Abandoned House || Prompt
Time: Wednesday October 23rd, 4:35 pm
Location: Abandoned House - Storybrooke, Maine
Prompt
Kaleb walked down the hallway. It was a terrible-looking house. Luckily it wasn’t his own, but he felt as if it were pretty damn close. He had accidentally found a way into the long-abandoned house by chasing his kitten, Kion. However, he was currently not thinking about the cat anymore. The way the house looked got him thinking how, in a way, this sort of decay was what came after the family gives up on a home and leaves. He couldn’t help but wonder whether he was wrong to judge his own house. It had never appeared as a home, after all, to the boy, and there was no sign of changing that any time soon thanks to the problematic relationship he had with his parents.
The boy wandered further in, eventually entering a small nursery that was no longer furnished but had clear evidence of it being the room of a young child. The walls had fun, colorful wallpaper on it, and the dust had settled in a way that it was evident that a crib had dominated the center of the room years before. Such a room actually got Kaleb thinking even more; he fantasized about his mother’s hopes for him while she looked down on him inside a crib. Had he ever been in one? Did his mother actually smile while looking down upon him? While it was something his mind had never wondered about, now he couldn’t help but have the desire to ask about it. But, to be honest, it felt as if there was nobody to ask.
Kion’s purr removed the boy’s head from such thoughts, making him turn around and smile at the creature. He kneeled and waited for him to run up, before picking him up as if he were a baby. “Why do you keep running off?” Kaleb asked, smiling at the creature. He thought, for a few seconds, that it would be wonderful if Kion grew up to be something other than a cat; maybe he’d decide he wanted to be a dog instead, or a lion. Then Kaleb would be able to support him and help him with whatever he needed, unlike what was going on in his life at the moment. At the same time, he wondered if Saxon would think the same thing, or if he’d forcefully try to turn him into a cat, not unlike what he attempted to do with his son. Would Zyra be the same way? It was hard to tell. Truth be told, she was the most mysterious of all, because it sometimes felt like she actually cared for her son.
Kaleb shrugged the thoughts away as Kion playfully clawed at the hair falling on his neck. He walked out of the nursery and looked around, trying to find his way back to the exit, before deciding to make his way down the hallway again. Eventually, they were back outside, and the decision was made to never approach that house again. It wasn’t fun.
