Untravelling

Untravelling is the fourth story in The Yellow Butterflies. It details a traveller who finds herself entangled in the mystery of a strange family. It is the second-earliest story in Act One, being set in the 1800s.
A PDF of the story's current draft can be found here.
The following sections contain spoilers. Read at your own risk.
== Plot Overview ==
A traveller (referred to only as the Traveller) rides horseback along a lamplit path in autumn. While passing under a bridge, she meets a young girl named Mia, who seems dishevelled and dirty, and gives her a ride home. At the house, an old building with obscured windows atop a hill, Mia disappears inside, and the Traveller is invited in by her father, as it is late.
After bathing, the Traveller goes to dinner with Mia's family. The dinner is tense, and the Traveller begins to unravel the story - the family had a daughter, who was killed in a horrible accident after being dumped at the bridge by her no-good boyfriend. Suspecting supernatural activity, the Traveller inquires if this was Mia, but the parents assert that it was another daughter, Ruby. They ask the Traveller to fetch Mia from her room.
Mia denies knowing the Traveller, or that she was picked up by the bridge earlier, which confuses the Traveller. Out of curiosity, the Traveller goes to peek inside of Ruby's room, but is shoved inside violently by Mia, who locks her in and damages two of her fingers by slamming the door on them. The Traveller is attacked and killed by a grotesque, mutilated beast, implied to be the reanimated and monstrous corpse of Ruby, who is being sustained by sacrifices from her family.
Mia takes the Traveller's clothing to be burnt, before sitting by the table with her family, who seem distant and cold, like strangers.
== Characters ==
* The Traveller - The protagonist. A loner type, always travelling. Kinda gay.
* Mia - A mysterious young girl. Suspected to be a ghost, not a ghost.
* Ruby - The dead daughter. Being kept alive by some monstrous power.
* Mia's family - A once-loving family now estranged by their atrocities.
* Horse - Fate unknown.
== Trivia ==
* This story marks the second use of the double-twist, first seen in Snowmobiles.
* The doctor who declared Ruby to be dead, Clarence Gabriel, is referred to in Manning's Meats, by Inspector Candle when describing instances of the yellow butterflies.
Category:Written Pieces
Category:Rhiannon H works
Category:Stories in The Yellow Butterflies