Vanilla Custard #5 - Haunted
Author: askingxalice
Title: Haunted
Summary: Angie isn’t a topic that they bring up, much.
Story: Phase
Timeline: 2026 - Chloe is 10, Sarah is 37. Angie would have been 39.
Challenge: Vanilla Custard #5 (I’d rather live out on the street, than in this haunted memory. - Funhouse by P!nk)
Word Count: 275
Rating: G
“What was Aunt Angie like?”
The question caused Sarah to still, her arms covered to the elbow in flour, buried to the wrist in dough that would eventually become caramel apple sticky rolls. For a moment, her hands shook, and flour sprinkled the countertops. “A lot like you, actually,” she finally answered as her hands started working the dough again. “But there are differences. You don’t have her anger.”
Chloe folded her arms on the edge of the counter, hunching over to rest her chin where they crossed. “She was angry?”
“She had every right to be. The world failed her far too many times.” Sarah kept her gaze downward, pretending to be focusing on the bowl full of sticky mess before her. Really, she didn’t want to look at Chloe, and have her niece - Her daughter, if she wanted to be horribly technical. - see her guilt. She failed Angie as many times as everyone else had. Possibly more. “And she certainly didn’t have enough moments that weren’t marred by anger, or guilt, or self loathing. I don’t think I ever saw her happy.”
“But...” Chloe paused, unsure of how to ask her next question. “She was happy, right? Sometimes?”
Sarah took a moment to answer. She finally looked up, glancing over Chloe’s head to look at pictures that lined the wall and showcased her life and her family before she settled on one that still made her heart clench. The one photo that screamed at her and told her that she was not Rayne’s first choice. If Angie was ever happy, it had never been because of Sarah. “Yes. Sometimes, she was very happy.”
Title: Haunted
Summary: Angie isn’t a topic that they bring up, much.
Story: Phase
Timeline: 2026 - Chloe is 10, Sarah is 37. Angie would have been 39.
Challenge: Vanilla Custard #5 (I’d rather live out on the street, than in this haunted memory. - Funhouse by P!nk)
Word Count: 275
Rating: G
“What was Aunt Angie like?”
The question caused Sarah to still, her arms covered to the elbow in flour, buried to the wrist in dough that would eventually become caramel apple sticky rolls. For a moment, her hands shook, and flour sprinkled the countertops. “A lot like you, actually,” she finally answered as her hands started working the dough again. “But there are differences. You don’t have her anger.”
Chloe folded her arms on the edge of the counter, hunching over to rest her chin where they crossed. “She was angry?”
“She had every right to be. The world failed her far too many times.” Sarah kept her gaze downward, pretending to be focusing on the bowl full of sticky mess before her. Really, she didn’t want to look at Chloe, and have her niece - Her daughter, if she wanted to be horribly technical. - see her guilt. She failed Angie as many times as everyone else had. Possibly more. “And she certainly didn’t have enough moments that weren’t marred by anger, or guilt, or self loathing. I don’t think I ever saw her happy.”
“But...” Chloe paused, unsure of how to ask her next question. “She was happy, right? Sometimes?”
Sarah took a moment to answer. She finally looked up, glancing over Chloe’s head to look at pictures that lined the wall and showcased her life and her family before she settled on one that still made her heart clench. The one photo that screamed at her and told her that she was not Rayne’s first choice. If Angie was ever happy, it had never been because of Sarah. “Yes. Sometimes, she was very happy.”