𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐝𝐠𝐞 𝐎𝐟 𝐅𝐢𝐫𝐞

𝟑𝟎. 𝐆𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐎𝐟 𝐒𝐮𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐯𝐚𝐥

I was sure that someone was working with Jenny, I couldn't really guess who it may was but Jenny had crossed the line, she was following us and had put someone to break into our house. No one messes with me and gets away with it.

Anger boiled deep in my system, as hot as lava. It churned within, hungry for destruction, and I knew it was too much for me to handle. The pressure of this raging sea of anger would force me to do things that I had suppressed for weeks. I wanted to run in her house, break the door and demand answers but I couldn't do that, I just couldn't. I had to pretend as if I hadn't suspected anything.

On the contrary, Alice was scared and panicked. I was too busy trying to put in place my own thoughts, but I couldn't. Why...she probably wanted the diary but why. What was the thing that was inside that diary that Jenny out of all people wanted. I was wondering that maybe she was a part somehow in that story. Mixed and involved.

I went straight in the library and started putting the books to their place. That library was the place aunt Grace loved the most, she kept everyone out of that room and now it was destroyed. They were searching for something that they weren't going to find. All this time the only question that was making circles into my mind was why, why all that had happened.

It took me one hour and a half to clean the whole library. After putting everything into their place, I just collapsed on the couch and talked with Alice to make sure that she was fine. After that, I continued reading the next pages of aunt's Grace diary. It was somewhere between these pages, something precious, something important.

" March 4 / 1963

All these years, all I had done was try to build a life in Alderton. My life was quite good, I had finally found a small home and a community that I absolutely loved.

I have decided to go back. Six whole years and I have missed my home, my village, my own house. I need to see it again, touch the walls that were filled with so many memories. Snowshill had many good memories to offer me but also very bad. I decided to go back, hoping that he would not be there.

But he was...

The very same man that brought me to Alderton took me back to Snowshill. He had found me on the street, all alone and hurt and now he found my pieces all glued together. I was going back to the very same place that had caused me so much unbearable pain.

The car ride was silent as the first time I came here six years ago. My life turned upside down and it was destroyed by the very same man that made me feel so much love, made me feel things that I had never felt before.

I was going back home. I had changed, I wasn't the same person I was when I left from Snowshill. I was stronger, I could fight for myself.

The trees started getting bigger as we drove with full speed through the tall hills. I had this strange feeling, as if I wanted to come back but at the same time I would have to face my biggest fears.

Him alive and free...

What if he came again to get me, to claim his baby who didn't even exist anymore. I had a hunch that everyhting would be okay, but I was anxious. It came as an electrical storm in my brain that, quite honestly, was painful. So though I appeared calm, my sad eyes were saying far more than "I don't feel sure." They were saying that my soul was in a such unbearable pain and all for the lack of real love, for the lack of happiness, for the lack of, my life and my baby.

My anxiety felt like being hooked up to a cattle fence. Not enough voltage to kill but sufficient to keep things uncomfortable. But what was there to do other than breathe, walk and figure things out just a little at a time? I had to return back at some point, I wasn't going to spend my whole life away from my home, my true home.

It was not easy taking a step forward when I didn't know where my foot would stand.

That was exactly what I was doing in that moment, taking a risk by returning back. I had to do it. I had to. I just hoped deep inside that he would not be there, he would not be alive. In about two hours we arrived to Snowshill, I thanked him, got out of the car with my small suitcase.

I looked around for a little. Stretching out of sight on either side of the road were identical semi detached houses, each with a path running down the side. Every door had a black cross, every front door had iron railings leaving the only difference to be the numbers and the occupants. The effect was a strange coolness as well as darkness.

I slowly started walking through the village I called my home, which was now something I didn't recognize anymore. No one was walking outside, I couldn't hear children laughing and playing next to the tall oak tree we had. There were no other souls wandering into these dark streets. What had happened in those six years I was absent, I thought to myself.

An old man was sitting on the ground. The tears bursted forth like water from a dam, spilling down his face. It was as if all the muscles of his chin were trembling like a small child and he looked towards me, as if the light of my fade smile could soothe him.

I asked him what had happened but he told me to run, run away now while I still had time to save myself. At first I didn't understand but then he mentioned some unstoppable killings, poisonings.

People were found poisoned and other people were gone forever, no one had found them. The old man thanked the god that they had a great doctor that was trying to ease everyone's pain. I reluctantly asked the name of the doctor and the old man was kind enough to say "Elias Jones."

Fire. Fire was the most beautiful weapon of them all. It shined with all its glory, maybe that was why I was so attracted to it. The warmth along with the welcoming feel it gave but as I slowly approached it snarled and bit. Everything I loved could be gone in minutes, due to a single nip. That's why Elias was like fire. So warm, so beautiful, so welcoming. The human embodiment of fire. I turned my gaze for a minute and everything I loved was gone. All I loved.

My skin crawled as my heart started thudding louder and louder. Fear clenched like a tight fist around my chest. He was here, he was still here, alive, still the same monster he once was or maybe even worse. In a soft quick move I turned around in an attempt to hide my tears and...

He was there..."