As soon as she heard them, she ran.

Took off like wildfire.

Down the stairs, almost tumbling.

Out the door, nearly flying.

Ran from the voices.

The whispers.

The temptations.

"Papa, I'm scared."

The small child's heart beat fast as a quicksilver. She didn't know what these voices were trying to tell her nor did she want to find out.

How she longed for her father. How she longed for him to hold her the way he always did. The whisper, "I love you." They were only three words, but to her they meant everything.

He wasn't the strongest, or handsomest, or most interesting man in history, but to her he was the world. He was struggling, a flawed being in a ruthless world, a rich man who'd lost everything, but to her, he was a king.

And she was his princess.

She couldn't give him that comfort he always needed. She couldn't give his hand a gentle, reassuring squeeze. And now she needed it herself. *

But he wasn't here anymore. She didn't remember much how it had happened, but she did remember how he looked.

His final, panic-stricken expression.

His wordlessly desperate lips, as though wanting to say for the last time, "I love you."

Doors shutting closed.

A blast of light. Heat. Fire?

She didn't know.

But that wasn't now.

Now, he was in the sky, watching over her.. oh, if her father could see her, why couldn't he help her? Why couldn't he pull her out of this dark dimension she'd never understood until now like he did before? Why wouldn't the voices stop?

As soon as she found the woods, as soon as the cool air broke into her skin, her black hair tangling with the wind, she felt calmer. Safer.

She was outside, but she was away.

Away from them.

Away from them where they couldn't tell her anything she didn't want to know. No more persuasions. No more telling her to steal. No more getting her into trouble.  Any more terrifying secrets about the man she knew as her father.

No more--

They were back again.

W H A T ' S  W R O N G ?  D O N ' T  Y O U  T R U S T  U S ?

Why should I? she wanted to scream. Why should I trust you? All you did was put me into therapy with that terrible old doctor. All you did was separate me from my father in the last few years of his life. You've done nothing but destruction in my life!

She was helpless. Unworthy. Unworthy of everything she'd ever received. That was how they made her feel. Now she was almost certain that the whole of it was true.

She screamed. Held her head. Tried to shake the voices out. Vigorously. Violently.

They had no intention of leaving her mind.

How could she escape?

She tried drowning her demons

but they knew how to swim

maybe even better than her

With the pressure of the voices, her heart heavy with grief for her father, and the white frostiness in the air, everything was more than she could bear. The little girl could only take so much.

She collapsed onto the cool grass, eyes closed, head drowning.

In a few hours, her mother would come rushing to her side, checking to see if her child was still alive.

Outside, she slept.

Inside, a mental battle was being waged.

A/N: Hi! This is the first story I've posted in about a million years. I hope you liked it! :D If you didn't understand, the basic concept of the story is a little girl who hears voices in her head. Her dad meant everything to her because the was the only one who could sort of get them under control, but he had a lot of problems with himself too, like he ended up becoming poor even if he had real potential. Anyway he died, and that just made everything worse. So the voices overwhelm her and then collapses which is a regular thing for her. It's nothing much really, just a drabble of words I put together since I'm bored. Thanks for reading! :D

PS- The title is "Hiraeth," which means a homesickness for a home that you can't return to, or a home that never was.

* Miss Hal Gibson, Fear, fanfiction.net