I'd loved Tim's childhood home. It was like something out of a dream. It was the type of place I could picture raising my family.
Carefully pouring a glass of lemonade, I made sure to wipe the rim before bringing it outside. Tim had become more demanding since we'd moved in. The changes were subtle at first, but recently it seemed every little thing would set him off. For a while, I thought it was from the stress of the move, but it wasn't.
It was his uncle.
His uncle was charming and always managed to say the right things. When we met, he shook my hand and smiled at me with such warmth that I instantly took a liking to him. He could talk for hours and it would never get boring. He'd lost his wife many years earlier and Tim was his only family. I was so happy to think that someday I could be a part of his family too.
Then the party happened.
It was the annual Summer Harvest party. Tim said it was one of the few times a year when his uncle would open up his land to his neighbors. Tim's aunt had been the one to originally throw the party, but his uncle stuck with it after her passing.
All the neighbors had come, excited for an evening of food and fireworks. Tim was helping with the grill in the backyard and I was stuck awkwardly greeting the guests.
In a moment of weakness, I left my perch. I needed the break from the people and I snuck into the empty study. I'd been told that it was off limits, but it seemed harmless at the time.
I flicked on the light switch and immediately froze. The room was covered in paper. It was stuck to every wall, covering windows and even stacked on the floor. Each sheet was filled with text and scribbles. Newspaper clippings were intermingled in the madness and I took a step closer in an attempt to read some of it.
Before I could make anything out, a hand slapped down on my shoulder. I jumped and spun around to face Tim's uncle. He had on the same warm expression, but his eyes were ice-cold. Something about it shook me to the core.
He guided me out of the room without a word and we'd never spoken of it since. I wouldn't have thought of it again except after that night, things changed.
Tim and his uncle started to spend their evenings on the back deck. Tim would come in at night and would be eerily quiet, not saying a word to me as we went to bed. Then the next morning he would be the same old Tim again.
Soon though, Tim stopped being friendly in the mornings. With each passing day, he became colder and more distant. His loving eyes no longer saw me. He was agitated and had taken up the habit of snapping at me for the smallest of things. His behavior was so out of character that sometimes I felt like I was with a stranger.
I'd noticed his uncle eyeing me as he'd come off the deck. It gave me chills. I was desperate to know what was happening, but I couldn't get close. The few times I tried to listen in, they'd gone silent. I wanted to confront Tim, but I was afraid of alienating him further. It didn't help that his uncle was never anything other than a perfect gentleman.
Grabbing a napkin, I snatched up the glass. Tim would be waiting for his drink and I wasn't in the mood to fight with him over it. I'd made it to the backdoor when, for the first time, I heard voices on the other side.
"...you need to go back." Tim's uncle's voice was as smooth and calm as always. "Focus on getting a job. I'll take care of things here. Some time in the box will do her a world of good."
"I don't know." Tim sighed.
"It did you plenty of good. Let me handle it. She needs to learn her place and you need to get your life back on track. I promise you, it will be all better by the time you get back."
I blinked. I had no idea what they were talking about, but the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. What was "the box?"
"I just want Bee to stop looking down on me," Tim said, his voice getting more muffled through the door.
"She will."
Before I could stop it, the glass slid from my hand.
The condensation had built up to the point where I no longer had a grip. The sound of the glass shattering reverberated in the otherwise silent space. My eyes widened as the backdoor opened and I was faced with Tim and his uncle.
