The Register | H.S.

Chapter 43

WARNING
This chapter contains drug abuse.

_______________________

Harry

Four days.

It had been 4 days since Aspen left home. I had forgotten how empty and lifeless this house is without her. Like my heart was. I avoided thinking about his absence. I was doing my best to keep my mind busy. During my last meeting with my financial advisor, we assessed that I have the means to open a new club. This is what I had occupied my mind with. I looked for premises for sale and visited several. I had not yet found a building that suited me, but it will not be long. I knew I was going to find it eventually. I also undertook the organization of a new event. I had literally immersed myself in the work.

It was the evening before going to bed that his absence caught up with me. I couldn't help but rummage through her clothes, burying my face in the fabric that smelled like her. I slept so badly. It took me hours to fall asleep. I kept turning over her sheets, disturbed by her absence. I always ended up falling asleep, exhausted by the tears running down my cheeks. But the worst was in the morning. I woke up slowly, forgetting for a few moments that she was no longer there. Then it hit me like a stab right in the heart. She was no longer there.

A heavy silence reigned in the house. The only sound that reached my ears was the crackling flames coming from the fireplace in my office. I have never used this fireplace. It has always been hidden behind the huge bookcase in my office with all the books I own. The fireplaces frighten me, the fires frighten me, but I had to get rid of the files. Burning them was the best idea that came to my mind. Once reduced to ashes and volatilized in smoke, they would have disappeared from the face of the earth. No one will ever find out about their existence. And Aspen will never see those photos that made her so curious.

I watched the fires reduce my redemption to ashes. What scared me about the fires was its ability to destroy everything in its path; buildings, objects and even lives. I have always associated fires with what destroyed my life, the deaths of my mother and my sister. I was still scared of the flames, but a part of me was no longer afraid of dying.

At worst, I will die burning in the flames as I should have been 18 years ago.

I felt so miserable. As much as when I started my redemption, but this time for different reasons. Life wasn't worth living without her.

"Harry, what the fuck are you doing?" Someone shouted behind me.

It was Louis, accompanied by Niall. Both looked at me with wide open eyes and parted lips. They glanced at each other, both in shock.

"You two really have to learn to knock on the door." I said, rolling my eyes before returning my attention to the fire.

You really did light a fire. Niall said as he sat down on the floor next to me, ignoring what I just said.

"What do you think Niall?" I replied dryly, turning my head towards him.

He was taken by surprise by the tone of my voice, not expecting me to answer him that way. My lack of sleep was really starting to make me irritable. There was no good reason for me to answer Niall like that. He stopped by to make sure I was okay, it wasn't right of me to answer him like that.

"Sorry bro, I didn't mean to be so unpleasant." I apologized in a much softer tone than the one I had addressed to him seconds before.

He smiled softly at me, letting me know he didn't blame me. I returned my attention to Louis, who was playing with the logs and the pieces of burning paper with the hearth hook. "Is it-."