My throat felt tight. She said my name. She must be really tired because I hadn’t heard her say my name for what felt like a long time.
“Go ahead and take a nap. I’ll wake you when we get there.”
I thought that she had fallen asleep, but she mumbled something. Maybe she was dreaming. Her voice was too low, and I couldn’t hear her. And then she said it again.
“I missed you too.”
As I drove farther away from the city, the heavy, black cloud that had been following me dissolved. The last time I felt this good was the last time she’d smiled at me, weeks ago.
I glanced down at the woman beside me. She was sleeping and snoring lightly. And I realized why all the bad stuff seemed to be pushed away. It wasn’t because we were going far from the city, but because she was right beside me.
She’d been the reason all along.
* * *
My heart jerked in my chest as I slowed down on the street of my childhood. A very short part of my childhood, but the one that would always be a part of me. The one that changed me.
“Are we there?” she asked.
She’d woken up ten minutes ago and had been sipping the now-cold coffee I bought for her at the service station. It was ten minutes past six in the evening now, but it was still a little bright outside.
I nodded, gauging the reaction on her face as I pressed a small square remote and the gates opened. They opened smoothly, soundlessly. They were the first thing I’d installed. I wanted protection for it. A symbol to everyone that someone now owned the place.
I pulled up the long, winding driveway and pressed the remote again to close the gate behind us. I had planted huge pine trees on both sides of the driveway and all around the property a few years ago. They’d grown tall and wide, and not only served as protection, but as walls from the outside, hiding the place from passersby. I’d posted PRIVATE PROPERTY and NO TRESPASSING signs all along the old, black iron fence.
“Wow. It looks like we’re going to visit a vampire,” she said excitedly.
“Could be werewolves too.”
“Really?” she chuckled. “It’s so…secluded. What is this place? Who owns it?”
“I do.”
“What?”
“I bought this place a few years ago. As soon as I saved enough money for it.”
“Really? Someday I want to buy my own place too. Maybe even something like this if I won the lottery. How much did you—Omigod, is that…? Wow.” She goggled. I wondered what she thought of it. “I don’t think I’ve ever been inside a mansion before. Are we going inside? It’s haunted, isn’t it? We should definitely go inside. Hurry up.”
I chuckled. She looked like an excited little girl about to open her presents. I didn’t know what reaction I’d expected from her, but I never thought she’d be delighted to see it.
It was a derelict manor. I had only started fixing it. I’d had it since forever, but I’d always put off repairing it.
But when I’d left her, I started like a madman.
“Can we take a look at it later?” I asked. “I want to show you something first.”
“You mean there’s something more interesting than this?”
“Yeah,” I said. “I’ll show you.”
“It better be good, Bigfoot.”
I smiled at her and she smiled back.
I kept driving, following the paved road that led behind the mansion. Here, the trees were thicker and older. The paved road turned into a narrow gravel path until we reached a clearing. And then it gave way to a large open backfield.
There in the middle of it stood a small modern cabin. I’d renovated it over the years. It had been the gamekeeper’s cottage before and wasn’t in as bad a condition as the mansion, but I wanted to put my stamp on it. I had ripped everything out and started with bare bones.