Into the Night

{New} Ch. 9 : Home Sweet Home

Calla's lips flatlined at the sight of the house before him.

"I can barely hear myself think with how loud that paint is."

There were many strange things to say about the manor, but two stuck out. One was its placement between two suburban houses that were identical to the rest in the neighborhood. (As if the cookie-cutter houses had surrounded the manor like a pack of hyenas.) Then there was the color of it. Over the years his aunt had painted it green, orange, purple, and pink.

After the last divorce she settled on a thick layer of black. Maybe her sister had the right idea. Maybe she should start mourning the love she lost, instead of searching for another? Lily hadn't planned the last coat, it was a spur of the moment decision. Slivers of the past paint jobs peeked through the black and the brush marks were choppy.

The courtyard walls hadn't even been painted.

"Just because you're gay doesn't mean you're an authority on decorating."

Lily squirmed behind her grate covered window. She sat at an odd angle and couldn't wait to break free. Her left shoulder was pressed against a sticky backpack and her elbow against a damp cardboard box.

"Whatever you say..." Calla trailed off.

His eyes drifted from the colorful manor to the colorless apple tree in the front yard. It grew left of the manor and it's branches reached impossibly high. As if longing to take its place among the clouds. It's bark matched that of sea bleached driftwood, not a tree with ruby red apples peaking through the leaves.

Calla turned back to his aunt.

"You're rich?"

"I prefer the term financially independent."

"You're rich, yet you gave me a Red Lobster gift card for Christmas last year?"

"Yeah. And?"

"An expired," Calla added, "Red Lobster gift card."

Lily shifted restlessly in the back, but spoke normally.

"Look, I'm gonna level with you. That was a last minute gift. I forgot Christmas was, well a thing. That was just what was in my purse when I went to the post office and oh my gosh we're here, lets get out before I punch a window. "

The police cruiser came to a stop just as Lily kicked the door open. She stormed off to the front gate leaving her nephew and the officer alone together.

"I guess that concludes our journey," Ash announced. He turned from the wheel to see him off. His body strained against the seat belt and really the car itself. He barely fit inside the cruiser.

"Oh knowing my aunt I'm sure this is only the beginning... "

Calla watched as she struggled to pull the large metal gate open. She shook it violently until deciding to climb over.

"She does live here, right?"

"No, I, an officer of the law, am aiding and abetting a criminal."

Calla stopped for a second to process his words.

"Was that sarcastic?"

Ash's grinned, but Calla could tell he was hoping that he was amused. When he realized he wasn't, he sorta panicked.

"Yeah, I was joking. Didn't you get that from the way I said it?"

"No, it sounded exactly the same as how you're speaking right now. "

Ash's jaw dropped slightly as he tried to recall the last time he tried to joke around.

"Oh god. How many times did people think I was being serious?"