The Visitor

"Bridget!" I heard my mother call as I shoved my hand into mud, retreating the dirty ring I thought I had lost. The ants I was currently stepping on began to get aggressive as they crawled on my small feet and began to bite at me for stepping over their house. "Bridget!!"

"Coming mother!" I yelled out as I shoved my ant infested leg into the mud, drowning the ants along with it. I took it out in a moment only to frown when all I could see was a muddy foot. I ran to the river close by, knowing my mother would slap the sense into me if I showed back home covered in dirt and messing up her wooden floors and carpets.

'You're twelve years old'. She had once said. 'Stop being a child, you are growing up and sooner or later, boys will start coming for you. If you look hideous like you always do, you will end up being lonely'.

Most of the girls in our village got married at fifteen, their courtship always start at twelve or slightly more. The boys to marry weren't old men like the villages spread out the world. Unless the man was sticking rich, the age limit to marry off a fifteen year old was if the boy is no more than twenty. But if she were eighteen or nineteen, she could marry any age at all. Even younger.

"Bridget!"

"I said I was coming!" I yelled in anger now as I washed off the mud. I decided it was best not to upset this woman any longer. I got up and padded towards the house in my plastic shoes drenched in water.

I spotted the house as I left the forest only to freeze when I spotted a black chariot at the face of the house with very exquisite white and black horses. I furrowed my brows as I slowed down, walking to the front of the house.

I spotted my mother first, smiling as though she was being interrogated for stealing old Mr Hawkins' chickens.

She glanced at me and her eyes grew wide with happiness as she ran to me and grabbed my wrist, yanking me forward, nearly tripping along the way.

"This is Bridget. I hope she's the girl you're looking for." She said as I tried to stand from her running. Her legs were long compared to mine and I wasn't as athletic as anyone, making it hard to fall into pace with her.

She finally came to a stop and held my shoulders for me to stand straight. I glanced up at the man in front of me. He was handsome, easy to point out at first glance. His jawline was perfectly defined and so were most of his features, but they were all in proportion, not too skinny and not too chubby. He had an athletic build of the body, I could tell from the cartoons I watched at Angela's place, they had his sort of body shape.

He was wearing a black stacked in T-shirt with little waves all over it and black jeans with black shoes to match.

Black office shoes.

Those shoes were mostly worn by the rich folks in this village, not many could afford leather office shoes. Many wore sandals and plastic flip-flops.

Beside him was a man slightly taller than he was, well dressed in a butler's uniform. I knew this from Angela's place. She was stinking rich and her parents could afford her a personal butler to help her with anything she wanted.

"This is Helios." My mother said as she placed her hand on my shoulder and squeezed it tightly. "Son of the Petersons and the only son." I frowned at my mother as I glared at her, knowing too well what this was about.

She was selling me off.

"He's come all the way from the city to take you." She smiled with excitement and I crossed my arms in anger.

"I'm twelve." I said angrily. "He's older. Very much older!"

"He's only twenty five!" My mother yelled in anger as she smacked the back of my head.

"I'm supposed to marry not less than twenty!" I said as I grabbed her apron and began to tag at it, making her legs wobbly.

"Oh Bridget!" She said as she smacked my head again, this time slightly harder for me to let go. "He's rich, he'll buy you things you don't have!"

"I don't care." I said as I crossed my arms and glared at the man that smiled at me instead. "He's creepy."

"Bridget!" She yelled and before she could smack my head, I left off, running back into the woods, not wanting to marry an older guy when I was just twelve.

It was against the law.....

I think....

I rubbed the back of my hand against my cheeks as I heard my mother countlessly yell out my name in fury . I didn't stop until I reached my hiding spot, a good distance away from the house and hid inside an old hallow tree that had a large gaping hole on the side, large enough for me to fit through.

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