@ofathousandheartbeats
The night was dark as Lottie made her away along the streets of the new little town of Sunnydale; her family had relocated there hoping for a better life, the name was definitely enough to draw them there. It was just after the turn of the nineteenth century and she’d had high hopes that would bring a new start. Instead she and her siblings had been left abandoned by parents who had gone missing, leaving the children to care for themselves and scratch out some sort of meager living.
Coming home from her job as a housekeeper for one of the wealthier town families, Lottie wasn’t in the highest of spirits. Even with the anxiety inducing blanket of darkness that came with the late hour, it seemed she couldn’t manage to get her tired feet to go any faster than a trudge. Even the brush of linen against her legs from the brush of her uniform was exhausting in and of itself. Temples pounding from her mass of chestnut waves piled up on her head and pinned firmly into place beneath her bonnet, her flimsy cheap corset biting into her sides as it cut off most of her breath.
Tired. She was just, so tired. Focus firmly on getting home to her bed, the sound of movement off to the side didn’t even register for a moment.
