Mansion of Dolls (Complete)

Chapter 22 (Rewrite/Edited)

The number of cars was staggering.

The further back Taryn and Robert went, the older the car, the heavier the rust. It kept going so far back until it became something like horse-drawn carriages, or what was left. For nature seemed to have taken hold of the oldest ones and began to turn them into the dirt.

Robert sat down in the midst of it all, his mind whirling as he tried to come to terms with it as Taryn merely wandered the car-graveyard. Looking around, with what little mobility her strained neck had to offer as she would look at some particular cars, peeking inside before moving on. How the heck could she remain so composed in all of this?

A dumb question, really.

It wasn't the first time she had to deal with some crazy shit. Though when it happened during their first year of high school when she had found the body of the missing girl that went to their school, she left school for at least two months to cope. Her uncle came and scoped her to go to Ireland for one of those months. Probably to lessen whatever stress she had. It didn't seem to help much since he heard that she had found another body while they were visiting a castle during the trip. He didn't know much of the details about it, though. When she returned to school, some of the students started to give her the unfortunate nickname of Dead Girl.

One that she seemed to detest significantly. It got to a point where even Robert got pissed at the masses going in on the so-called fun. It went so far that Robert slugged the guy who didn't know how to keep his damned mouth shut—going on about how she must have enjoyed it and purposely looking for those who died in obscure places—even going so far as to ask if she collected dead people in her parent's basement.

Recalling it still left a bitter taste in his mouth. Even Paul seemed to find it kind of funny. How in the world was it even funny? It was clear she didn't like it.

With a violent shake of his head to push those thoughts away, he slowly looked back to Taryn. Like I've been any better. He thought to himself. His gaze remained on her as she kept looking through the rusted cars but avoided touching any of them, before finally calling out. "What the hell are we going to do?"

Taryn, however, remained quiet. Deep inside her head.

"Taryn!" he called out again but remained seated. "Hey, Taryn, you hear me?"

This drew her out of her thoughts as she turned her body to look at him since she still couldn't do much with her neck. "What'd you say?"

"What are we going to do?" he repeated his question.

She fell quiet, eyes shifting about as she thought it over before finally answering. "Let's head back to the car. You were able to unlock it, right? We might find some stuff in there." With that said, she began walking back, no longer looking at the massive heaps of metal and rust. As if there was no longer a reason to do so.

Robert looked back at the sea of rust and metal, as a sudden weight pressed on his chest. This discovery was probably going to get even worse. With a heavy sigh, he got up and followed after her. Though as he did so, he found himself wondering. How in the world could she have seen the cars from atop the slope when he couldn't see a thing? What was it that made her see it? It couldn't have been the sun; it was still too early for that.

He was about to ask before she had turned to him and offered him her right hand; when he looked at it, confused, she said. "To help you get back up the slope unless you want to struggle all on your own?"

She had a point. Robert's shoes weren't all that great for excursions like this, Taryn's were. Without a word, he grasped her hand and squeezed, not enough to hurt her, but enough to show her trust. For he did trust her.