House of Secrets

Chapter 3 - The Unexpected Street

House of Secrets, by Sebastiene. Chapter 3 - The Unexpected Street. 

Gwen scanned the area where the car had been. From this angle, there was no sign anyone had ever been there. Every trace of evidence about what had scared her simply disappeared into the undergrowth.

She put the car into gear and started driving. Whoever had made the footprints, he had come by while she had been away from the car. Had he seen her, or watched her? She shuddered at the mental image, but then remembered how she had purposefully gone back into the woods farther than she'd wanted to, losing sight of the car. That should mean that anyone beside the car wouldn't have seen her.

I hope. Who was he? Where did he go?

Whoever he was, he hadn't stayed, and he hadn't tried to hurt her.

A cynical voice in her head said, Or, he didn't have the chance without you seeing him, first.

She couldn't let herself think that way. Her heart was starting to slow down from its frantic pace, and she could think a little more clearly.

"Maybe a man noticed the car while he was out taking a walk, and he stopped to make sure I was okay. The footprints might not have been menacing at all. Then, seeing that no one was inside the car, the man went away. Maybe it was nothing."

That made sense. It was possible. Maybe she hadn't been in danger. Maybe no one had watched her while she had been in the woods.

Gwen rubbed one side of her face, and then the other, always keeping one eye on the road. It was more than the strange footprints that bothered her. It was this place. It was putting her on edge, and not just because of strange footprints and how dire her and her mother's situation was.

Yes, there were beautiful colors lining the road, but the sheer lack of urban-ness was a shock to her system. It was too quiet. There were no car horns. No ambulances rushing past. Not a single television blaring. No trucks rumbling on the street and making all the glasses in the apartment jingle like a hundred tiny glass bells.

Out in the woods, there had been nothing but a few rustling leaves and the occasional, mournful bird cry.

Nature, Gwen thought. She glanced around, again. It seemed like everyone in the city wanted to live in the country.

They can have it, she thought. It made her feel exposed. There weren't enough places to hide. There weren't enough people to form any kind of crowds she could disappear into. She knew how to live in a city. This was... different.

She couldn't afford a GPS, so an old-fashioned map she'd found in the glove box had to do.

"I just hope you're up to date," she told it.

She shook her head at herself for talking to inanimate objects, again. It was a habit she'd picked up in the evenings when her mother was the most heavily medicated. It might not have been healthy, but it had helped her cope as her mother's health had declined. Beverly's anxiety disorder was terrible to watch. The medication just got more potent with every prescription. Her mother needed medication, and she needed quiet—two things Gwen was finding harder and harder to give her.

"Lots and lots of quiet, if you can manage it," the doctor had told Gwen. "That's what your mother needs. If you can find some way to take the strain off her, somewhere where she could really relax, I think it would help a great deal. With time, who knows? She might even partially recover on her own. The sad thing is that those most in need of having less stress in their lives often have the most."