paramour

chapter 7

Unsolvable Mysteries

Chapter 7: Unsolvable Mysteries

We arrived at the house a half hour later. We'd been silent the whole time, only listening to the good music on the radio today. He seemed to focus on nothing but the road now... well, that's at least what his eyes gave away. But I knew he was deep in thought rather than concentrating on driving. I sneaked a peek at him every once in awhile, trying to decipher from his stance where his thoughts had led him. But his face and body language gave nothing away, and I think this is what he wanted. It frustrated me a lot for some reason. I couldn't stand not knowing what he was thinking, and I wanted to ask him the whole time we were driving. But I kept quiet, and tried to keep a poker face of my own. I didn't want to give away that I was irritated that he wouldn't let me in on how he thought of my predicament at home.

I sighed as we pulled up to the house, having driven along my fairly long forest encroached driveway, to find that my mother was home right now. Her very beaten up car was parked in front of the house. Hopefully she was tired from her shift at the airport, and was sleeping. People were always crabby with her, apparently, and it was a requirement of her job that she was to not snap back at them, which she would have in any other situation. That took a lot of effort on her part, and she always came back exhausted and short-tempered. Not that she wasn't always irritable...

Damian turned to me, face still emotionless, although I saw a hint of concern in his eyes.

I breathed in and out slowly. It was time to act really hurt if she was awake. I was planning on going to bed right away myself, even though it was most likely only noon.

"Well, thank you for driving me back. I appreciate it... I'm sure I would not have enjoyed walking."

He nodded.

"Remember what I said, Marie. If anything happens, get out."

I rolled my eyes as an answer.

"All right I'll remember that. Good bye... I'll see you tomorrow I guess."

For some reason, I didn't really want to get out of the car. I wanted to stay with him a little longer, and I didn't want to end up staring at the wall here, trying to get to sleep, and let bad memories and thoughts creep up on me. And now that I thought about it, I didn't want to fall asleep because I knew the dreams would come back. I shuddered as I thought of how irrelevant but frightening they were.

He began looking worriedly at me as I had made no move to get out of the car. I sighed. My mother would never let me go anywhere with anyone anyway, if I ran in to tell her I was going somewhere. And I couldn't just leave and show up hours later. She was most likely expecting me.

"What is it, Marie?"

He asked curiously. I shook my head.

"Never mind, Damian... Bye."

I opened the door, and stepped out onto the gravel. I shut the door quietly, not like I would have if it were my scrap of junk, and watched him pull away. He disappeared quickly into the trees, and as he did, it dawned on me that I hadn't even told him where I live. I quickly disregarded it, unconcerned at the moment, because my mother stepped out onto the porch. This scene felt oddly familiar, except Cynthia didn't have a beat red face this time. I shivered, and bravely walked up the steps, getting closer to the evil creature every step I took. Once I was face to face with her, she who was slightly shorter than me, a sarcastic smile appeared on her pretty face. Her unnaturally blond hair was messy since she'd just taken it out of a tight bun she always wore to work. I hadn't seen her in two weeks... and I think she'd acquired at least a few new wrinkles.