No Place Like Home

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𝔑𝔬 𝔓𝔩𝔞𝔠𝔢 𝔏𝔦𝔨𝔢 ℌ𝔬𝔪𝔢

"Erina." Apprehensively she viewed her daughter. She stood with backside to her by the room's 4-story ajar window with a careless demeanor. 

"Erina, I believe I am speaking to you." 

Erin rotated around with a wad of ties and shirts in her claws. "Mother." Her smile was slow to rise.

"What…are you-are you doing?" she stuttered with a knotted tongue.

"What does it look like I'm doing?" Erin replied, chucking an article of men's clothing out the window.

"Are you…." She could barely formulate the words without welling up with frustration. "Are you throwing out Sir Reynold's personals?"

With ease, Erin hurled out a pair of pants and a journal out the bedroom window. "That's correct."

"Why?" She rubbed her temples. "Why-why…why are doing this?"

"That fat aged man, Raymond or Raynes or whatever--."

"--Sir Reynolds," she stressed.

"Yes, yes, him." Erin turned away from her mother to toss another item out the window, which landed with a crack. "I finally returned home after so long. And I was so, so, so happy to be here. But then suddenly, I saw that fat potbellied man---a stranger, in my home, and my happiness was shattered. How could I get comfortable when that man was all over me, drooling and praising me like a dog wags its tail? It. Was. Sickening." She turned back to glance at her mother. "Sickening."

With clenched teeth, Lady Sutherton's face twisted in writhing pain as her daughter continued speaking with emphatic animation.

"I just couldn't do it, Mother. I absolutely couldn't stand his desperate bootlicking. He kept asking me about Father, our estate, and subtle questions about our money. By the heavens, it was annoying. Obviously, it was a bit hard to stand him or it. So?"

She sent another item flying out the window. "I informed him he must leave this estate within the next hour, or I would make him leave. He didn't believe it, and well? Here we are, a Sutherton never breaks their vow." Momentarily, she paused, peering at her mother. "Or at least some of us don't."

"Erin." Her mother wore a stone frown. "Reynolds was supposed to---."

"--Too late for any of that now, the man left running with his tail between his legs, whining and fussing like a child."

THUD!

She sent another object out and it smashed to the ground outside. "So much for someone who's from a 'long line of renowned domestic workers'. He could barely contain his anger and, well?" She was intoxicated with amusement. "You've seen the results, mother."

"Erin." Her lips were trembling. "You can't just do that. Things were perfectly fine and calm before you---."

"--Before I what?"

CRASH!

There was another loud crash.

"Before you did all of this!" Her mother threw her hands around.

"This?" She raised her brow. "You mean before I---." She stopped to pause, placing her hand on her chest. "--Settled myself back home and successfully got a stranger to leave our estate?"

"That is not what I'm saying, Erin."

SLAM!

Another item went flying out the window.

"Then I don't know what you are saying." She shrugged, batting her lashes before snatching up another piece of Reynold's leftover belongings. The stolen artifact was a leather book she beheld with childlike glee. "Oh, goodies! A diary!" 

"Erina, when I told you to get settled in, I didn't mean do all of this." She scanned the disorganized room, her voice sinking into exhaustion. "Plus, Reynolds was not a stranger he was---."

"--To me, he wasn't," she sang, skimming through the pages of the diary. "Oh? What do we have here?" She read with a wide grin.

"Erina, I understand you might be perhaps…mad or frustrated about 'certain things', but please, don't cause a scene the moment you get back. We don't need getting your father getting angry while he's handling such important business."

"Mad?" She cast a side-eye at her mother. "I'm not mad, mother. I'm acting normal as you asked me to."

She pressed her lips together, struggling to remain calm. "But you are causing a commotion. A mess."

"My dearest love, Batesy," Erin said, reading the diary out loud and purposively ignoring her mother. "Oh, how I vie to see you once I return. I am heartbroken to travel so far from you. But once---."

"--Erin."

"--Once I am finished with my business in the countryside doing work for--."

"Erina."

"--the Great Suthertons, I promise to make my way back you---."

"Erina!" 

"--For I long to hold you in my arms and cup my hands around your supple---." Her eyes widened. "Well, how scandalous." She shut the diary closed. "Seems like the old bugger wasn't that old." She scoffed, before chucking the book out of the window

THUD!

Clearly unsatisfied, she continued searching for more things to wreck and damage, which coincidentally, was making Lady Sutherton burn red. 

"Erina, you are not listening to me! Stop all of this right now! Doing things like this, you're disturbing the peace!"

"Disturbing the peace?" She wrapped her claws around a lamp, haughtily scoffing. "Don't you know? There exists no peace without its contrary."

Her mother swallowed thick air. "That is no excuse to create discord!"

"Sure." She laughed, tossing the lamp out as if were weightless like a feather.

"Erina!"

"Mother?" she tauntingly parroted back.

"Stop this right now!" Her bellow nearly rumbled the walls.

Erin stopped, and locked eyes with the shrieking woman. "Oh, Lady Sutherton, do you not have any sympathy? Look how you're scaring the service workers." She lowered her voice, fabricated concern welling in her eyes as she cast her sight to look down upon the maids. "They're just trying to do their jobs here and you're yelling bloody murder."

The mass of maids cleaning up the chaotic mess worked diligently to remove persistent stains and damaged furniture. But the constant dedicated sounds of scrubbing, dusting, and wiping barely could mask their mixed emotions and anxiety.

Erin surveyed them. Every millisecond her eyes landed, it weighed on the unfortunate recipient like a boulder. She could see the panicked and nervous glances, the jitter in their arms, and the fret in their worried faces. She knew their concentration wavered and waned as she scintillatingly stared down upon them.

She knew, and so her smile grew.

Clenching her jaw, Lady Sutherton briefly glanced around before settling her eyes back to her daughter. "I don't mean to get so heated, but I need you to stop this. Please."

For a moment, frozen in time, the two shared stifling stares.

After a short time of silence, Erin folded her arms over her chest and sighed. "Fine. I'll stop."

"Thank you." She released a deep breath of relief.

"Of course, mother." She smiled, unfolded her arms, picked up a small ottoman foot chair, and flung it out the window with all of her might.

BAM!

"Good thing I've just finished."

The frown dented her mother's face.

Dusting her hands off with a satisfied challenging stare, she grinned and walked toward her mother. "You know, I haven't been feeling like myself these past few weeks. But coming back home, I think I'm feeling more like myself again. Isn't that a beautiful thing?"

Lady Sutherton swallowed down hard, finding no words left on her dry tongue. She watched quietly as her daughter sauntered into the hall with a pompous sway.

"I think it really is true as they say. It's good to be home!" Erin shouted, letting her voice be known throughout the house.

𝕾𝖍𝖆𝖑𝖑 𝖜𝖊 𝖈𝖔𝖓𝖙𝖎𝖓𝖚𝖊?