~The Keepers~18:53 Aug 14 2007
Times Read: 499
Needless to say, Tara wanted to know why I was taking my shower before eleven at night and was highly curious as to why I was spending a half an hour in my closet staring at the very thin selection of very nice garments. She just stared at me as she leaned up against the doorframe analyzing every possible reason as to why I was there. I just ignored her presence and stared blankly at the rack of clothes.
“Where are you going?” she asked for the millionth time.
“Tara,” I sighed, “Does it really matter to you where I go?”
“Yeah, if it means I have to put up with Mr. Pain-in-the-ass-reptile.
“How generous of you to title him.” I said flatly and pulled out a blouse before shoving it back not liking it.
“Really, G. Where are you going?” she asked again, this time not playing games.
“I'm going out to dinner with Mr. Ramsey.” I sighed uncomfortably.
“Mr. Ramsey? As in, ISK Mr. Ramsey with his dark hair and his grey eyes Ramsey?” she asked in disbelief.
“Bull’s eye.” I groaned slightly.
“Wow… he’s fast.” I spun around and looked at her.
“I only agreed to go to dinner with him to keep him from calling the house every bloody day of the year!” I snapped. She made me sound like I was a sucker for a man-hoar or something.
“Oh… but he seems a little anxious, don’t you think?”
“He's, just visiting for a little while before he goes back up to Canada. He was begging me so I consented to go just so he would shut up. You know how I hate begging.” I pulled out another blouse and scrunched my nose at it. “I can honestly and freely say that I have nothing to wear.” I sighed lamentably.
“I agree.” Tara sighed back. “Come on. I think I have something.” she disappeared and I followed her to her room and to her walk-in closet stocked with clothes that would last her a lifetime. It always took me by surprise when I saw her closet. I never really grasped how many clothing items she actually had. Apparently, she spent her weekends off shopping at the Augusta Mall.
“Tara, have you ever heard of the Give Away Mission?” I asked motioning to all her stuff.
“Gwynne, have you ever heard of the You Need More Clothes Mission?” she bobbed her head at me as she turned her head from looking at some red dress she probably assumed looked good on me.
“Whatever.” I shrugged and sat down on the little padded bench in the middle of the huge closet.
Silence won over the closet and I sat there in thought. I thought about what I was going to talk about with Cullen, I mean, we couldn’t just discuss the eating habits of our griffins, or the growth rate of our dragons, it was just impossible! The Government was everywhere now. You couldn’t even whisper anything about a mythical creature without the HPD showing up at your front door for a ‘health inspection’. Government was never a great ‘breaking the ice’ topic for me, and the topic of ‘normal work’ never appealed to me either. I suppose we could talk about our past… but then again, that wasn’t too much in my favor. I wasn’t too pleased with my past to talk about it. It was uncomfortable, like an itchy sweater pulled out once a year or less and hung in the back of the closet for the remainder of the time.
“G, what about this outfit?”
Tara jerked me out of my thought pattern that wasn’t getting me anywhere. I looked up at her with a “Huh?” slipping out. She shook the blouse and skirt in front of her so I would transfer my attention to them.
“Oh, um… I don’t really like it.” I sighed. She turned and shoved them back in order.
“You’re so difficult, G. I want you to know that.”
“Thanks, Tara. You have your moments too.”
“How ‘bout this?” She pulled out a black dress that had tiny little specks of glitter scattered here and there over the fabric.
I stood up and looked at it with a critical eye, jutting out my bottom lip and scratching my head trying to make a decision. I felt the fabric and found that it was soft and silky. It felt rather nice to the touch, but I wasn’t so sure about the low neckline that cut down to a very sharp V.
“You sure it’s not too low?” I asked and demonstrated the lowness of the dress on myself with a hand.
Tara made a clicking sound with her tongue, “Of course not, silly! Once you’re in it, it won't be so low. Now go try it on! I want to see what you look like.” She handed it to me and I begrudgingly took it from her.
I marched directly to the bathroom and stripped myself to put the dress on. It was a difficult dress to get on… and it took me a few tries to get my second arm through without popping any of the seams. However, once it was on I stepped in front of the full sized mirror to stare at my reflection. The dress’ V didn’t go down as far as I thought it would have, and the cut of the dress seemed to skim right over the very few curves I had.
I stood there awkwardly. I wasn’t much of a party-go-er, and I only dressed up for about three weddings and a formal dinner with some of the ISK members, even then, I wasn’t thrilled about ‘abandoning my job to go socialize’. Tara was the one who did that, in fact, she did it almost every Saturday! Her and some of her college buddies would go out for a night on the town and come back to hit the sack around 4 AM the next day. Of course, then I’d wake Tara up for church and slap her with some cold water so she’d stay awake during the service. I knew that her party nature would wear off in about a year or so when she was smacked with the reality of life and survival, and she was lucky she had me to help her out in the sticky times… but I wasn’t so lucky.
“G?” Tara’s curious voice was on the other side of the door. “What’s it look like?” I didn’t answer her right away, I had to look back at myself and snag a conclusion. “Gwynne? You drown in the toilette or something?” she bantered with me.
“I wish I drowned so I wouldn’t have to live through tonight… but I'm not about to stick my head in that nasty water.” I joked back and opened the door with a melodramatic sigh. I struck a cheesy pose and flipped my mid-back length hair over my nearly bare shoulder.
“You know,” she stared then covered her mouth to think about what she was going to say. I waited patiently, “That’d look good with a string of pearls. Don’t you think?”
“You should know, Tara. You go to fancy parties all the time. You’ve got the richest friends in Augusta.”
“Har de har-har.” She snorted and used a deep and overly arrogant voice added with an eye-roll. “They’re not the richest in Augusta… they’re the second richest.” She corrected. I laughed at her.
“Yeah, sure, Tara… sure.” I retreated into the bathroom and began to shut the door.
“What are you going to do about your hair?” she asked.
“Oh, I don’t know.” I shrugged. “Leave it like this I guess.”
She grunted and shook her head at me. “Fat change, G. I’ll figure something out. You’d better start getting ready. It’s already five thirty.”
“Yeah, that gives me an hour and thirty minutes to get myself all worked up on how boringly miserable this dinner will be.”
“Come off it, G! You’ll have the best time of your life!” she said exuberantly.
“What am I supposed to talk about, Tara? I mean, we can't talk about what we normally talk about with just you and me here… or when we have another Keeper visit our sanctuary. Cullen and I will be out in public!” I said that word as if it was a curse.
“You’ll never learn to be conspicuous if you don’t ever go out in public. How do you think Trevor makes it through the mall during the day? Sure, all the women stare at him, but he still keeps that façade he’s got on quite well. You could never tell he was a vampire.”
“Yeah, but I don’t have ninety years experience either,” flew my retorting comment.
“Well then, Gwynne Collins,” she lifted her chin like a Queen from the old world, “I’ll just have to give you the course ‘Conversation topics one-oh-one’.” She snatched a brush from the bathroom counter cluttered with makeup, hair supplies, and lotions then waved it like a wand.
I sighed and looked away with a distant look in my eyes, “Here we go.”
The lecture on conversational topics was quite… annoyingly inspiring to the extent of sheer psychological, physical, and supernatural boredom. I hated it with a passion. Tara made it sound like I was some dumb-ass kid in the school system that lacked any form of common sense or intellect… and I was generously blessed with common sense and intellect, perhaps even overly blessed. Every answer given by me was wrong, every correction sounded the same to me… and I had to sit there until she finished my hair (which took just as long as her lecture). I eagerly looked at the clock sitting on the counter and stared at it until it changed. I even started counting the sixty seconds in a minute.
“Tara…”
She just kept talking, “You need to listen to what he says, be nice, G. That’s one problem you have. You’re too critical, introverted, deep, demanding, independent, and slightly self-conscious. You need to get over those issues! It’s the key to a happy relationship!”
“Relationship?!” I gasped at the hideousness of that word. “Where the hell did you get the idea I was getting into a relationship?” I jerked my head around to see her eye-to-eye.
“Well I...” she didn’t know what to say. “He thinks this is going to go somewhere.”
“I beg your pardon?” my voice dropped to a rich monotone as I eyed her with suspicion. “I am going to get into a car, go out to dinner with that ISK co-worker, get back in the car, and make him drive me back home so I can feed that voracious beast of a dragon Alaric. No more, no less.” She didn’t say anything… and I didn’t expect her to. “Is that clear?” I asked and gave her ‘the look’ Mom used to give us when we were being warned. Her head nodded. “Good, now I need to be at the door now.” I stood up and left the bathroom and Tara. She eventually followed me and I went back to a happier mood to prepare myself for the misery laying in wait ahead of me.
“You have a good night, G, and don’t do anything crazy.” She joked. I smiled and grabbed my coat as I slipped the heels onto my feet.
“You know the routine of this place. If anyone calls and it’s just one Government worker, let them in to do their little inspection. However, if it’s a Government worker with big guns standing behind him, head for the basement, bunker down and use the back exit if you have to. Don’t be a hero and try to save anything. I can always raise more creatures, but I can't raise another you, Tara.”
She smiled and hugged me, “I know. You just go and don’t worry. I’ll be fine.”
“You have a good night too. Make sure Alaric is in bed though, he gets rather cranky without his sleep before the midnight feeding.”
“Promise.” She grinned and opened the door for me.
I looked out into the darkness of the night and stepped onto the porch. The moon was out tonight and it was just coming up over the jagged tree line that appeared to be as black as coal against the deep blue night sky. There was a faint roar of an engine and it soon grew louder. I saw headlights coming down the road, then they turned into the mouth of my drive. The dirt dust rose into the air making everything look hazy and faint. Tara shut and bolted the door behind me once I started walking down the stairs.
Cullen threw the car into park and jumped out eagerly. He walked up to me and held out his hand for me to take. I took it not knowing if I was going to trip, fall, and break a leg in these ridiculous heels.
“How are you, Gwynne?” he asked grinning. His black tux looked nice.
“Good.” I answered as pleasantly as I could, but quite honestly, I would rather be doing something else.
“Splendid!” he exclaimed and I did my best to control an eye-roll. “You look stunningly beautiful.” He complimented me with a warm smile.
“Thank you.” I smiled back as he opened the passenger door of his car so I could sit inside.
It was teeny in the car’s interior! And the chairs were covered in black fur, perhaps from a bear or something. There was a center consol and the chrome and leather covered gearshift was just in front of that. There were so many dials on the dash that I didn’t want to touch anything other than the mini chair seat and the part of the floor my feet were resting on. I buckled myself out of habit… but tonight I thought I might actually need it. Cullen slid into his chair and shut the door with a sigh. He locked the doors, buckled his seatbelt, and shifted gears all in one fluid motion.
“Ready, Ma’am?” he asked me as he pulled a donut in my drive and sped out the rest of it. He put both hands on the leather-covered wheel as he took a wild turn onto the road that would eventually lead us to Augusta City. It would be a long drive, and I was dreading that.
Cullen turned the satellite radio on and lowered the volume to background noise. He made a few adjustments with some of the other dials on the dash and barely paid attention to the road. I glanced over at the speedometer and took a hard swallow. He was pushing ninety, thirty-five over the speed limit.
“Eyes on the road, please.” I said calmly, like a mother.
“Oh, sorry.” He turned his attention back to the curving road, his headlights on their brightest setting. “You look nervous.” He commented as he glanced over at me with a smirk.
“Just haven’t been out in a while… that’s all.” I lied. He could tell I was lying.
“You worried about Tara?” he asked and took a sharp curve without slowing down. I sat calmly.
“A little.” I admitted as I stared out the windshield with wide eyes.
“Don’t be.” He tried to comfort. “She’ll be fine. Besides, I'm sure she knows what to do if something happened.” I looked over at him even more uneasy than before. His method of ‘comforting’ sucked badly.
“You okay, Gwynne? You look sick.” He immediately dropped his speed down to seventy. I just blinked a few times and nodded.
An awkward silence erupted. He didn’t appear to be breaking it, and I was perfectly content with staying silent. However, my thoughts were cut short when Cullen started up a conversation.
“May I ask you a question?” he asked me with an air of cautiousness in his voice. I looked over at him to answer.
“You may.” I consented. He was quiet for a moment, but he continued soon after his thought was over.
“You have some pretty strong opinions about the way things should be run around your place, don’t you?”
“I do.” I looked away. “I have a strong opinion on many things.”
“Like raising potentially dangerous creatures when most of the Keepers would be content to let them die out?”
“Yes, like raising potentially dangerous creatures when most of the Keepers would be content to let them die out.” I repeated as a statement.
“Why? I mean, don’t you feel threatened by some of the creatures because it’s their nature to want to kill you?”
“Every day I wake up, every moment I'm working, every second I'm breathing I feel threatened, Cullen,” I looked at him and he stared back at me directly in the eyes, “but never by the creatures.” I finished the thought. “I only feel threatened by those who want to harm what I stand for, the things I love, the life I’ve grown accustomed to.” He looked back at the road again, this time with a head full of thoughts.
“So you’re afraid of the Government?”
“To some extent, yes.”
“What is it about them that makes you fear them?” his voice was quieter now, and he was actually driving the speed limit.
“They don’t care about anything but destruction. They want more, they want control over everything in their reach, they want power, Cullen, and I'm afraid of that. I'm afraid of what they might do to my family and my friends.”
He was quiet for a moment, “Do you think the Government is capable of doing those things?”
“Of course I think that. You know what they did to the Bridgeford Family in Utah. You’re the journalist who took the story.” I was quick to remind him.
“I know but,” he paused to let out a sigh, “The Bridgeford’s could have been attacked by any other of the people around them. You should have seen how hostile the people were when they found some sort of catlike horse running around their ranch. You saw the picture of their guard dog’s body. That Hippogriff crushed him like a springtime daisy! The neighbors were scared to death! Then when they saw it run back to the Bridgeford farm, they had to enter the premises to make sure no one else was going to be harmed. They reacted exactly the way they would have on any other occasion.”
“Yeah, then they happened to find the door leading to the Bridgeford’s sanctuary.”
“That’s what I think.”
“That’s not what you wrote in your news article.” I said in a near lambasted way.
“Yeah, because I'm not the journalist who incorporates his opinions into articles. I just listed the facts and the evidence the ISK came up with, that’s all I did. I was just doing my job, Gwynne.” He was trying to keep his tone from rising any higher, and it was clear he was doing his best to keep his temper at bay. I just glared out the passenger side window and remained silent. I didn’t even know why we had gotten into this argument.
The engine of the fancy car hummed in my ears as it took to the curves nicely. I could hear Cullen’s teeth grinding together as he thought feverishly over whatever was going through his head at the moment. I decided to say something… even if half of my conscious was telling me not to.
“Dinner tonight was a bad idea.” I partially whispered, slightly hoping that he’d turn around and drop me back off at the house.
“No,” he said in a controlled and robotic manner, “I said I’d take you to dinner, so I’ll take you.” He looked at me with a piercing stare. “I'm not the type who goes back on his word.” I was silent for a little while… but I stared at his face as he concentrated intently on the road now.
“I appreciate that quality, Cullen. You don’t know how rare and valuable it is to have that gift.”
“Oh, believe me,” he chuckled with forced enthusiasm, “I know how rare it is.”
The city lights of Augusta shone ahead of us like a gigantic beacon screaming out ‘gambling, bars, car racing, and more!’ taunting any who had come to visit to a night of extreme sport and luxury. Cullen sped up one of the 33 fly-overs and descended right into one of the massive city’s suburbs where a few top-dollar restaurants were planted right in the center of the perfect lots and perfect houses with perfect white fences, and perhaps a perfectly normal family within each of their walls. The sight of this Suburbia made me cringe in disgust and disappointment. Where were the trees, the lakes, the land? All that was there were acres of perfectly manicured lawns with fences and shrubs as carefully proportioned borders. Every house had one tree in the front yard, and one in the back yard. To me it was too organized… too neat and precise to be natural. I stared through the windshield as we drove by the carefully measured rows of houses. Though each house had a different style of architectural work, it was repeated every tenth house down the block.
I didn’t understand why people would want to come and live in a controlled environment such as this! They were living like lab rats! Where were the fenceless acres of wild grasslands? Where were the forests, the creeks, the hills? Everything was so uniformed… so robotic… so inhuman. Driving through this place was like watching some badly made horror movie and still getting the hell freaked out of you. I was suddenly thankful that the heart of Waynesboro had not been touched by the philosophy of ‘harmony and unification’ like our Government had so urgently pushed. This wasn’t the way life should be lived.
“Is this what the Government wants the world to be like?” I asked in a very soft and distant voice.
“Yes, the Government wants the world to adopt this philosophy so the people of the nations will live a life of harmony and unification… just like their slogan says.” Cullen said. “They want the Muslims and the Jews to stop fighting, the east to meet the west, and for all I know they want man to reach up and be able to grasp a handful of stars and claim them as their own! World peace is what they strive for –though it would be a very nice accomplishment –if the world would only be at peace with itself.”
“There will be peace someday, Cullen. I'm sure of it.”
He threw the car in ‘park’ at the front of the restaurant and looked at me. “One can only hope, Gwynne.”
The restaurant was warm and cozy due to the frigid temperature outside. The winters in Georgia were longer now, and the summers were hotter. Ten feet of snow was quite normal around this time in October, so I didn’t know what was keeping the storms back from unleashing their fury on us for another year.
Cullen took my coat and gently guided me with the brief softness of his hand on my back every now-and-again. There was a lengthy line for seating in the lounge area, but Cullen excused himself and me through the mass of people all the way through. The voluptuous guests glared as we walked past them, angry as to why we were able to ‘cut in line’ and get a table before them. A host saw Cullen and smiled.
“Ah! Mr. Ramsey, how good to see you again. It’s been a while since you’ve dined with us.” the overly dressed host smiled showing off far too perfect teeth that sparkled unnaturally white against his fake-tan skin.
“Yes, it has been a very long time, Leo. How have you been?” Cullen asked casually.
“Quite well, thank you sir. Shall I reserve for you the normal seating?”
“Uh, no.” Cullen refused politely and with a slight head bow. “I was thinking more of a small, quiet booth instead.” Leo’s eyes flickered towards me, his smile winding down to a smirk.
“Of course, sir.” He grabbed a few silver-edged menus and motioned for us to follow him. Cullen took me by the hand and towed me along behind him like a little child. I tried pulling my hand away so I could walk on my own accord, but he had me too tightly.
Cullen gentlemanly motioned for me to sit in the curved booth that circled halfway around the marble-topped table first. I did it without question or hesitation. He sat down next to me. Leo handed us our menus and I immediately put mine down on the table and didn’t look at it.
“Anything special to drink, sir?” Leo asked Cullen with a smile.
“How about your best bottle of wine.”
“Of course, sir.” The host left us and went off to the wine cellar.
Cullen smiled and looked at me. “Leo’s a nice guy.”
“You come here a lot?” I asked.
“Whenever I can.” He smiled at me. I looked around the place at all of the other high-priced people sitting around with their diamond jewelry and expensive clothing. I began to feel a little underdressed.
“It must be expensive.”
“Oh, no. Not really. Expenses never bothered me.” he continued to stare at me and I did my best to avoid his gaze. I busied myself with playing with the silver on the menu.
“Why are you so quiet?” he kept talking. “You were very opinionated in your interview.” I looked at him to give him my answer.
“I'm rather quiet actually. Never really found a need to say anything when people weren’t willing to listen to what was being said.”
“Good point.” He nodded. Leo came back with the wine and two crystal glasses. He began pouring as Cullen continued to talk to me. “Of course, I'm here if you need someone to listen.”
“Thank you, but I’ll have to pass.” I smiled politely despite the harshness of my answer. Leo cleared his throat and Cullen and I looked at him.
“Are you ready to order?” he asked us.
“Gwynne?” Cullen turned his attention to me.
“No thank you, I'm not hungry tonight.” I said and declined my chance to order a meal that would cost Cullen more than a night at a ten star hotel.
“Eat something, darling! It’s not a big deal how much I spend.” Cullen assured with an honest face.
“Thank you for your hospitality, but I’m quite all right.”
“Very well, all right then, Leo. I’ll have what I usually have.”
“Yes, sir! Coming right up for you.” He sped away with that obnoxious grin on his long face.
Cullen looked back at me with a closed-mouthed smile, the dim light of the room reflecting gently in his eyes. I did my best to avoid his searching face, but it didn’t work too well. He folded his arms on the table and leaned forward towards me.
“You don’t say much, do you.”
“No, I don’t.” I said in an ‘isn’t it obvious’ way.
“Why?” he pushed.
“Because I don’t.” I answered flatly.
“Tell me, Gwynne. Please?” he cocked his head to the side and smirked a very mischievous smirk.
“Don’t look at me like that.” I said and looked away from him. “I’m not too fond of people staring at me. It makes me uncomfortable.”
“How could I possibly stop staring? You’re so beautiful.” He complimented. I dropped my head into my hands and groaned. I hated when people said stuff like that to me… it was okay with my grandmother, but not with men. It was always obvious what they wanted.
“Cullen, what are you looking for?” I asked with a heavy sigh. His forehead wrinkled in slight confusion at my randomness.
“What do you mean by that? It doesn’t make sense.” I grimaced. I hated explaining myself.
“What are you looking for by befriending me?” I clarified. He sat back with a brief look of shock.
“Well, I uh. I’m not following.”
“What is there that you can’t follow? I clarified the question.” I made my statement quite clear… so I didn’t understand what he was missing.
“What do you mean when you said ‘befriending me’? Can’t I just be friends with you without wanting anything? ”
“Yes, but do you want something?” I asked, wanting to get the truth out.
“Well…” he looked down at the table trying to find something to say about what I had brought to light. “I mean… uh, if –in the future maybe –we decided to… you know… become a couple and uh… become involved, that would be perfectly fine with me,” he said trying to be as casual as possible. I sat back with my mouth dropping open.
“Cullen, I don’t think that’s very appropriate talk for a simple dinner.”
“Well, you’re on a date with me.” he said matter-of-factly.
“Yeah, and I’m about this close to getting up and walking away from this ‘date’.” I held my fingers an inch apart to demonstrate what was left of my toleration span.
“How would you leave?” he said smugly. “You don’t have the keys to my car and I had it hot-wire proofed the other day.” He was quite full of himself for being so ‘clever’ in outwitting me… but that’s what he thought. I raised my brows as an all-knowing gesture.
“You mean these keys?” I asked and jingled the ring of keys hanging from a silver and bronze dragon charm. His jaw dropped as he felt his pockets to be sure those were his keys. Upon not finding them where he thought they would be, he snatched at them but I was too quick. I jerked the ring away with a quiet laugh of triumph.
“How’d you get them!?” he asked a little confused.
“Let’s just say I have a knack for picking up shiny things.” (This was entirely true, by the way.)
“No… really.” He said as he cocked his head with a look of ‘you’re lying’ in his face.
“Really.” I said and jingled the keys out of amusement. To me, this whole thing was funny.
“May I have my keys back, please?” he asked and grabbed for them again. I just casually snatched them out of his reach smirking at my fun joke. “Seriously, Gwynne… this is not funny.” He put on a tone of annoyed anger as he spoke through a fake smile plastered onto his handsome face.
“I find it quite funny, actually. You… wanting something you can't get, and possibly won't…” I used an analogy to get my point across to him. His jaw tightened as he began to glare at me.
“Gwynne… this is not funny anymore.” He warned.
He was being serious. I could see it in his eyes. I slowly lowered my hand and placed his car keys on the cloth-covered tabletop. He quickly put his hand on top of mine and pinned it there. I tried to retract… but he wouldn’t let me.
“Gwynne, you're being difficult, and I'm not too happy about that.” I tried to pull my hand away from him, but he picked it up and kissed my fingertips.
“Cullen, I barely even know you! How can you be talking about a future together when we only met yesterday?”
“Darling, even since the ISK came to me with a need of an article for the website, I've felt drawn to you. When I heard your voice over the phone, I wanted you to keep talking to me. Then when I saw you for the first time in person, I was in love with you.” He confessed suddenly, caressing my fingers with his lips once more.
“Cullen, stop.” I asked quietly. He ignored my request. “Mr. Ramsey, that is indeed quite enough.” I yanked my hand away from him and smothered it in my cloth napkin.
“Gwynne…” he whispered.
“Here we go, sir.” Leo interrupted this most awkward situation. I was actually quite happy for his senseless arrogance… but just this once. A plate of Cullen’s ‘usual’ dish was set in front of him and more wine was poured out for us.
“Enjoy!” Leo chimed and hurried away. I turned my head and refused to look at Cullen. He was quiet, and I could feel his pleading eyes boring into the back of my head.
“Gwynne, I'm sorry.” He apologized. I bit my lip trying to keep myself calm. “I'm sorry I said all that, I'm sorry for suggesting things, I'm sorry for even taking you out to dinner… it was a bad decision on my part.” I turned to look at him.
His expression was pleading… and sincere. I felt sorry for him and sorry about his problems. He was just different because he was raised differently. He brushed the back of his hand against my hot cheek.
“Will you forgive me?” he asked. I began to pick out all the possible paths I could take with this simple question asked of me. I had to decide ‘yes’ or ‘no’, and I had to decide quickly. Cullen was a reporter; he was used to getting his questions answered right after they were asked.
“Yes…” I said at a whisper, “I’ll forgive you.”
A smile spread across his face and he took my hand again. “Thank you.”
A strange feeling came over me and suddenly I felt like something was terribly wrong. I gripped at my stomach and leaned forward a little. I felt sick. Something bad was about to happen if it hadn’t happened already. Cullen noticed my sudden state of illness and placed a hand on my back.
“Gwynne? What’s wrong?” he asked as I covered my mouth with a hand. “You look sick, do you need to get out?” I nodded and pinched the bridge of my nose with my fingers. He grabbed one of the waiters on his way by and asked for the check with haste.
Within minutes, we had paid and ready to leave. He helped me out the door of the restaurant and towards his car. He took out the keys and unlocked the doors automatically. He opened the door for me and I took his keys, sliding over into the driver’s seat and buckling up.
“What are you doing!?” he yelled in shock as he leaned into the car and tried to take his keys back from me. I shoved them in the ignition and ripped the engine into life.
“Get in.” I revved the engine.
“What?” he made a face. I threw the gearshift out of park and backed up a few feet squealing the tires. “All right! All right! I'm in!” Cullen yelped and jumped inside closing the door behind him.
“Buckle up.” I backed up, switched gears again then roared out of the restaurant parking lot with people watching us go in astonishment.
“Where the hell are we going?” Cullen croaked as he clicked the buckle in and sat down edgily.
“I'm going back to my house.” I said and weaved through traffic on the ten-lane interstate.
“Couldn’t I drive you home? I mean, you barely even know the way!” he tried to laugh and make this seem funny, but this was no joke. Something was terribly wrong… and I think it was Tara. Something had happened to her, and if I lost her, I would never forgive myself as long as I lived.
The intersection became crowded the farther away we went from the Suburbia of Augusta City. The knot of ramps jutted up out of the ground before us in a trap of white concrete and titanium. One ramp shot by as we passed under the first few fly-overs.
“Which ramp!” I yelled and accelerated through the mass of traffic honking and swerving out of my way.
“This one! This one! This one!” he yelled and pointed franticly with a shaking hand. He squirmed in his chair and gripped it as I crossed over five thick lanes of traffic onto the fly-over ramp. I took to the curb at a good speed of 110 MPH… but it still wasn’t fast enough for me. I weaved through more cars on the three-lane fly-over whose drivers expressed their shocked anger by leaning on their horns and flashing their lights. Cullen was gasping now as he stared wide-eyed out the windshield.
“Gwynne, slow down will you?!” he screamed at me.
“Can this heap of junk metal go any faster?” I yelled back.
“Why do you want to know? We’re going fast enough already!” I stepped on the gas again and the car strained to meet my demands.
Within a matter of minutes, I was on the two-lane road going back to Waynesboro. Cullen’s car was taking the curves nicely, but it was slowing down in speed. I let out a growling yell to vent my anger and frustration as I gripped the steering wheel with iron hands.
“Gwynne, please slow down! You’re driveway is coming up and I don’t want you to roll my car!” he yelled at me gripping the seat and the door handle. I slammed on the breaks and skidded into the drive spraying dirt and gravel everywhere. Cullen grabbed the gearshift and threw his car in ‘park’, bringing the vehicle to a jolting stop with the engine raging because my foot was still pressed to the accelerator. I ripped my seat belt off and kicked open the door to get out. I tore off my heeled shoes and began sprinting down the driveway barefoot. Cullen ran after me shouting.
“Gwynne! No! Wait for me!” I could hear his heavy feet following behind and his breathing start to labor.
“Tara!” I screamed when I was halfway down the drive, hoping she would open the door and come bounding out of the house with a smile on her face.
A light was on in the front window… but it was flickering like fire… like fire! I pushed harder but something caught my arm and nearly yanked it out of the socket!
“Gwynne! Wait a second, how do you know anything’s wrong in–”
He never finished.
A deafening noise erupted and the ground shook as a great heat spread and blistered my frozen skin. I flew back and hit the ground, then something fell on top of me pinning me down and covering my face. I couldn’t see, move, and could barely breathe! After a few seconds, the heat died away and the sound of falling debris rang through the night air. I tried to remove whatever was pinning me down, perhaps a beam, and pushed up on it with all my strength. Once it was off my face enough to get fresh air, I took a gasping chest-full. The air was smoky and full of cement dust that choked me up.
“You all right?” the beam on top of me began talking… then I looked closer and saw it was Cullen. He his face was covered in blood and dust. I shoved him off me when the image of Tara flashed across my face.
“Tara!” I screamed and bolted for the flaming remnants of what used to be my house.
The porch was gone… so was the general structure of the place. The mangled door was off to the right of the burning heap and a few books with holey pages were scattered across the lawn and the drive where I stood in completely horrified shock. I couldn’t believe this was my house… that it was me it was happening to! This shit was the kind of stuff you saw in an action movie. It wasn’t ever supposed to happen in real life… but it was happening to me.
Strong arms wrapped around me as I stared at the heap of burning rubble dumped before me. “Gwynne… I'm so sorry.” Cullen whispered sadly.
Tara!
That was all I could think of.
Tara was here… in the house, when it blew up. She couldn’t be dead! She was only 23 years old! She hadn’t even finished college yet! She hadn’t even lived her life. She was gone… forever. I tried to break free from Cullen’s grasp and run into the ruins, but he was too strong, and my vision was clouding with tears.
“Tara!” I screamed out her name in hopes that I would receive an answer.
No sound came.
Silence was like a knife stabbing a fatal blow to my heart and stopping it cold.
I dropped to my knees and lost it. I cried openly… and I didn’t care who heard or who saw. I had lost my sister… and I didn’t know how I was going to live with that.
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