She takes her whole backpack with her this time—lake clothes, flowers, and all shoved in. And Jamie has to say, it is way more comfortable sprinting down the sidewalk with dry clothes on than walking for god knows how long in slimy lake clothes. Jamie is much more prepared and calm in her jacket and damp shoes.
As she travels pretty much top speed down the street, her stomach begins to grumble loudly, physically vibrating at the pit of her gut. Jamie groans and stops, increasingly annoyed with her body. Of all times, this is the moment her body decides she can't continue to ignore her hunger? Glancing up at one of the digital monitors on a nearby building, she notices the time and realizes she didn't eat anything last night nor did she have lunch yesterday, or breakfast this morning.
Jamie sighs this time, her arms slack at her sides. She needs to eat something—her body is physically screaming at her to eat something—but it's not like she has endless time or money, she wasn't expecting to stay here much longer than today. But alas, if she is hungry, she won't be able to properly use her brain and that may damage her chances of finding Dani, which will not do.
During her walk through London on her way to Bly, Jamie has managed to wind up in a part of the city she's fairly familiar with. There should be somewhere to eat around here somewhere—anything small and fast would be fine, she needs to hoard enough time as she can.
She turns to the right, up a sidewalk that leads her down a street lined with lampposts and trees, already gently shaken by fall approaching. Her step lulls as she recognizes the street, then turns and down a little ways, like an image straight out of her head, is a small bar. Of course she would be eating here, of course.
There is no way this is coincidence, her stepping foot in this exact bar, on this trip. God, this day. It's always timing, and Jamie feels closer to Dani just being here.
During their thirteen years together, Dani told Jamie everything. Everything about her past with Edmund and her parents, everything about how hard it was coming to London and then how she felt meeting Jamie—they had lingered on that topic a little longer than the others because Dani wouldn't stop giving her that gentle smile and stooped eyes, and Jamie just had to kiss her every time—and then everything she could remember with the lady of the lake. Those last moments had been hard; holding her in the dark, as if keeping her own spirit within her body. So much Dani shared with her, Jamie truly was the luckiest person to experience that kind of vulnerability and trust in her lifetime. And it was mutual, Jamie became a window whenever Dani was around, how could she not?
And in turn, Jamie will never forget all Dani told her. It'll forever be folded in her pocket, like Dani's last note in her wallet. It's too important to accidentally misplace, and Dani trusted her with it. Like in Ancient Greece, when storytellers would memorize poems like the Odyssey to orally pass down through generations—Jamie could tell Dani's life like a story if she needed to, almost like folklore, passing down her love with every word.
So needless to say, Jamie knows this is the bar Dani visited after her interview with Henry. Where she successfully scored her job at the manor by walking straight up to the man she just failed her interview with and toasting. Nothing was ever as fearless as Dani.
As Jamie enters the bar, she's almost stunned by how quiet it is. That is until she realizes it's barely midday.
There's a couple televisions hung up on either wall, both playing identical sport games Jamie couldn't care less about. Gentle music plays, filling the pretty much empty bar fitfully as nothing else is. A man stands behind the actual bar, washing a glass with a rag over and over in circles. He glances up when Jamie slinks over to the nearest seat at the bar, by the entrance, and slumps forward.
YOU ARE READING
All Again
FanfictionFour years since Jamie found Dani drowned at the bottom of the Bly lake, and four years since she swore she'd never go back. But when she does, something isn't right. **NOT MY CHARACTERS, ALL CHARACTERS BELONG TO THE HAUNTING OF BLY MANOR. THE PLOT...