door. My grandmother held a strange face, one that was hard to differentiate between anger and a wave of worry. She commanded that I stayed in my room, but I didn't. My grandparents had been acting funny since the day they found out I had been growing violet hair, so I had to know at least why they were. I waited till she left to sneak out, which I wish I hadn't. I found a pack of wolves surrounding my grandmother who held a black wolf, his eyes wide open and breathless. What haunted me was not the image I saw, but the scream she gave as the moon shined down upon them. ━━━ "So tell me, how was it over there?" My grandmother asked as she sat me a bowl of oats. I was not too long settled in from my travel, unpacked and well-rested. It was the day after I came back home and it felt as if I never left. I smiled at her "It was interesting." I put a spoonful of oats in my mouth. She smirked, "Any boys?" I raised an eyebrow at her, "No, ma'am." "So you're gay?" I choked on my oats and looked at her to make sure she was kidding, but no expression was shown on her face. "No granny." I finally replied. "Y'know," she stared me in the eye, "Your mother had a friend who was a lesbian. I wonder what became of her. She was a sweet little thing." She said and took a sip of her tea after her little ramble. I chuckled and shook my head. Gosh, I missed her. I looked across at the opened window which portrayed a scenery of the green woods, so big, you can get lost in it if you kept walking. I was never allowed in the woods up to this day but I was determined to go explore it during my stay. Grandmum saw me eyeing the woods and shut the curtains. My frown was clearly visible. Years and years of keeping the secret that I saw the wolves and her that night, I tried understanding why grandmum screamed, and why grandfather never came back. After she settled down, I noticed her order the wolves to do something and they understood, as if they were almost human. She began to make her way back into the house and I quickly made my way down the hall and to my room, where I picked up a book and pretended to read. I didn't think she had noticed my disobedience for she entered my room and tucked me in for sleep, looking depressed. Since that day, she had been telling me that the woods is a dangerous place and that I was banned from it. I had been asking myself, 'What wolves got to do with my ban from the woods?', until one day. It was my first day of Secondary and my class and I were learning about the woods and the past while the teacher spoke, the children kept eyeing me and whispering to each other about my hair. I thought it was normal to have violet coloured hair, but I guessed wrong. My teacher continued the lesson saying, "For years, the humans and wolves were once one until the Irish took over and our peace," "Some strange things happened that no one seemed to figure out and some families were never able to see their sons and daughters again. They say that the wolves had eaten them or the Irish murdered them but others believed that the sons and daughters became one of the wolves for the packs increased their numbers." "The Leader of all the packs was found dead about eight years ago and the wolves were never to be seen again. The Irish banned the village from the woods for it was cursed." My teacher said in a spooky voice, making the kids of my class laugh. But I didn't laugh, because realisation hit me, that my grandfather died eight years ago. And why grandmum hadn't allowed me to know more about the wolves whenever I asked. 977 words