Safe in his arms
Publication date: 2020-18-18
Title: Safe in his arms
Type: Short fiction
Publication: The Odd Magazine
URL: https://theoddmagazine.wixsite.com/oddity21/odd-shorts
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Safe in his arms
I woke to the sound of a frosty key turning inside the lock. The wind was bashing against the thin windows and I could hear the rain’s torment against the wooden planks of the house. I laid in my bed, shrouded by my bedsheets, cowering from the tall dark presence that entered the cabin. My mother rose from her bed and stared down the figure. Her thin small frame yielding to that of the threatening shadow in the hallway.
“You?”, She asked with an uneasy quiver in her voice.
The figure stood there and I could feel its eyes looking past my mom and into my bed. I could see glinting specs in the dark,scrutinizing me and my brother who lay asleep by my side. I sat up on the bed, just behind my mom, my body trembling in the cold draft of the open door and the smell of cold, wet clothes sent shivers down my body.
“Dad?”, I whispered with a voice that almost broke.
The figure grunted and darted forwards. Slam of damp leather luggage befell the house as the large frame engulfed my mother in the dark and the cold.
“Dad?” I uttered louder, hitting my brother with an elbow to kidnap him from the slumber and wake him to my aid.
My heart raced and sweat splurged onto my pajamas as the man kneeled in front of me. I could smell cold rain and tobacco mixed with chocolate.
The words “I missed you” warmed my ears as he broke his silence with a loud whisper.
Icy lips landed on my forehead and a firm grip grasped my childish body and brought me up into the air. The duvet fell onto the small bed, where my brother still lay asleep, ignorant to the invasion of our home.
Two heavy arms, like the wings of a great eagle trapping their prey, wrapped themselves around me and crushed my white warm body.
“I missed you too” I replied and laid my heavy head on the man’s shoulders. “I missed you too, dad.”
I held back the siege of tears as an old familiar warmth filled my chest, swelling with admiration and comfort. I felt safe in his arms.