Fabian's Wisp

The Gate

The bathroom door closing behind her, she took her father's arm, as he walked her to the main door. His face was cold, his jaw clenched. He led her through the door, and to the small four person car they owned. Paid for by this evil trade. Of course, it wasn't her family's choice. She stepped into the car, almost on autopilot. She had decided to open her next chapter with excitement, even if it was her last. She had to be strong for Sid, and for her parents. 

Her father turned on the engine, silent the whole time. He pulled out, the car backing out of the snow covered driveway.

She glanced back at her house, whispering goodbye. Sidney stood at the entrance, with her mother, Sidney was yelling something, she believed it was, "come back soon." They waved goodbye, as she and her father silently drove away, for her last time. She had expected to feel tears on her face as she drove away from the house she knew she'd never see again. However, there were no tears, but a sense of numbness. All the years of anticipation for this moment hadn't prepared her for what she would feel, or well, what she wouldn't feel.These were the last moments she had with her father, and she didn't have any more time left with her mother and sister. She didn't know what to say to her father at a time like this. He didn't know what to say to her either. He tried to make small talk, but her replies were always mumbled, and it was clear neither of them knew how to approach the situation. For the majority of the drive, they rode in silence. The tears had already been cried for the past years of their lives. They had never really stopped crying, the pain was clear. It was clear to anyone who saw their faces, behind the false laughs and plastered grins.

After the second hour, they reached the edge of the house's grounds. Along the front entrance was a red brick fence that stretched for as far as she could see. 

It must've been awfully expensive, she thought. 

As they continued down the road, alongside the fence, they remained silent. Out of the corner of her eye, Ophelia saw her dad fidgeting, moving his hands uncomfortably on the steering wheel. He was nervous. She could only imagine how he felt. The second time something like this happened, and he couldn't do anything about it. All he could do was drive his daughter to her certain death. He was probably taking it harder than her. She had a year to try to find a way to escape, to end the cycle, to save Sidney. To her father, however, as soon as he dropped her off at the gate, she would be gone forever. She wouldn't be there to comfort him and her mother as they aged, as the holes in their family pictures grew, one by one. 

They pulled up to the main entrance, which was a large wrought iron gate. It hadn't been opened for a year.

Ophelia looked at her father, giving him a smile. 

"I'll be fine," she said.

Her father nodded. She saw the tears in his eyes, the slightly furrowed eyebrow. What would happen to him this year? He had taken it harder the last time this happened than her mother. He was the one that had to drive them after all. What would happen to him when she failed to show up the next year outside this same gate?

She forced the thought out of her mind. It wouldn't come to that. She would find a way out. 

Ophelia stepped out of the car, facing the black gate. She sighed, a sigh of relief. She was finally here. No more tense waiting. The day had come. 

She didn't have any luggage, they would bring that. 

Ophelia turned back to her father, smiling. She felt a lot better than she had assumed she would. Instead of the sadness she had felt that morning, she was filled with a wonderful sense of adventure. She would make her last chapter the best chapter. It didn't matter that the book was short, as long as she made the most of it. The sadness she felt was for her family, she worried what would happen to them that year without her. Would they really be able to hold up a second time, keep pretending that everything was okay? They weren't okay, and they hadn't been as long as she could remember. She would just have to come back the next year.