Constantin pressed his hand against the harsh bark of the tree. Saying hello to an old friend that had been his loyal companion as he stared at the mystery that was that house. It had felt like years since he’d last walked up that long road that led to a house that once held his heart. Graciela. Sometimes he could still feel the beating and butterflies that came with every thought of her. So many memories held in this land, memories he didn’t wish to forget. Watching Verity for the first time. Demir joining him for a small picnic. Belva surprising him after a night run. Not everything had been good. That house held many dark memories that he couldn’t help but to hold onto. Scared out of his mind as he tried to escape the ghosts that had come to haunt him. The mystery that could never be discovered. All of it had led him back to this house and that tree. Back to the moonlight that had become a faithful companion. And, as he stared at the imposing figure of the house, those windows that looked back at him as much as he looked back at them.
standing there, she watches him, a shadow in the darkness that has lived there for a lifetime. unwavering, undoing, all of the unbecoming things that house had done to them all and yet her thirst for the mystery raged on behind dark eyes and in every fibre of her being. her very existence was a rage against the natural, the blood that raced through her veins ebbing and flowing, hot and cold to her very core, unable to ever truly take the reigns.
as the moonlight splinters, she presses her finger to the brick of the house as she skirts towards him, a darting and mysterious creature as she always had been, she recalls every interaction they’ve ever had... each memory as vivid as the last. one entire year could of been yesterday and as she reaches him, “you were wrong,” she says, a slip of the tongue, a knowing and slightly daunting look that holds no rage... no devilish grit, “you said that there was no one who could ever love me, but you were wrong. perhaps there was something beyond fear after all.”

















