Best Friends, Remember?

The last night in Mist Hill

“Oh my God!” shouted Genevieve, when Jared shut the door. Jack was jumping to his knees, but both Jared and Genevieve didn’t have time for messing around with the dog. They tried to pack themselves as quickly as possible and leave Mist Hill. They realised, they were in huge danger.

“How do they know, that we are here?” asked panicked Genevieve.

“I have no idea. The only answer, that comes to my mind is, that they had to follow us somehow. But what way?” he astonished and grabbed food left in the fridge to his bag.

“I really don’t know. It’s freaking me out, how fast things around us are screwed” she moaned; “I’m gonna get our clothes. Gosh, I still didn’t take of this fabulous dress. Oh…” she sighed.

“What?” asked Jared, worried.

“I…” stuttered Genevieve; “I… still haven’t thanked you for this dress…” she finished shyly, grabbing a piece of material she was wearing.

“Oh… Gen, that’s… that’s really nothing. I f****d up”

“No, you didn’t” insisted Genevieve confidently; “I did. And I think it’s so nice of you, that you gave it to me. Such an unexpected gift. That was really beautiful and I just acted like a…” and she didn’t finish, because Jared has already kissed Genevieve in her lips. Even if shortly, still – intensively. He unattached his lips and said:

“Let’s talk about this later, okay?” he laughed, so did she.

“Okay” she agreed.

She walked away to change and when she came back to Jared, suddenly, Genevieve’s smile disappeared.

“We should probably say goodbye to Mrs. Grandy and take our money” she finally said when Jared had asked her what was wrong.

“Oh, yeah” admitted unwillingly Jared; “s**t…” he cursed.

“Unfortunately, it’s too late. We have to leave Mist Hill and sleep at some other place”

“But where?”

Jared and Genevieve looked at Jack. He was sitting straightly in front of them and staring adorably.

“And what about him?” laughed Jared.

Genevieve sighed and bit her bottom lip.

“I’m not mentally strong enough to leave him like that” she chucked; “and we won’t” she added.

“No, of course we won’t. We will just sleep with him, just like he used to”

“And what is that?” asked Genevieve.

“On the street”

“Don’t say that…”

“Do you have any other idea?” scoffed Jared.

“Jared, it’s October” reminded him Genevieve.

“Not anymore” corrected her Jared, after giving a look at the clock, hanging on the wall; “Midnight has passed. It’s the first of November”

Genevieve also gave a look at the watch. She frowned her eyebrows and turned her head to Jared again.

“Do you know, that we are spending the sixth day together?”

Jared nodded his head with his lips tightened and responded:

“Really? Doesn’t seem so. It feels weird… either a minute or a month…”

“What?” giggled Genevieve.

“You know… It felt like either a nick of time or eternity. You know what I mean?”; he looked at her; “like… I don’t know, maybe it’s just my imagination, but… I just wish we could meet in other circumstances” he chuckled, so did she; “that wouldn’t have to be so weird”

“But no one made us to make friends with each other” she reminded him.

“Well, that’s a fact” he laughed; “you have everything already?” asked Jared, when he saw, that Genevieve had grabbed her backpack in her right hand and stroked Jack with her left hand.

“Yeah…” she responded, straightening again.

“So…” he looked around to check if they were ready; “I guess we can go”

“Sure…” sighed Genevieve sadly, so Jared took her under his arm and hugged her.

“I know, I know… I will be missing this place too. You know, we can visit Stan someday” he tried to cheer her up.

“It actually sounds like a good idea” admitted Genevieve; “I’m just hoping he will be finally home. And not only him. I hope he will bring Joan with him” she said.

“Joan?” astonished Jared.

“His wife. He hasn’t told you about Joan, has he?”

“No. Unfortunately, we didn’t have time for talks…” he answered, reminding running away from the bullies. Jared also reminded himself when Stan helped him that moment and felt sorry, that he couldn’t thank him personally. He took a look at the room. All these walls, they were cleaning. All the rooms and furniture, they were dusting. Jared played Mr. Blue Sky in his head and recalled enjoying himself with Genevieve.

“Shall we?” sounded Genevieve’s voice.

“Sure” responded Jared; “come on, buddy” he pointed his words to Jack. The three of them left the house and finally passed the white fence.

Jared, holding Genevieve with his arm, turned his head to her again. She was also looking at Mist Hill with sentiment.

“Even if…” started Genevieve shyly, but fully focusing on her words; “… this whole situation didn’t start well… still… spending all this time with you… was the best time of my life…”

Jared smile at her beautifully and kissed her.

They were walking by the sandy path. They passed the dried wheat field, the old buildings and by that, Mist Hill was receding from second to second. The sky was so dark, that if you looked up, you could totally sink in this deepness.

Jared, Genevieve, and Jack were slowly receding on the horizon. The stars were lightening their way up. It seemed to never end, although they knew, that after walking five miles, they will be in Foggy Corner – their sleeping destination. They wanted to find some proper place to stay all night at. And that was their first thought from one reason – that was the only place they knew around a huge area. Unfortunately, happened to have no internet connection, a phone booth that doesn’t work, dusted places, weird people and abandoned places of work that no one took care of. It was – literally – a ghost town.

After a long walk across empty paths and abandoned houses, Jared and Genevieve with Jack’s company entered Foggy Corner. It was even more lonely and empty than usually – it was after midnight. Jared passed the broken phone booth and immediately thought, that they could go to sleep there, but then he chased that thought away.

“That’s ridiculous” he thought; “we would look like homeless tramps” he mocked.

He scoffed. Genevieve heard that and asked:

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing… That’s just hopeless” he sighed with pain; “where on earth are we going to sleep tonight? I think it would be a better idea if we just walked around through the whole night and not sleep” he confessed.

“No, I think not” denied Genevieve.

“Sorry, just got used to it” responded Jared and then regretted saying that. Just like Jared predicted, Genevieve decided to ask:

“What do you mean, you got used to it?”

“Let’s pretend I didn’t say that…” he just responded reluctantly.

Genevieve froze at one place and didn’t take any step more. She didn’t make any move, even.

“What?” asked Jared impatiently.

“When will you finally stop hiding everything from me?” she asked, with frustration in her voice; “this hiding… I don’t like that… Cause you act like I was a stranger to you” she said and continued walking.

“You’re not”

“Okay, good. So just stop treating me like I am, okay?”

“But Genevieve, there are some things I prefer you not to know”

“Why?”

“A simple reason. For your safety” he said and stepped to her; “and you know it” he whispered.

Genevieve nodded her head silently, but also with understanding. She knew, Jared had some secrets and always will. She just at least wanted to be part of this period of his life – sharing with problems. She opened her mouth to say something, but she finally resigned out of it.

“What are you doing?” asked Genevieve, when she saw Jared coming closer to some random door.

“Looking for a place to sleep” responded calmly Jared and put his ear to the glass.

“But how?”

He broke the glass with his elbow and looked for the handle.

“Jared!”

“What? No one lives here. We’re not gonna get into trouble” he assured her, but she rolled her eyes anyway.

“Of course we’re not…” she mocked.

Jared opened the door.

“Was there any lock?” joked Jared with irony, and both Jared and Genevieve laughed.

It turned out, that Jared, Genevieve and Jack spent the night at a post office, that was out of order and judging by the amount of dust and dirt – it was abandoned for a long time. It was cold, uncomfortable and dirty – but they had no choice. They had to spend their last night out. There was the risk of getting found by the clown or the murderers.

At three AM, Jared heard a strange sound. An engine, working quietly and unwillingly, but bravely and stubbornly. Jared rose his head. Then, he looked at sleeping Genevieve and Jack, next to her, and when he had checked if they didn’t hear that, Jared stood up and came closer to the broken whole in smashed glass. He put his head to that glass and saw a red car, hitting the road. Its lights went off and the driver went out. He turned his head to the post office, so Jared knelt and hid behind the door. He was sitting under the handle and tried to discreetly check if they were gone. Unfortunately – no. Some other person went out of the red car and started looking around. They both had black hoods on their heads, so Jared couldn’t identify them. He sat behind the door (on the floor) and waited for the engine to die away. After a minute or two, it finally quieten down, but instead of dead silence and strangers’ disappearance, Jared noticed, that two delicate streams of white light marked on the walls of the post office.

“s**t…” he cursed under his breath.

The lights were moving with the strangers, but luckily receding. Some whispers were heard too, but Jared couldn’t understand none of their meaning. Once they had disappeared, Jared didn’t see them for the rest of the night. Jared, Genevieve and Jack didn’t happen to sleep so long – it was almost dawn, the sun was about to rise soon and people were coming to work.

“Genevieve, wake up. We should go” whispered Jared to her ear.

As a response, she muttered something unintelligibly and reluctantly opened her eyes.

“What?… Oh, yeah, sure…” she said and slowly stood up; “hey… Jack… we gotta go” she directed her words to the dog, who was still lying next to her. As she stroked him tenderly, he moved quickly and woke up.

“Great” commented Jared, took his bag and Genevieve’s pack, gave it to her and they both went out of the post office. They passed some random people on the street, smiling at them, not to create any suspicion. Jared waved to Ed, who he had seen in his shop. Ed waved back and went back to work.

“You wait here, I will tell Mrs. Grandy about our quitting” suggested Genevieve; “someone has to stay outside with Jack” she explained.

“Sure” responded Jared, but then reminded himself of someone. Who he definitely didn’t want Genevieve to meet with. Timothée. Jared cleared his throat and decided not to say anything. He didn’t want him and Genevieve to fight. That was the last thing, he wanted to have with Genevieve. A fight.

Genevieve smiled at Jared after his response and kissed him on the cheek. She also stroked Jack and then walked away, saying: “bye!”

She entered the Foggy Corner Library, as always passing the huge, wooden door with a heavy, golden handle. Mrs. Grandy – predictably – was sitting at her wooden desk, always writing some notes down and having a huge paper mess around her. She put her glass on, when she had seen Genevieve.

“Hello, my dear. How can I help you?” she asked politely.

“Hi, Mrs. Grandy. I have an important thing to tell you”

Mrs. Grandy frowned her eyebrows, little bit worried, and her glasses slid off of her straight nose.

“I beg your pardon?”

“We have to leave. It’s a long story, trust me, madam. We would just like to ask for our payment and quit” confessed Genevieve. Mrs. Grandy was shocked.

“Wh… Why?” she stuttered. Her pair of glasses completely slid off of her nose and fell on the desk. Luckily, they didn’t break.

“I am sorry, very sorry, madam. I know you told us, that you had had no volunteers for working places, but we really have no choice. We’re broke, desperate and lonely. That’s all I can say. And if anybody asked if you know us, tell them no”

Mrs. Grandy opened her eyes widely in disbelief.

“Are you wanted?” shouted Mrs. Grandy and rapidly, but delicately stood up from her seat.

“No, no! Please, sit down. I’m not a criminal. Neither is Jared” said Genevieve, but her inner voice, the one she had in her head, told her: “liar…”

Mrs. Grandy breathed in relief and sat down again. She took the glasses, that she had dropped and put them back on her straight nose. Moment later, when she had chilled out, she leant to open the first drawer on the right, clicked some button and suddenly another metal key appeared from the other cubby.

“Here” said Mrs. Grandy, passing a pile of banknotes to Genevieve. Genevieve looked at them and counted them.

“Mrs. Grandy…” she started, because she noticed, that Mrs. Grandy had given her too much.

“No. Don’t say anything” she just said, without a serious, but not mean face.

Genevieve hesitated and then smiled delicately.

“Thank you. Thank you very much” she said with a great deal of gratefulness. She even wanted to hug the fourty-year-old lady and moved closer to do that.

“May I?” asked Genevieve, and when Mrs. Grandy shook her head in agreement, so they hugged warmly. When they unattached, Genevieve asked:

“Can I say goodbye to Timothée?”

“Oh, dear. Haven’t you known?” worried Mrs. Grandy.

“About what?” asked Genevieve.

“Timothée quit the day you, guys, appeared” responded Mrs. Grandy calmly.

“Us? You mean… me and Jared, ma’am?”

“Yes, of course, my darling. He quit. Because of, just like he had said, family issues”

“Family issues. I…” hung Genevieve. She scoffed and thought: “What’s wrong with him? Or with me?”

“Well… that’s all I know, darling” admitted Mrs. Grandy and walked Genevieve to the door. Genevieve still had a worried face and her mind was full with suspicions. She said goodbye to Mrs. Grandy. The lady waved to Jared, so he smiled and waved back friendlily. When Mrs. Grandy disappeared behind the huge, wooden door of the library, Genevieve stood up to Jared.

“How it went?” asked Jared, sighing.

“Weird” responded Genevieve.

“What do you mean?” asked Jared.

“First of all, she almost got a heart attack, when I told her, we wanted to quit…”

“Ouch…”

“Then, she gave me too much money” said Genevieve and passed the pile of pounds to Jared.

“How much?” he asked, taking the money and trying to count it.

“One hundred pounds”

“What?!” he shocked; “why? I mean, it’s nice, but… no one does that…”

“Some good people do, apparently… Anyway… The last thing is – she said, that Timothée had quit the day Mrs. Grandy hired us”

Last Genevieve’s words made the biggest impression on Jared.

“WHAT?!” he shouted.

“Exactly, that made me think. I think we are constantly followed”

 “But the question is: by whom?”