trick or treat! 🧟♀️
Thanks for stopping by @adsosfraser! Have a treat!
🍬🍭🍫
From our Everlark outlander/Time-travel AU discussions, I was thinking about Jamie’s ghost(?) staring at Claire’s window at the beginning before she travels through the stones. So here’s my Appalachian version!
Peeta wakes to the crash of thunder as the overhead lights flicker out; he must have drifted off while reading. He should just go back to sleep but he’s never done well with storms before, even less so after the war.
He hadn’t heeded the proprietress’s warning when she’d said the power could be shoddy on this side of the mountain and he fumbles through the chest of drawers trying to remember which one holds the candles and matches.
With shaky hands he strikes a match, lighting the wick, quickly extinguished by the breeze from the open window. Cursing under his breath, he moves towards the fluttering curtains. He hates feeling closed in, but faced with no breeze or no light in a storm, the choice is simple.
He’s just reached the pane when a flash of lightning illuminates the town square outside and his motion stills; he could swear he just saw a figure, but anyone out in this weather must be mad!
Squinting into the darkness, the clock on the wall begins to chime. On the fourth bell, another bolt of lightning strikes impossibly close and his heart stops at the sight of the figure again: a woman, short and slight with a bow in hand, and two braids, one hanging over each shoulder.
The faint scent of honeysuckle mingles with the smell of rain and the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. He doesn’t recognize her, but somehow he knows her.
She’s lost to the darkness once more as the square falls back into darkness. Thunder rolls as he fumbles with the matches, lighting the candle and holding it close to the glass; all in vain. At the twelfth stroke of the clock, lightning strikes a large tree several yards from his window; Peeta barely notices. His eyes are trapped in the silver gray gaze of the mysterious woman and with his candle lit, she must see him too. Her hand extends towards him and he wants nothing more than to close the distance between them despite the downpour, but then the light fades and by the time it flashes again, she’s gone.
