𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐝𝐠𝐞 𝐎𝐟 𝐅𝐢𝐫𝐞

𝟑𝟐. 𝐀𝐭 𝐆𝐮𝐧𝐩𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐭

James was the son of Elias, he was the son of a murderer and Jenny, she was the wife of Elias and mother of James. I knew someone was working with Jenny but I never crossed my mind that it could be James all along. It was James. I had to understand it. From the very first time I saw him he gave me a bad vibe, a feeling of uneasiness.

I was very tired and shocked, I just wanted to sleep and forget about everything. I couldn't understand, everyone was out to get us, we had to leave immediately from Snowshill and never return back here. Jenny, James, two
people that knew we had the diary and were ready to do everything to get it.

I laid in my soft, warm bed. My thoughts slowed as a beautiful carousel, each dancing as ribbons from a kite. Strings that reached for the sky, its colours embracing those lofty heights and inviting in the dreams that wear festival costumes and are formed of music. Sleep came slowly.

No...no...Alice please. Leave her, you can't harm her. You can't take her away from me. Snow and blood. In the white blanket of snow the blood was splashed as if on a painting. He is holding me at gunpoint, I can't move, he will shoot me. My arms are weak, I can't fight anymore, all my muscles are fighting with all their strength to keep me on my feet. I...in a sudden movement I pushed him,he fell, he was dead.

Suddenly, I screamed loudly and shotted my eyes open. I kept screaming and screaming until I breathed. It wasn't real, how could it be. That was a dream. It was not real.

Alice shot her eyes opened as soon as she heard my loud screams. She asked me what happened but I told her that it was only a nightmare, a nightmare that was going to come alive the very next day. I quickly turned to Alice and told her that it was time for us to leave, that I would stop searching for the truth. There was no truth. Tomorrow we had to leave. She softly mumbled that we were going talk about it in the morning. We couldn't stay here anymore. I couldn't continue living here after everything I had learned. James was a threat to us exactly as Jenny was.

The rest of the night I couldn't sleep. I was just watching Alice sleeping peacefully next to me and all I could do was worry and fear about what could happen tomorrow. I couldn't breath, I felt like suffocating. I brought us into this and I had to finish everything. I had put Alice in danger and guilt was eating me, killing me from inside out.

I got out of my bed and went down to the library. The diary's last page was finally read, after all, somehow this library had brought more comfort to me than any other place in the whole house. My eyes started closing again, I couldn't manage to have a proper sleep for weeks now. I surrendered to sleep and slowly closed my eyes while resting my face on the armchair.

My mother, my dear mother was caressing my face, was there for me, caressing me with her warm hand as she touched my forehead. I closed my eyes as I rested my head on her hand, that was it, I was peaceful, my mind was finally clear.

Loud thuds shook me, I must have fallen asleep. As soon as I heard the loud noises I started panicking and rushed upstairs, I busted in our room, almost falling on my face as I forcefully entered inside the room. No...no...Alice was nowhere to be found, our window was smashed and she was gone. Fear clocked on my throat as I saw her empty bed.

A loud scream escaped my lungs as anger boiled inside of me. I couldn't breath anymore, I was dying inside. I knew I had done something pretty awful when I had to work so hard to justify it. I wanted to restore justice for aunt Grace but still, it seemed as the worst thing I could do. The more demanding the reparations my subconscious required the worse I knew it was. But no-one was going to fight if I sat back lost in my happy world, no-one would step to defend aunt's Grace unfair death. Now it squeezed at my brain, obliterating the thinking I needed to think about the situation. I had to either get tougher or start listening to my conscious, this middle ground guilt was no good to anyone.