Bambi (Matt Sturniolo)

14

"Y/N! Can you take this to the attic?"

You paused halfway down the stairs to raise an eyebrow at Addison, who was holding a pile of magazines. She was probably influenced by your family traditions- your family never threw away old things, they either tried to fix them or hid them incase they need them again.

"Can't you do it? I'm busy" you lied in order to get away with the favour, only to realise how stupid it sounded. The only thing you could be busy doing in Boston was driving around town or being a book to a coffee shop.

Addison smiled at you, ignoring your excuse. "I would, but I'm allergic to dust. It'll take a minute"

"Lucky you" you mumbled and rolled your eyes, walking down the stairs to take the magazines from her.

Addison thanked you, before going back into the kitchen, probably to check on the cookies in the oven for her own wedding tomorrow. Now the decorations were done, you weren't useful around the house since you couldn't cook.

To be honest, you couldn't remember the last time you went to the attic. That place was your nightmare when you were a kid. The thought of monsters lurking around up there, was the reason you slept with your light on for a month after climbing up there once. You had to hang your head to walk in, trying to locate obstacles in the dark for the only source of light was from the window.

The echo of your footsteps on the timber made you claustrophobic, and so you put the books in the corner to hurry back to the ladder as fast as you could.

Before you reached the entrance, you tripped over a small table and almost fell. But you didn't fall, you just knocked over a box that fell and made a loud noise. You coughed and bent down to clean up the mess you made.

The first thing that caught your attention was a picture of your younger self, that your Mom drew. Everything in the box belonged to your Mom. Most of them were things she bought on family holidays. You had no idea how long they'd been in there, but from how yellow the pages looked, you'd guess they'd been there since she was still alive.

As a result, you ended up staying in the attic longer than you intended to. You sat on the floor, going through the box, feeling whole inside for the fact that most of your Mom's drawings, were of you.

There wasn't anything unusual...until there was.

At the bottom of the box was a small tin box. You almost didn't see it because it was hidden too well. For some reason, it gave you a feeling that you had to see what was in there.

With your heart racing, you brought it to your lap and opened it. It would've been a disappointment if the box had been empty, but your gut feeling never made a mistake. The box contained letters to your Mom, from a guy named Dave Long, along with pictures of them. At first, you assumed he was one of her boyfriends before she met your Dad. But, when you looked at the dates, you discovered the truth. They were love letters, that were written and sent while your parents were married.

You found out there were more worst fears than invisible monsters in the attic, it was the ones living within every person including the ones you thought you knew so well.

You picked up one of the letters to read through the first few lines just to make sure you didn't draw a conclusion too soon. Your Mom was in love, madly in love, but with another man.

You felt a lump in your throat when you read the part about them leaving town when the divorce settled. The letter came a week before the accident.

You nearly tore the page in two. You were in shock that your brain stuttered for a minute and breathing became hard. It took you a minute to come to your senses and gather everything besides the letter to put back in the box.