Her Dark Treasure

Going back to shadow Hill

It had been a long drive from Tanglewood to Shadow Hill. It had taken Going back to shadow Hill  me and my best friend and roommate Victoria King just over two days to get here.

We took turns driving, just stopping for food and gas.

Looking out the window toward the ocean I could see the white caps on the waves as they crashed into the shore, stirring up the sands as they did so.

Looking to the horizon, the water further out looked calm and dark compared to the gray churning water closer to the shore.

Dark gray and forbidding clouds were gathering fast. Just then a jagged bolt of lightning danced across the sky. Moments later thunder boomed overhead.

Victoria, looking over at me whimpered softly. " hey, hey we are almost there" I said squeezing her hand.

" I, Um..." I started hesitantly " I heard we are in for a bad summer storm,"  I told her but I just had to reassure her " But we are almost there so hopefully we will make it before it hits" I added

" So..Um tell me about your aunt," she asked. I knew she was just asking to get her mind off the impending storm

" Ok, well aunt Zabrina and Uncle Richard never had any children, I loved them both with all my heart, but... " I trailed off tears started threatening to spill out of my eyes. After a few moments, I was able to start again. " My Uncle returned from a business trip and was murdered when I was  10." by now I had a few tears streaming down my face as I remembered that terrible time. "They never found out who did it" I whispered.

Victoria sat quietly listening to what I was saying understanding this was difficult for me.

" My aunt never remarried and the summers when I would come here made her so happy and be honest I loved it too," I said

" We would do all kinds of things together, like go to the beach and carnivals, my favorite ride was the Ferris wheel I could see for what seemed like forever " 

Victoria nodded her head, her short blonde hair moving with her movements, and her blue-green eyes were wide with unshed tears too as she listened to me.

" I felt more at home here than I did with my parents," I said honestly.

There was another flash of lightning that lit up the sky. I knew about her fear of storms but I never knew why she never talked about it.  we had met in kindergarten and as long as I've known her she has had this fear.

I knew she was adopted and didn't have an easy life, which drew us together, my dad was driving home from work one night and had been killed in an accident caused by a drunk driver and he had died on the scene.

My mom did her best, but my Dad was my best friend and after we lost him my mom was never the same which was when I started spending the summers with Aunt Zabrina and Uncle Richard and I loved coming here.

I Loved them and being my father's only sibling and the fact that my dad's parents had died before I was born meant that she got to spoil me rotten.

Aunt Zabrina and Uncle Richard had no children of their own so when she disappeared a few years ago and unknown to me she had made sure that I would get her house and her cafe.

I signed the paperwork a couple of days before we left. 

Victoria and I had been roommates in Tanglewood a rather large town where we had been working at the same restaurant, well that is until they closed up for good.

At the same time, I found out that my boyfriend of two years was cheating on me. We were growing anxious as we had just about run through our savings and didn't have enough money for food, rent, or bills.