The Unbreakable Bond

Chapter 8

I bring the car to a stop in front of Aunt Lucy's house, Sam still in the passenger seat, I word not having left her mouth since before I had spun my car around.

Aunt Lucy, and now Liese, live on the older side of town in the type of single family home that would now be referred to as 'war homes', a two-story structure built in the 1900's. It is maybe 1300 square feet over three levels, if you include the basement.

The white paint on the outside of the stucco home peeling, weathered and a bit dirty. Above the front door is a 'widows watch deck', build for the war wives to wait on and watch for their loved ones to come home from war. The railing looks as though it would fall if a bird were to land upon it.

The walkway leading up to the house is cracked and weeds are growing up through it.

The entire yard is surrounded by a picket fence, but I can not make out the colour as it's completely covered in Virginia creeper.

The yard itself is beautiful, the grass cut short and beautiful flower beds full of Lillies, Irises, Columbine and other beautiful flowers I had never seen before among them.

The front of the house is covered in older style, single pain windows that have dark curtains drawn, likely to avoid prying eyes from seeing what lies within.

At the edge of the window I am able to make out that there is a dim light coming from somewhere towards the rear of the house. Otherwise the house is dark and quiet.

It's almost 8pm, and although it's not completely dark out yet, the daylight is beginning to fade. Some of the other houses along the block already have a front porch light on.

I notice there are already street lights on, but there are only two on the entire street, and both are dim and flicker once and awhile as if ready for the bulbs to burn out.

Sam and I sit and stare at the house, neither of us wanting to be the first to get out of the car and knock on the door.

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It is completely dark inside the old log cabin, a red hue coming from what I assume must be a fire place. Embers still glowing red but only creating a kind of eery glow that barely reached the edge of the hearth.

I wasn't even able to see if there was any furniture inside, even so, I wasn't afraid at all.

I slowly crept forward, taking baby steps and feeling with my toe so I didn't trip or run into anything.

Aunt Lucy was behind me now, patiently mirroring each of my movements.

When I reached the fireplace my eyes had adjusted a little bit and I was able to find a couple small pieces of fire wood, stacked neatly to the side, already chopped to be the perfect sized pieces and added them into the glowing embers.

I silently sit on the floor in front of the fire, Aunt Lucy sitting down beside me.

"Where are we?" I ask. Staring into the fire watching the small flames lick around the wood I had just placed within, the odd spark dancing into the air above. "How did we get here?"

"We need to talk". I hear a voice from somewhere behind me state.

My heart skipped a beat, but did not speed up.

I recognized this voice. Although it sounds a bit more raspy and tired than I had remembered it.

"Mom?" I ask. Standing up from my spot on the floor and turning to face the darkness.

I can still feel Aunt Lucy beside me, and a reach for her hand to hold.

I hear the mystery person shuffle in her seat, she snaps her fingers and the room fills with a soft glow of light.

My eyes don't need to readjust to the low light so I frantically scan the room until I find her, sitting in a large gray chair along the back wall of the room, her lap is covered in an oversized navy blue blanket and she looks older, more frail than I remember.

Her poker straight hair falling around her tiny face has streaks of silver throughout it, the low light in the room making it sparkle.

"Come sit" she calmly gestures with her hand towards a chaisse seat large enough for both Aunt Lucy and I across from her.

I start to better take in my surroundings, the entire wall beside the sitting area is a bookshelf, covered in old looking leather bound books.

The room also contains a little kitchen area, and a table that could comfortably seat three for meals.

The space was much bigger on the inside than it looked from outside.

I made my way over to my mother. Still unsure if I was happy to she her, or still mad at her for leaving. Just as I sat on the chaisse, it being much more comfortable than it looked did I realize that the light in the room was not from a typical light on a ceiling or even a lamp. There were about twenty candles, floating in mid air throughout the room.

Wide eyed, I glanced from my Aunt Lucy to my mom, unsure of what so say.

'This must be a dream!' I thought.

My mom lightly chuckled and smiled at me.

"Anna, we need to talk, it is very important!"

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JUDE'S POV

After about five minutes, Sam and I both got out of the car and walked up to the front door. Sam knocked and stepped back to stand beside me.

We waited for about thirty seconds and looked at each other, there hadn't been a rustle or any type of sound that had come from within.

"You try!" Sam whispers.

I loudly knock on the door and wait. When nothing happens I look at Sam.

"Maybe she went to bed?" Sam states in a questioning manner.

"Maybe" I state dryly. "That might explain why she seemed so off today" I add.

I knew this wasn't the reason at all, but Sam was not the person I needed to speak to about everything right now.

I needed to get back and find Genevieve.

"Let's go" I say, gesturing towards Sam and turning on my heel to head back to the car. "I'll drop you off, we will catch up with Liese tomorrow!"

Sam follows me back to the car, dragging her feet like a small child whom didn't get their way.

I drop Sam off and hurriedly set off towards the pack house. I was eager to speak to Gene.