The sad Boy

Previously

…But the journey was far from over. He looked back at the imposing silhouette of the house, its windows dark and uninviting. His stepmother would wake soon, her fury unleashed. He had to keep moving. He stood, his small legs trembling, and looked out at the dark, unknown world beyond the garden walls. Fear, sharp and cold, pricked at him, but it was tempered by a burgeoning sense of freedom, a fragile bloom of hope pushing through the hardened earth of his despair. With Doggy trotting faithfully by his side, Leo turned his back on the gilded cage and stepped into the night, his future an uncertain, yet exhilarating, mystery.