Lucy looks confused, biting the corner of her lip as she stares up at his lack of face. “Should I?” Why was he looking for her? Nothing like him had shown up in any of Matron’s stories, or the ones from her prison Aunts; she would have remembered if she’d heard something similar.
“I d-don’t know,” the creature replied. “I don’t even I know why I’m here. I keep having this -” He’d been about to say ‘having this urge to look for children’, but realized how horribly creepy that would sound. “I guess I just hoped you might have some clue.”
Then, it happened. Instinct took over.
Before he could stop himself, the creature swooped down and wrapped his long arms around Lucy in what was meant to be a friendly hug.
She had been about to answer, mouth already open, when he moves in closer that quickly and grabs hold of her. Eyes wide, Lucy is absolutely still except for her breathing as she stares at the man holding onto her.
Was he trying to hug her? She didn’t know, but the contact had been so sudden that she didn’t know how to react at first, couldn’t react now without it looking strange. “Um…”
As he realized what he’d done, the creature pulled away quickly, his face turning grape-purple with embarrassment. “S-sorry! I’m so sorry! I don’t know what came over me!” He waited in horror to see how the girl would react. If she ran away screaming, he wouldn’t blame her at all.
Jack Maple 