𝚄𝚖𝚋𝚛𝚎𝚕𝚕𝚊 (𝚆𝚒𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚊𝚖 𝙰𝚏𝚝𝚘𝚗 𝚡 𝚁𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚎𝚛)

𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝟿

We left in the night, as swiftly as possible. We didn't know where we were headed, but anything was better than the situation William was in. We packed nothing, had no money, and only Will's beat up, boxy, pale blue car and Stella in the back seat. We drove down a highway, headed nowhere. His car radio was dead silent as he drove, his head most likely filled with thoughts beyond my realm of understanding.
He took my hand and squeezed it tightly as some sort of signal that everything would be okay. I saw tears in the corners of his pale eyes, but I wasn't going to mention it- he'd been through enough. Even though I was shocked by the way his gentlemanly facade slipped away, I couldn't blame him. His father had been working hard to make some sort of... immortality recipe? It sounded so unbelievable, almost laughable, but the way Will looked at me when he spoke told me everything I had to know. He was being honest with me, and I had to do everything in my power to help him get out of this mess.
As we sped through the night, there was only silence. I counted lamp posts as Stella slept on the gray, leather seats in the back of the car. I turned around to pat her fuzzy head, only touching her lightly. I knew she must've been just as stressed by these new surroundings as I was. The darkness of the night was making my head spin, all of the questions I had hitting me all at once. How were we supposed to get food? Would we have a place to sleep? Is William going to be okay? Is my mother okay?
Just then, after three hours of silence and highway driving, William pulled off of the highway and turned right towards a gravel road.
"Where are we going?" I asked, quietly, as not to distract Will.
"I don't know, I just remembered that my grandparents used to live at this farmhouse, but they died. My mother was so traumatized by their deaths that she never went back to the house, so their things are still in the house. Maybe there will be somewhere more comfortable to sleep, maybe a stash of money, it will be the start of our adventure." He sighed as he pulled into the driveway and took they keys out of the car.
I couldn't believe what I saw in front of me, a worn down farmhouse with a large front porch. The whole house was painted white, but some of the paint had chipped. I knew we couldn't stay here, the house had long been abandoned and was most likely unsafe to stay in, judging by the rotting wood steps leading up to the front porch, but it would do for tonight.
My car door lurched open as I stepped out into the cold night air, and Stella followed close behind. William beckoned me forward with his hand and led me up the rotting, wooden steps. I heard the door creak open, he was holding the door for me- I jokingly curtsied before stepping inside. The door shut behind him with a loud thud, and dust flew everywhere. I coughed and sneezed before taking a step forward to see if there was anything interesting around. William followed close behind.
"You know, I guess I didn't take my asthma into consideration here..." William laughed and coughed again, "I'll be fine, I swear."
I sighed and took his hand, going up some creaky, brown, wooden stairs covered with an old floral staircase rug. When I got to the top of the steps I saw an open door which led into a bedroom that clearly hadn't been touched since at least World War II. There was a crochet rug in the middle of the room which was an olive green color, a metal bed frame, hardly holding up a small bed with a multicolored quilt, and a gold colored full length mirror across the room from the bed. The walls had a light green floral wallpaper, and there was a newspaper article framed on the wall. Underneath the frame was an old record player with a box of records underneath. I walked over to the framed newspaper and read it aloud.
"Will, look at this. 'U.S. declares war on Germany, Italy. Follows action today by Hitler, Mussolini. America lines up with Britain, Soviets against Axis in world struggle.' This is from nearly 30 years ago."
"Yeah, my grandparents were very patriotic. I wish they would've been alive to know that we won the war... oh well. I need some sleep."
"Agreed, but can I see if this record player works?"
"Go ahead, I'm sure all of their music would put me to sleep, anyways."
William threw himself on the bed, dust flying up from the multicolored quilt. I walked over to the record player and wound it up. There was a record left on it, so I picked it up and dusted it off before gently placing it back on the turntable. Schubert's Serenade started playing out of the gramophone, and I laid down next to William, who was already fast asleep, curled up next to Stella. I laid in bed, staring at the ceiling, wondering where life would take us next.