Alone

Chapter 11

                                                                                                Anna

    I had gotten home just in time to see the authorities leaving and my heart stopped. Immediately I thought something had happened while I was gone. I lost her! I lost her, I can’t lose her too, I screamed in my head.

    Auntie Sisilia had been frantic, while uncle Alister was cool as usual. Uncle Alister had always been a very cool-headed individual. He had served as an infantry officer for the Marine Corps for 20 years. He was a much older man than my aunt but he was a very handsome man. They have tried for children but because of a training accident he might never be able to have any children.

    When I had stepped into the estate auntie Sisilia had enveloped me into her arms even in her late-twenties and a small woman, she squeezed the air out of me. Uncle Alister was right behind her. He smiled a crooked smile and rolled his eyes.

    “See dear, there is nothing to worry about. The girl is just fine. You were just worrying yourself for nothing.” He said. He was rubbing his wife’s shoulders as her whole-body shock.

    I looked around, not really understanding why she was crying. “Auntie Sisilia, is everything alright? Is someone hurt? Why are you crying?” Auntie Sisilia trying to collect herself, but I couldn’t understand anything she was saying. I looked at uncle Alister for further clarification.

    “When we came back home the door was wide open and a few things were missing. And you were not anywhere in site so we assumed whoever had entered the house had taken you too.”

    I am flabbergasted by this. “Who would come in and steal something? We don’t have much here.” I disentangle aunt Sisilia’s vise grip from around me and look at her. “I am so sorry auntie. William had come to take me out for a stroll. I left a note so you wouldn’t worry.”

    Aunt Sisilia shook her head as if to rid herself of the shock. She sniffled and uncle Alister removed his handkerchief and handed it to her. She wiped her nose and looked at me with puffy red eyes. “Who is this William?”

    I looked at her as if she was mental. “That is what you are worried about?” She probed me with her eyes not moving an inch. I roll my eyes. “William is the bachelor that I danced with at my coming out party. Don’t you remember auntie?”

    She grew confused trying to remember, her eyes grew wide with recognition. “Anna, no. You were dancing indecently. That is not how you should portray yourself in front of others.”

    “Auntie, sense when am I not allowed to pick whoever I want to be my husband? I have gotten to know this man and he is special.”

    “Oh sweetie, of course I am not trying to choose why you will marry. You have a privilege few ever have. You can marry for love, not money. But you need to think of your image. What people will think of you is what will allow you to fit in with the rest of good society. And I’m sure he’s a good man, but you have only met him for less than 2 days. How could you possibly know him like that? We don’t even know if he is of good a good family.”

    “Auntie he is a hard worker, he has been working all his life. He is all alone in the world, his family the Nowak’s died a long time ag-“

    “Nowak?” Auntie Sisilia seems surprised, she grows excited. “This William, his family’s name is Nowak? Anna, the Nowak family makes our family look poor. They have their hands in almost all of the businesses in America and some in Europe. This family is of old money almost as old as our own.” I wonder why, I laugh to myself. “Anna why did you not tell me his full name sooner. That would be a dream come true and he is quite handsome.” Up to that point Uncle Alister had been quiet.

    “What am I, my dear? Am I not handsome? I thought that is what attracted you to me in the first place.” He gives her sad eyes, as if what she had said really had wounded him. She caved immediately and kissed him on the lips.

    I have seen their love, which had me wanting it for myself. As soon as aunt Sisilia had walked into a room, uncle Alister would stop whatever he was doing and watch her make her way to him. The love on his face was so evident many women would become jealous, and I understood the. Everywhere they went even after all these years their love had not dwindled. If anything, it had increased over the years. When I had seen William and the way he had looked at me I had known I had found what I had been searching for.

    I went back up to my room after making sure aunt Sisilia was alright. I looked around my room. The room was a rectangular shape, with an eggshell color. At my bed with windows to the left overlooking the front courtyard. A bookshelf spilling with all my favorite books. On the other side were two doors one to my closet and other for the water closet, a vanity with a mirror in between both doors. Even after all these years there was little that was actually mine. Maybe one day I could make someplace my home.

    With nothing to distract my mind now I think back to what I had seen earlier. I begin to pace back and forth in my room. I did see him, I thought. He was standing on a sidewalk across the street looking in the direction of my carriage. But he was supposed to be dead. My father was supposed to be dead. It must have been someone else, I say to myself. There is no other explanation. I never saw his body. I was told he had died. I had, had my doubts of course but once year after year passed and he never showed I knew he was never going to come back. I had lost both parents because of a werewolf. As I am pacing, I notice my brush, that was normally on my vanity, is missing. I look around thinking I must have placed it somewhere else. For a second I think maybe whoever broke into our home took it. But why would anyone steal my brush?

                                                                                          Hunters

    “Yes sir, she was seen with it. She looked like she knew it well. Maybe a little too well.”

    The boss raises his arm as if to strike the hunter. “She would not stoup to its level. She just doesn’t know what it is. She is a casualty. Now that we have her scent, we won’t lose her again, not like last time, will we?” The hunter knows all too well. His last partner is dead because of his incompetence. How they lost them, they will never know. He still couldn’t walk right even after drinking the blood, it was supposed to speed up the healing process. It was the only thing those mongrels were good for.

    “We won’t let you down again boss.”

    “No, you won’t, because I am coming with you.”

    s**t, the boss must really want this girl, the hunter thought.