The Bewitching - Book 1

Chapter 12 - House of Fantasy

Just as she had feared, the ride had proven to be long and quiet. She had made several attempts to break the ice without much success. At most he’d grunt or groan at her questions before nodding or shaking his head. Somehow he had even pulled it off on the questions that normally would have required more than a simple yes or no.

Even the directions to his house were signaled with a low grunt and a pointing towards the next road to take when they came upon one. She was starting to become increasingly frustrated with him and his childish behavior to the point that she thought maybe dealing with whatever dangers may have awaited for her at her house would have been easier to handle.

The road ahead was extremely dark, just as it had been for the last several miles. There were no lights in sight on either side of the road, let alone a curb or shoulder to pull over to. If it wasn’t for her headlights they’d be completely engulfed in the shadows of the night.

Finally, after almost forty five minutes of driving in silence her irritation with him began to boil over. If harmless, light, attempting to break the ice, type questions weren’t going to get him to willingly speak to her again, then she’d force him to talk to her, or at least get him to explain what his problem was. It’s not like she wasn’t trying to be nice to make up for her outburst earlier. The least he could do is meet her attempts half way instead of holding his grudge like a two year old child, she thought to herself.

She briefly looked in his direction, and without a second thought she pushed her foot down hard on the brake. A loud screech filled the air along with a trail of smoke, no doubt leaving a trail of tire marks on the road in the process.

She took another glance in his direction, and still he hadn’t moved. His eyes instead sat fixated on the road ahead, with not even a curious look towards her or a question as to why they had stopped.

Two could play at this game she thought as she rolled down her window to let the cool air inside and turned off the car. She’d just wait him out. She’d wait all night if she had to, right here in the middle of the pitch black road in the middle of nowhere. At some point he’d have to speak, and she wasn’t going anywhere until he did.

She reclined the seat back slightly and closed her eyes, listening to the air as it rushed through the window. She knew they were close to the ocean as she could hear the waves crashing on the beach not far from them and its distinct smell filled her nostrils.

She waited. Five minutes passed, and then ten. Every now and then she’d peek over at him and yet he hadn’t moved since they had stopped. The unbelievable nerve of him was the only thing that was now running through her mind. She was near fuming when she finally sat back upright and was about to open her mouth to give him a piece of her mind.

Before she was able to even get a word out he opened the door and stepped out of the car leaving her sitting there dumbfounded. She squinted through the window to make him out in the darkness that surrounded them. She could barely see his figure as he walked to the front of the car where he stopped and then appeared to be looking at something towards the side of the road.

He looked back over his shoulder at her, noticeable only because of the spooky way in which his eyes stood out in the encompassing darkness, and a moment later he completely disappeared somewhere onto the side of the road. For what seemed like forever there was no sound other than the ocean’s waves in the far distance.

Without him sitting beside her Elyssa realized just how eerie her surroundings were. With every passing moment, Elyssa became all the more aware of all the frightening sounds that she hadn’t heard when he was there, and they seemed to be coming from all around her. She felt goosebumps begin to run up and down her arms and started to wonder if there was someone else out there.