CHAPTER 15
Eric walked steadily through the thick forest toward, if his fading memories rendered correctly, the cabin that lay in the center of a clearing only a few minutes further. His pace quickened as he though about what he'd stored in the cabin, what he'd be able to touch for the first time in so long. But even as excitement set in , so did despair. There were tortuously painful memories alongside joyful ones.
When he laid his eyes on the building that held so much of his history, the history that mattered, Eric's heart couldn't decide wether to speed from gladness or stop from pain. He took those last few steps to the cabin's door before watching his hand as it grasped the metal latch and lifted it out of its cradle. He pulled the door outward and, despite himself, a few tears slid down his cheek.
Eric glanced at the largest object in the small area, a faded white crib. But instead of the rough wood that coverage the crib presently, Eric saw the crib as it was right after he'd made it; smooth and beautiful. And instead of the sunbaked portrait of the small red-haired maiden that lay against the back wall, Eric saw his lovely wife rocking her new daughter in her crib.
Another few tears rolled down Eric's cheek as he forced himself to search through the stacked chests and baskets that filled the cabin's space.
When he'd built the shed, Eric had intended for it to be a "secret" place for his daughter. He had brought her to it a few times , and fora brief moment, Eric could hear her excited squealing at the surprise. Apparently, Brett found the cabin's initial purpose sufficiently synonymous to its present one. It was to hold moment's of Eric's future, but instead it held mementoes of his past.
It was agonizing trying not to get lost in the memories that came forward so easily in the small building. Instead of letting himself remember when, Eric had to only sort, only find. Of course, at his painful speed, it didn't take long for him to find the thing he was looking for.
He'd suspected it would be here. Perhaps, no certainly, this was one of Brett's silent mocking gestures. Of course Brett would keep the thing that cut the last string to hold Eric's happiness together. Of course he'd keep such a thing next to every other item representing something from Eric's life. Of course he'd keep the knife that killed Eric's wife.But Eric would put the cursed object to good use and, soon, his family would be reunited. So he placed the sheathed knife in his coat pocket beside the granule ball he's waxed to keep dry. Soon, he'd be back with his family.
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Catherine knocked on the heavy metal door that closed the opening to Brett's study. In all honestly, she really had no idea why her first instinct toward her brother's arrival had been to find Brett, why his arrival had instilled more fear that gladness. So as she waited for Brett to turn the lock and allow her entrance, Catherine didn't really know why she was there, only that she needed to satisfy a deep need to relay the news to Brett.
The small bar-covered window in the door sat covered with a sark drape. When Brett opened the door and let Catherine in, the corner of her eye caught a glimpse of a dark purple drape covering the right wall, but in another moment, when she turned her eyes to look at the curtain, the wall was the plain brick she remembered.
Brett sat back at the long metal table. He started fiddling with a pile of magenta powder, pouring in into vials and sprinkling it into the dish of clean gel. "What can I do for you, my dear?" He smiled, though he didn't look up from his work.
"Aden's here." she said simply. Catherine stood calmly in the cold room.
This gave Brett cause to look up. With a raised eyebrow, he asked, "Your brother?"
YOU ARE READING
Something Bigger Part 1
Novela Juvenil"We could run away." He'd suggested. But that was before the offer came. The offer that changed Iris's life and sealed the fate of more than a few. Aden should have pulled her away, he should have broken free of the hold. But maybe this was fate.
