Unspoken Fears

Chapter 10 ~ Simply Hope

We reached over 200 reads! Thank you to everyone who took a chance, and especially to those who stuck around. *throws flowers all around* This chapter was TOUGH to write. I hope you enjoy and have a nice weekend- and a nice long weekend to those who have it this week!

            Sleeping did, in fact, make a major difference. Not a "world" but a major difference. I had been so exhausted I didn't have any dreams. No haunting nightmares- just blissful darkness. I still woke early, but it was peaceful.

After a hot shower I put on a clean white blouse and brown pants. I went down the stairs silently. The whole mansion seemed silent- but it could have been all of us were spread out so far I wouldn't be able to hear them even if they were up and being loud.

Then again, it wasn't even six yet so it made sense they still slept. When I got to the bottom of the grand staircase, soft piano music greeted me. I followed it down the hallway to a study. The walls were built in bookshelves, and a desk sat on one side of the room, with leather chairs on one side. The one wall that wasn't built in bookshelves was covered in floor to ceiling windows- no; one of them was open- a door leading out to the green, lush green yard. A radio sat next to the desk playing music quietly, but no one was in the office.

I went over to the open glass door and looked out at the world as the sunlight just started to wake the world. The air smelled different here, clean and refreshing, and it was silent without the constant rush of D.C. traffic.

"Good morning," Someone greeted from behind me. I spun and Charles stood in the office doorway, holding a mug. "How did you sleep last night?"

"I slept well, thank you." His hair glinted, damp from a recent shower, and he had also changed out of his clothes from the last cursed day in the city.

"Good. There is more tea in the kitchen if you'd like. I thought I would be the only one up for a while." He came in and set his mug on the desk. "After everything that happened, everyone deserves a long rest."

"Thank you." I turned back to look outside. A slight breeze blew through, rustling the bushes and tree branches. Several yards away, the branches of a willow tree danced- next to a lake. "That's the lake," I said as recognition dawned. I pointed at the picturesque view. It stood as beautiful and peaceful as it had been when Charles showed it to me to calm me down that night we met, the first time he kept me from having a meltdown. That view made me want to slow down and relax, sit on the plush green hill and just breathe. Maybe lie on the grass and watch the clouds drift by.

Charles came beside me and looked out. "Oh, yes. It's my lake, it's always been a favorite place for me to go and think. My great grandfather planted that tree. I've spent many hours hiding under the branches."

I glanced at him in the corner of my eyes. "Hiding?"

He stiffened, as if he had let something slip out unintentionally. "Yes, well." Charles cleared his throat and gave me a half smile. "Not as bad as it could have been. Doesn't every child have something they want to hide from? Eating their vegetables or doing their chores? I, in particular, didn't acquire a taste for peas until I was a teenager. I still don't prefer broccoli."

I smiled to make him happy, but stored the information away. Not the vegetables he liked or disliked, but that there was something more to Charles. There always is, people are hardly ever who they show you initially. Good, bad, or indifferent, we all have histories, and while he grew up in a mansion maybe his life wasn't so rich, not really. He was so willing to know everything about everyone else, but hid himself. Ironic it never made him think maybe other people had things they wanted to hide too.