Little Girl Lost [Micra]

When Astatine woke up that morning and saw the cloth wrapped container still on the table in the kitchen she couldn’t help but smile. Her father forgot his lunch almost two out of the six days a week he worked. He was silly and scatterbrained when he wasn’t focused on his work which made him all the more loveable. Delivering his lunch to the lab was one of the few times that she actually enjoyed leaving their decently sized house and entering into the world beyond the walls. The trip to the lab gave her no trouble that day. When she arrived she was greeted by a few of his coworkers who knew her, but none where as exuberant as the scruffy blonde haired man who had raised her; he called her sweetie and darling while thanking her for ‘rescuing this lunch from the greedy claws of your brother’. She was sure her older brother Joule, who took after her father, wouldn’t have eaten that much. After a silent nod, a small smile and a kiss on the forehead Astatine was off once again to weather the twenty minute trip on the streets home.

That, of course, didn’t go as planned, which was why the petite girl was now completely lost. One wrong turn, that was all it took to set her off track. With her horrid sense of direction she only found herself deeper and deeper into foreign stretches of town. With a new book that her father had asked her to return to his study close to her chest for support she casually roamed the streets, searching for some hint or sign as to where she was. There were not many people out on the streets at that particular time in the afternoon, which made it easier for her. She wasn’t bumping into people left and right and being forced to spurt apologies left and right, she didn’t even know how her voice was sounding today. And lastly, she didn’t have to worry about the onslaught of panic attacks she had when a peacekeeper was near.

It had been several hours since she had left the house. Astatine frowned thoughtfully and looked up at the sky. In about an hour the sun would be setting. That was not good. Her tritanopia, an eye condition that made it so that she could only see the color red, made it almost impossible to see during sunset when everything seemed to be the same dark shade of red. Shadows moved within shadows of red and it terrified her. She hadn’t been outside during sunset for a very long time. ‘This is ridiculous…’ She thought to herself as her legs began to cramp. A tremor of fear raced through her body as she contemplated the prospects of spending the night alone in a foreign part of the district while her brothers and father were looking for her. It wasn’t fair to them how much of a burden she constantly was.

Tears finally started to run down her face as she hid her nose behind the book, the only protection she had was a book and not a very thick book at that. If she was found by someone who wanted to hurt her she had no chance. Astatine choked back a quiet sob. Soon enough she found a very low wall on the side of the road that acted as a barrier to shield the grass from pedestrians, wherever she was at least the grass was nice. She sat on the grassy side of the battered wall which only went to her elbows sitting down; perhaps it was once a foundation? Clutching her arms and legs close to herself she wept behind the shield of the book, waiting patiently for her family to find her.