Welcome Home [24 hour short story challenge]

Entry for the latest 24 hour short story contest and a shout out to all the people who believed in me for writing this. I may not have done it without your encouragement, you mean the world to me <3

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“Ruby! Ruby stop, that’s not yours!” The little girl called after the flash of red scales that disappeared around a corner, quickly giving chase down the hallway just outside her parents room. She’d heard sounds in there and had the thought to go surprise them with her latest crayon drawing of the family, Ruby included, but instead found the tiny dragon sifting through a jewlery box and making off with several shiny things found within. She didn’t know what they were, but they were in a place she’d been told not to touch and she knew her mommy would be mad if she found it a mess with things missing.

Trying to catch the dragon when she didn’t want to be, however, would be impossible. In a flash Ruby had opened up a vent in the floor and disappeared down it, leaving the girl with a pout on her face as she tried to stick her arm down there to see if she could grab the dragon regardless and ended up with a handful of nothing.

“Elizabeth!” The name rang out in the momentary silence like a shock of thunder after a lightning flash, and the girl winced before withdrawing her arm and heading back to her parents room.

“Yes mommy?” Elizabeth poked her head around the corner of the door, trying as best as her young self could to play like she didn’t know why her mother had called her name so harshly.

“What is this?” The older woman had one hand on her hip and the other pointing to the open jewlery box.

“It wasn’t me! Ruby took your things, I was trying to get her to give them back!” Elizabeth protested straight away, trying to hide a little further behind the door frame out of fear.

“Elizabeth that is enough! You are too old to have an imaginary friend, and too old to be blaming your misbehavior on one. Now come here.” The woman scowled, pointing to her side and watching the girl with intense eyes as she slowly slunk forward to the appointed spot and stood there, head hung low.

“I’m sorry mommy.” She kept her eyes on the ground, trying not to cry. She got beatings when she cried.

“You’re not sorry you did it, you’re sorry you got caught. Now you will stand there while I clean this up and when your father comes home you will be punished. Do you understand?” The words were harsh, making Elizabeth bite her lip to stop herself from getting into worse trouble.

“Yes mommy.” It fell from her lips like bile, but she stayed silent as her mother cleaned up and rearranged the jewlery and took inventory of what was missing.

That night, Elizabeth cried alone in her room. Her back hurt and her stomach rumbled as she’d been sent to bed without dinner for taking some very important and expensive things from hter mother’s jewlery box. Even though she was locked in, the little vent in the corner rattled a moment before Ruby’s head poked out and watched for a long minute before crawling over to comfort the little girl. Elizabeth screamed and pushed the dragon off the bed with what little strength she had left, curling up in a ball and crying some more. Still Ruby persisted, climbing back up and providing as much warmth and comfort as she could including a sort of purring noise to say she was sorry for getting her human in trouble.

After that day, however, Elizabeth stopped insisting she had a pet dragon. Ruby no longer appeared in her drawings, she never talked about the dragon again, and while Ruby visited the visits became less frequent and eventually just stopped. Whatever worry Elizabeth’s parents had that she was acting out for some reason also abated as there were no more incidents of misbehavior.

When her parents died Elizabeth moved back into the house. It was in desperate need of rennovation, however, as much of the furnishings and major home appliances were out dated, and rather than hire someone to do the work she set about doing so with her husband, Jack. By now memories of Ruby were distant, and Elizabeth was convinced that her parents were right; she’d made up a dragon pet to ease the lonliness of not having an actual pet or any siblings. Yet when they opened up one wall in her old bedroom to redo much of the wiring and the old walls themselves both found something surprising, something that made Elizabeth tear up and put a hand over her mouth.

Inside the wall was a nest made of old clothes Elizabeth had given Ruby to curl up in and keep warm with. The section of wall they had pulled out and a few other bits were decorated with her crayon drawings of the family with Ruby or just of Ruby in general, like a proud mother hanging them on the fridge. Shiny bits like bottle caps and metal that were gifts from human to dragon lined one side, piled up in a tiny hoard along with some spare change and other things of similar nature that Ruby had found around the house.

“Huh, you never told me you had a secret base in the walls as a kid. How did you even get in here? I don’t see a door or anything.” Jack poked his head in, looking around and too curious to notice the expression on his wife’s face.

Elizabeth thought about telling him the truth, but the same day kept replaying in her head as the scars on her back ached with the memory. So she shook her head and straightened up, wiping away the tears so she wouldn’t cry.

“There was a door, but it looks like my parents might have replaced that section of the wall when I moved out. Probably found it and just wanted to seal it up, I’ve told you before how harsh they were on me when I was a kid.” Elizabeth shrugged, reaching past Jack to start taking the drawings down.

“Yeah. I don’t blame you for cutting contact with them and not wanting to come back here until after they’d both passed.” Jack shook his head, taking a moment to press a gentle kiss to Elizabeth’s lips since she’d pulled her mask down for a moment. “But hey, if they hadn’t we never would have met and I wouldn’t have the most beautiful woman in the world as my wife.” He teased, grinning as the words elicited a smile from her.

“Stop it, we have serious work to do.” She giggled, giving him a playful shove. The memories were forgotten for the moment as the little nest was cleaned up and moved away so they could continue working.

That night Elizabeth couldn’t sleep. Jack snored peacefully next to her, deep in his own dreams, but she stared at the ceiling and had to wonder. Finally she pulled herself up, careful not to disturb her husband, and made her way down to the kitchen to put on some water and make a cup of tea. Sitting at the table she fiddled with her wedding ring, nervously waiting until she heard the familiar sound of a vent opening and caught the flash of red out of the corner of her eye.

Welcome home, Elizabeth.

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