False Bravado: A Tale As Old As Time

Chapter One

My mother is on her death bed. She’s laid there unresponsive for a week. Her eyes are closed. I’m just waiting for her to die. I knew this would be coming. I knew it’d be coming for awhile now.

I am her only child. I am seventeen, nearly eighteen. I don’t know where my father is. I don’t know what my mother is dying of, I also don’t know where I’ll go once she’s gone. I’m basically eighteen, I could just emancipate. But even to me, that much independence scares me.

I sat in my mother’s hospital room, the beeping of her heart monitor becoming background noise. The thing is with background noise, is that you only pay attention when it’s gone. I glanced up from my book and looked at the monitor. Flat line. I stood up and walked out of the room, just as doctors and nursed rushed in. I sighed with relief.

Time of death: 4:06 PM, Monday, February Twenty-Eighth, Two thousand fifteen.

This time is a lie. My mother has been dead for as long as I can remember. But now, she’s officially dead.

March 2015

“Here’s your stop, miss,”

I handed the driver a wad of fives and tens. “Thank you. I know it was a far drive.”

“Ma’am, you’re quite a bit over…”

“Keep the change, buy some gas.” I shut the cab door and watched as my only way to the city drove off. I turned around and looked at the huge, vine infested mansion.

I walked up a path, weeds brushing at my ankles as I passed. I stood before the doors. Wooden, thick, no windows, brass, at least seven feet tall. I knocked the brass knocker to the rough wood. The sound didn’t carry.

I opened the door, pushing all my weight to do so. The main entrance was dark and bare. I walked through the long room. The room opened up to a huge ballroom, stairs on both sides of me. The room was dark like the last. I sat down my bags. “Hello?” my voice sounded puny in the huge room. “I’m, uh, Jax West, Allyson’s daughter? I’m looking for a mister—”

“Jax? What type of name is Jax?!” A man’s deep voice boomed off the walls. I immediately felt smaller.

“It’s my name. It’s sort for Jaxson.”

“Jaxson is a boy’s name.”

“Well, my mom was drunk on epidural when she had me. She named me Jaxson. And who are you?” I didn’t know where the man was, but I felt targeted knowing he could see me. “And where are you?”

A man walked down the stairs, it was hard to see his face. I could see a dark stubble beard and mustache, blue eyes that glowed on their own. His hair was black, his eyes set like a predator’s. His chine was soft, but firm. “I am Edwin.”

“Edwin,” I said his name, hoping he’d say mine again. “And how old are you, Edwin?”

“Twenty-two. You don’t look like your mother, Jax,” the way he said my name sent chills up my spine.

“You don’t look twenty-two.” I sighed. “Are you going to show me around? I’ve had a long day traveling.”

Edwin scoffed. “Show yourself around. Free to go anywhere, except up those stairs,” Edwin pointed to the stair case he had walked down from. “If I ever catch you in the East Wing, you’ll wish you were dead.”

The though intrigued me. “Is that so?” I tried to keep my tone un-flirty, but after years of only flirting, I found it hard. “Hm. Well then. Are we the only ones here, Edwin?”

“Yes. Is that all?”

I shrugged. “I guess. Doesn’t it get lonely… all alone in these mountains… in this big, big house…”

“If you’re trying to be seductive, it’s not working for you, Jax.”

I grabbed my bags and walked up the opposite stair case. “Fine.” I walked off. The stairs dumped to a hallway, a big window at the far end. I opened a door to a closet. I shut the door then opened the next. This one led to a study. I opened a door on the other side of the hallway. It was a room. A grand bed sat in the middle, four metal poles at each corner of the bed rose up, silk curtains draped between the poles.

There was an armra, a desk with a mirror on top, and a door. I opened the door. It was a bathroom. A tub sat in the middle, there was a shower tucked in corner, a toilet and a huge vanity.

I walked out of the bathroom and sat down on the bed. I opened up the armra and started unpacking. I opened up my laptop and opened up the internet. I had no signal. “Oh, no.” I shut the laptop.

There’s nothing to do here.

“Edwin!” I screamed and ran outside of my room. “Edwin!” I stomped across the hallway, passing the staircases and heading straight into the East Wing. “Edwin, where the hell did you go?!”

I ran into him. I took a step back. He appeared out of nowhere. “What the hell? There’s no WiFi. What do you do around here? Hide in the dark? Ugh.”

“You ungrateful child. Jaxson—”

“Go to hell.” I locked eyes with Edwin. His blue eyes pierced right through me.

He raised a hand, taking a swing at my face. He stopped, short of a centimeter. “Don’t try me, Jaxson. I am stronger than you and here, all alone, there is no one to hear you scream. Don’t aggravate me, Jaxson.”

I bit the inside of my lip, trying to keep calm. I turned away and walked to my room.

We had soup for dinner. A long table, made for twenty, with Edwin and I ate two separate ends. We ate in silence. As I looked down at my bowl, I could feel his eyes tearing me apart. I’d look up, and he would make no effort to at least make it seem like he wasn’t staring at me.

Finally, I whispered, “Stop staring at me, it’s creepy.”

“I’m sorry. You’re just really beautiful.”

“I have a boyfriend.”

“No you don’t.”

I bit the inside of my lip. “Do you have any booze?”

“How old are you again?”

“Seventeen.”

“You’re not legal.”

“And? That’s not what I asked. Do you have any booze?” I looked up, scooting my bowl away from me.

“Yeah.”

“Can I have some?”

Edwin heisstated. Then he smiled, his teeth barely showing. “Sure. In the East Wing.”

“I thought I wasn’t allowed in the East Wing.”

“You’re not.”

“Then why—”

Edwin sighed and stood up, walking away. I huffed and went to my room.

I sat in my room most the night, reading. That was all there was to do. I took a shower and went to sleep. I thought about Edwin. There was something… meanacing about him. But still something kind. All I could see when I shut my eyes was his blue, blue eyes.