My beloved unicorn - Contest twenty-four hour short story

I've been a quiet girl my entire life, never doing something stupid, always careful, and I think that's why I accepted his gift. My father is very enthusiastic, but I think that's why he gets so depressed sometimes, he just doesn't get enough: not enough happiness, food, love, money; so when he saw he could have something no one else had, he ran to our house to ask me if I wanted it too, he's always needed my acceptance.

-- We have an amazing opportunity, kid - he said, although I don't think I fully believed him - you like horses, right? like the ones in the house of Mr. Harvon, right? - I don't think he wanted me to answer because almost at the same time he said: well, we could have an unicorn, that's almost a horse, but better - I looked at him, trying to find a glimpse of a joke, but I just encounter his inexhaustible enthusiasm.

-- What do you mean an unicorn?

-- There's just one term.

-- What? - I said, annoyed because he did not answer my first question.

-- We just have to love it forever, and I thought "Hmm an unicorn must be easy to love, right?" so I came here.

I will always regret my following words, but I was so tired of the monotony, so bored just by thinking that my entire life would be an spiral of careful decisions and days guide by the famous monotony, so I said:

-- Well, let's try.

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We waited days for the unicorn to arrive, and eventually, he did. He walked like he wasn't beatiful at all, he seemed more like a person than I did, his shyness soprised us all. He used to let a trace behind him everytime he walked, but I never knew what it was, it always dissapeared everytime I got close to take a look at it.

We were really famous for a while and therefore we had more money than ever because everyone wanted to see our unicorn and they didn't care if they wasted a lot of money as long as they see him.

Clearly we had to take an special care of him, you don't see unicorn's food in the pet's store, and the first few months with him we loved him like crazies, I don't think I'll be able to love like I did that time, never again.

If someone asked me, what does it feel to have an unicorn? I would say that is the same like having a dog, if the unicorns existed everywhere everyone would have one and I would never had to answer that stupid question again. The thing is, no one actually cared about my unicorn they just were so tired of their own lives that they needed to see something new, like my father, and me.

Selfish, is the word that describes this story.

The thing is, it doesn't matter how much you love someone, if they get hurt they'll feel sad and that's what happened with my unicorn, we loved him the whole time he spent with us, but what could we do with the other people that were so anxious to touch him that they even steal him from home? We had to move out several times, my father, the unicorn, and I, but they always found us.

I regret having my unicorn, because he suffered like any ordinary animal of the circus, he was just an entertainment for everyone except for me. That's why it was so difficult to follow the terms of this deal, we will never love him the way he needed to be loved. I should have moved to a field, away from everybody but I dind't want to leave society, I've always been so quiet... I didn't love him enough.

So as he arrived, he left one day, he didn't walk this time, we found him lay down in the grown, barely breathing and looking something with his eyes, I understood later that he just wanted to see our faces one last time. We caress him for hours, and skip some meals because we didn't wanted to leave him alone, on his only death. He was more human than me, he suffered more than me and I like to think that he was more happy than me, before, when we were only three people, under a zink ceiling, playing and smiling because nothing in the world existed further than there, than my unicorn.

He died in my arms, like we all do, I didn't saw him born but I saw him die. I cried for days, months, even a glance of his memory made me stayed in bed for days, and now, after years of his first steps in the yard of my house, I remember him like if he was here, with me, in my arms, but this time because we hug, not because of his death.

I never knew who was the person that made that deal with my father, I believe was someone evil or very wise, because I know that when he/she talked to my father, he knew that we could never love that unicorn, because love it's not just about the feeling, but it is also about what we do, and we didn't do anything to save him from his disgrace.

They took my unicorn after his death, probably to a lab to examine him, and now it is on a museum. Sometimes me and my father appear on the television as the people that once had an unicorn. I'd like those people to dissapear forever. My unicorn is no longer his free spirit, his kindness, his innocence, is some exhibition, dissected for everyone to delight.

I always regret accepting that unicorn, I didn't deserve him, this world didn't deserve him.

I have to go now, the entrance of the museum just closed and I don't have time to keep telling my story, I'll take my unicorn and leave him on the fealds, where he belongs.

Goodbye, and remember, if someone wants to give you an unicorn, don't take it, you'll always owe it to him.

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This is my entry for the contest Writers win 5 Steem! Aug 7 Twenty-four hour short story contest--A rancher makes a deal to give his daughter wants she really wants a real live unicorn. But what were the terms of the deal?.

Hope is good enough, if not, it was a very good excercise, I had so much fun doing it altough I was in a rush.

Thank you for reading.