Rose Thorns & Love Letters

2 ➪ Love, Billy

•Camilla•

4/7/1867
To the one I love most,
I am ill. I cannot stop my mind from wandering to you. I am unwell. Knowing that I cannot be in your embrace every second of my day saddens me. I am indisposed. You are the fond object of my affection and desires. I simply cannot have the luxury of health if i cannot have the luxury of you. I love you.
Love, Billy.

__________________

I blink back tears as I read Billy's heartbreak as though it was my own. I try to stop my voice from breaking as I read the last words aloud to my best friend Zoe.

I hear muffled laughter over the phone and I instantly tap my phone in annoyance as if she can even see my irritation.

I know she can feel it.

"Are you laughing right now?" I say through gritted teeth. She finally allows herself to laugh out loud and I roll my eyes in exasperation.

"Okay, okay I'm sorry. I shouldn't laugh." She takes in a deep breath and I graze my finger over the deteriorating edges of the letter and I too sigh.

"How do you know that the people who modernised your Princess castle didn't make these letters as some sick April fools joke to fuck with you?" She asks while snacking on something unknown to me.

To be completely honest, I don't know. But something inside me is convinced that these people are real people who loved real people.

"C'mon Zo. Nobody has the time to do that on job. Besides, who do you think even has the courage to mess around when my Father has given them a task?" I challenge.

She thinks to herself for a moment and the static over the phone fills the room. "What's the worst he could do?"

What is the worst he could do?

I shrug my shoulders, "I don't know. Fire them?" I have never seen my Father in full work mode. I do believe if you can get under his skin, he will snap.

We both laugh at the different scenarios we come up with and the different impressions we make of my Father firing one of his 'men'.

"Hey Cami, I gotta go. My brother is going insane about me taking him out for ice cream. Talk to you later. I'll come visit you!" The last two sentences are rushed and said as one big word.

I hear a loud 'mwah' before she turns off the phone and leaves me silently wishing I never had to move away. My friends are in Chicago, my Mom is in Chicago, my life is in Chicago.

I look over to my bedside table and see the love letter from Billy to his unknown love. I pick it up and fold it delicately. I place it in my box and stare into space.

It has been a week and a half since My Father and I officially moved here and I believe it is safe to say that I hate it here.

I have not left the property once to explore the secrets that are hidden by the trees and nature in the forests.

My mind wanders back to the strange encounter I had with that man a few days back and I instantly shake the feeling that drapes over me.

I do not like the feeling of not knowing who he was, but I also do not like the idea of finding out. I take a deep breath in and hope for his existence to fall into oblivion. At least in my mind.