She was the girl who was afraid of love. Terrified of it. It isn't permanent, she believed, it leaves you and it leaves you broken.
He was the boy who desperately needed it. Love--the only thing that could've rooted him to this world.
Ophelia and...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
It took me ages, with a whole lot of willpower, a lot of reassuring choice of words, and some puppy-dog eyes (which I'm sure I pulled off juuust fine) to convince Luce about the whole road trip thing.
"Are you sure about this?" She sounded unsure, gripping the steering wheel as she drove us back to her apartment from the sanitarium.
It had been my last day at the sanitarium, and it had been surprisingly filled with warm hugs and equally warm goodbyes (and maybe some fake tears from Jim, but I'm not the one telling you that).
"Of course." I gave her a reassuring smile as I leaned back in my seat, too exhausted from the whole day. I remembered having absolutely zero sleep last night, maybe an hour in the morning, but that was just it.
Alastair had told me that we'd leave around midnight, just so that we could reach his hometown near the morning. It was supposed to be a few days trip, yet Luce still seemed unsure.
"I'm a grown-up, Luce." I tried to sound as reassuring as I could have. "I know how to take care of myself."
"I know. It's just...I'm your older sister and if something happened--"
"Why would something happen?" I frowned at her.
She stopped at a red traffic light and glanced at me with furrowed brows.
"Is it because I'm going with Alastair?" I asked.
She responded by rolling her eyes. "Of course not."
"Then what?"
"That town, Lia, and the Hawthornes. They're not--they're complicated." She told me earnestly.
"They're dead."
Luce sighed. "Yeah. It's been years since they died, but the talk still goes around town. Even if this isn't the town they died in, people still talk about it."
"And you're worried about that."
Luce gave me an odd look before continuing to drive. "No one knows how they died, Lia. They didn't even find the murderers."
I glanced out of the window, watching as the streets slowly disappeared out of view.
"I know," I murmured.
"And you still think involving yourself with the whole thing is a good idea?"
I just sighed in response. Perhaps I shouldn't have told her the part where we'd be visiting the Hawthorne mansion. But then it would've felt like I was lying to her, and even if that never bothered me before, it did at this moment.
So I had told her and there was no going back now.
"I'll be careful, Luce." Those were the only words that came to mind. "I promise."
